Half of the P1-billion budget recently allocated for Project NOAH, or the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, will be used to acquire advanced drones and other key equipment for high-quality hazard mapping to strengthen the country’s disaster planning and preparedness, according to the project’s primary architect.
A total of 55 Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) drones, along with supercomputers and servers, are among the equipment targeted for purchase through the new budget allocation, Alfredo Mahar Francisco A. Lagmay, executive director of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute (UPRI), the implementing body of Project NOAH, said.
“These are specially designed LiDAR drones. They are big. They can emit more than 100,000 laser points per second to get ground elevation,” Mr. Lagmay said during a press conference, speaking in mixed English and Filipino.
“It costs several million pesos, so we want about 55 to be distributed to all constituent universities of UP and selected universities,” he added.
The LiDAR-equipped drones will allow Project NOAH to produce more detailed hazard maps by capturing precise ground-elevation data that can help identify areas vulnerable to flooding and other hazards.
The partner state colleges and universities will use the drones to map the terrain across the country.
The funding will also enable the project to map the country’s 20 major river basins in a year, Mr. Lagmay said. This is possible through advanced geospatial technologies that can produce hazard maps with up to one-by-one-meter pixel resolution.
Project NOAH will also help provide insights into where Oplan Kontra Baha, a multisectoral flood mitigation campaign launched by the Marcos administration, can be implemented.
It can also provide simulations of the possible effects of flood mitigation projects before they are implemented in flood-prone areas, helping ensure their effectiveness.
The project is also capable of conducting native-tree mapping and sediment erosion and delivery assessments.
To easily interpret these massive datasets, artificial intelligence and advanced analytics will be used to develop decision-support tools for land-use and infrastructure planning, environmental management, and risk analysis.
UP President Angelo A. Jimenez said the project’s real goal is to make communities safer and government decisions more evidence-based in disaster preparedness.
“The end is a safer Filipino community. The end is a family that receives a warning early enough to get to safety,” Mr. Jimenez said.
“The end is a national government that can examine whether a flood management intervention is actually appropriate before committing billions of pesos to it,” he added.
As budget deliberations for the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) continue, Mr. Lagmay said the institute is seeking continued funding for the project to finance the acquisition of more drones and further accelerate the updating of hazard maps across the country.
He also sought help in urging the government to continue funding the project. — Edg Adrian A. Eva