Crisis Mapping
In 2008 we determined to create a full-function Crisis Mapping project. This was borne out of the persistent eruption of hostilities in Southern Philippines between both communist - Islamist groups on one side and the government on the other. Fresh from the experience at confronting an incorrigible troublemaker such as the Juma'a Abu Sayyap, or more popularly known as Abu Sayyaf, we resolved to push stakeholders to join in formulating the Philippine conflicts crisis map.
This is modeled after the U.S.-Euro academe's successful crime and peacekeeping mapping efforts that had led to wide acceptance and invited broad-based support from as many sectors and as many countries as possible.
After all, the value of life is such that people and institutions, states and combines will pay as high a price as possible for the safety of both individuals and enclaves of people.
Supersites (eathquake sites) of the world scientific community has a interactive map showing the areas where big earthquakes are predicted to happen. Click the image to visit Supersites:
Changed Parameters
One year later, the entire universe for the crisis mapping project had changed. It cannot be called a drastic change since the new directions fell within range of long-held advocacies and persistent efforts. We had began such efforts by provoking officials at the Department of National Defense to modernize.
Among the sources for concepts and ideas of our papers given to the department was an executive formerly engaged as part of a service provider group at a Saudi Arabia military base. The Saudi military and government, thanks to their foreign high-tech service providers in the late 80s were already advanced in the use of GIS, the digitization of all documents, exploiting satellite information among many things.
With various other inputs from visiting colleagues, the advocacy for a fully functional satellite research, GPS and GIS-ready system was pushed at defense department, the National Security Council and at the Department of Transportation and Communications through the suggestion of the administrative officer of the defense secretary.
A large number of milestones were achieved in all of these, one of which was the formulation of the 10-year framework for aerospace concerns and civil aviation development in the Philippines. Ultimately this led to the privatization of the Air Transportation Office that is now the more corporate-run Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
Another is the passing of the enabling law for the National Transport Safety Board - patterned from the NTSB model of the United States. Many other small accomplishments were also made along the way, until the shift of our mindset from conflicts mapping into environmental or geohazards mapping. On both these milestones, a company in the United States was the most instrumental of all and provided all the support needed.
Hazards Mapping
That year in 2009 following the terrorist siege at Sulu Province where staff of the International Committee on the Red Cross were abducted by well-connected civilians that turned over the victims to the Juma'a Abu Sayyap for higher stakes in ransom collections, the need for crisis mapping was overshadowed by the critical want for forecasting natural (or even human-made) catastrophes.
While it cannot be discounted that the fighting vs. terror is a universal concern, that political conflicts leading to war is a serious matter, it had to be conceded that disasters ruled the day. When we were running after the terrorists in Sulu Province, one of the laughable incidents was overrunning several camps of the Abu Sayyap simply because they were watching over the boxing match of Manny Pacquiao. You can never do that in a disaster.
When strong rains arrived in Sulu, selected Abu Sayyaf terrorists went down from their lairs pretending to be civilians and acted like very well-behaved refugees in the evacuation centers. Thus it was decided, the shift from conflict flashpoints, crisis mapping will be done in favor of geohazards mapping. (In Quezon Province and Mindoro, among other places, the Philippine communists do the same.
After a considerable number of people died in various disasters in the Philippines, beginning at the time with tropical storm Ketsana (Ondoy), the firm resolve was to transpose all the efforts into a full-scale undertaking to coordinate data, cooperate with neighboring countries on valuable inputs, technology, earth observation, seismologic and volcanology information.
Most especially also, to come up with the definitive integrated map of the Geohazard System from earth observation and other sources to help guide in providing more accurate, timely and well-founded policy, decisions and execution thereof for the sake of disaster readiness.
Above all, to be able to provide credible bulletins, advisories and warnings to the public that whether believed by the receiver, are enough for authorities to haul off potential calamity victims to safer grounds - even with the use of benign force.
This effort in its entirety seeks to define new paradigms and strategies to enhance environmental hazards mitigation and prevent losses from disasters.
It aims to see to the welfare of populations vulnerable to geohazards such raging flash floods and stampede of debris (Ondoy 2009, Ormoc flash flood 1991, Cagayan de Oro flash floods 2011), powerful storm surges (Yolanda 2013), earthquakes (Bohol 2013, Baguio 1990), volcanoes (Pinatubo 1991), landslides, and tsunamis.
Global Geohazard System
There is a need to develop better approaches to mapping the risks and dangers to communities in the Philippines – correlating such risks with hazards in other neighboring or even fairly distant countries that are linked with Philippines within the world geohazard system (WGS) or global geohazard system.
Like water that seeks its own level, most if not all, geologic and hydrologic risks, among other environmental hazards, have a way of interconnecting - in the sense that the world is chopped up into a whole lot of boundaries while such hazards challenge these boundaries.
A fault like the Philippine fault might be known to lie across the length of the Philippine archipelago but it is connected to Taiwan in the north and if you further examine the same from the perspective of tectonic plates, you will note that you will reach both ends of the world from different routes just tracing interconnections between the tectonic plates - that all have a bearing on nearly every seismologic activity anywhere in the globe.
One of the minor reasons for the shift was our discovering that the organizers of the highly valuable 3rd International Geohazards Workshop in 2007 did not invite the Philippines. While other very extensive gatherings were held later where the Philippines was represented, it must be said that the value of that conference by the ESA-NASA et al in Italy cannot be discounted.
Discussions on earth observation could help Philippine scientists technology experts, among those of other countries, as well as closely network the developing countries' geohazard specialists with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites that have the ultimate capacity of providing ground penetrating data about seismologic events, or even unnatural potential hydrologic threats, space data on tropical storms, typhoons and so on.
Call for international cooperation, sharing
Now that we have firmed up our resolve not to dwell on political crisis and conflicts, we extend our hand as far out in invitation to all members of the scientific community, developers and providers of technology for geohazard mapping, outer space activity specialists, earth observation networks, to help us stage the first international geohazards mapping and environment summit in Manila, Philippines from the first to the second week of December 2014.
It is sought that the kind support of CEOS and its member agencies will be available so that all aspects of discussions and working meetings will be more meaningful.
Among the best of the best in the community of geohazard experts, it is hoped that brothers and sisters geohazard specialists of Malaysia will not be last to respond to our call, because we believe that they ought to come to the conference we are moving heaven and earth to accomplish.
Our conference site on the web is still under construction at this time, but we hope to have it ready by January 2014. We have brainstormed a set of topics upon which sharing with experts will be done. We invite all those interested to prepare papers closest to their hearts however, without us limiting their breadth of knowledge and experience in their selected areas of expertise.
We hope to see you in December 2014 in Manila and believe that there is always a way for all kinds of points to connect when the stimuli is present. In our case, the stimuli we can best provide is the best of the best of Filipino hospitality and genius in improvisations.
Acknowledgments:
Some, but not all of those that gave us inspiration and support for this undertaking are most heartily thanked for whatever contributions were obtained from them, in one way or another. These institutions are listed below, not in any kind of order. We will provide a more complete list during the conference proper in 2014.
Saudi Arabia Royal Air Force, Ministry of Defence
Themes:Climate Change,
Disaster,
Ecology,
Environment hazards,
Forecasting,
Geohazards,
Mapping,
killer quake,
earth observation,
earthquake,
earthquake faults,
flood,
GGS,
Global,
hydrology,
imagery,
information,
liquefaction,
mapping,
Mt. Pinatubo,
Ondoy,
public warning,
satellite,
seismology,
storm surge,
tidal wave,
tsunami,
typhoon,
volcano,
WGS,
World geohazards system,
Yolanda
