<br><div class="gmail_quote">
<br><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: rem zamora <<a href="mailto:pompyang@gmail.com">pompyang@gmail.com</a>><br>To: <a href="mailto:waypointsdotph@yahoogroups.com">waypointsdotph@yahoogroups.com</a>, osm-ph <<a href="mailto:talk-ph@openstreetmap.org">talk-ph@openstreetmap.org</a>><br>
Cc: <br>Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 14:24:25 +0800<br>Subject: Fwd: DENR Press Release - May 24, 2012 - Geohazard maps now accessible in four websites<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">24 May 2012</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt" lang="EN-US">Geohazard maps now accessible
in four websites</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> Geohazard
maps are now accessible and downloadable from four government websites,
including that of a non-government organization, it was announced by the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">The government
websites hosting the interactive geohazard maps include that of the DENR (<a href="http://www.denr.gov.ph/" target="_blank">www.denr.gov.ph</a>), Mines and Geosciences
Bureau (<a href="http://www.mgb.gov.ph/" target="_blank">www.mgb.gov.ph</a>), Philippine
Information Agency (<a href="http://www.pia.gov.ph/" target="_blank">www.pia.gov.ph</a>) and
that of Environmental Science for Social Change (<a href="http://www.essc.org.ph/" target="_blank">www.essc.org.ph</a>).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">DENR Secretary
Ramon J. P. Paje said the move is to broaden public access to the geohazard
maps, which has become an important tool in disaster risk reduction and
management.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">Paje said that with
the identification of the Philippines as among those highly vulnerable to the
impact of climate change, Filipinos should brace for typhoons with greater
intensity in terms of wind speed and rainfall that could trigger flooding and
landslides.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> “We don’t want to be alarmist, but as the
saying goes, ‘<i>mas maigi na ang maagap</i>’.
With climate change, we have to accept the fact that some of the typhoons that
would be visiting us would have greater intensity that could trigger flooding
and landslides,” Paje explained.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> He
urged the public to be proactive in taking precautionary measures to minimize,
if not prevent, any adverse impact of calamities not only in one’s family and
community but on the country as a whole.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> As
part of the government’s risk reduction
and management program, the DENR has been negotiating with various entities and
organizations for the hosting of the geohazard maps his agency has generated to
broaden public access.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">The latest of such successful
negotiations, said Paje, was with the Environmental Science for Social Change
(ESSC), a non-profit research organization located at the Ateneo de Manila
University in Quezon City, which has already put up an online facility for the
geohazard maps in its website pursuant to a memorandum of agreement recently
entered into between ESSC Executive Director Sylvia SM Miclat and Mines and
Geosciences Bureau (MGB) Director Leo Jasareno.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">Under the
agreement, the DENR through the MGB would provide ESSC with digital copies in
their best resolution of the 700 geohazard maps at a scale 1:50,000, and of the
updated ones at scale of 1:10,000 once these become available by 2014. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Calibri" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">“Make time to visit
their website, <a href="http://www.essc.org.ph/" target="_blank">www.essc.org.ph</a>. The geohazard maps are not only interactive
but are also downloadable,” Paje said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">Meanwhile, MGB
Director Jasareno said that the densification of the geohazard maps at a scale
of 1:10,000 is now in full swing, and is expected to completed in 2014. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">Alongside, the MGB
is also conducting coastal and marine geohazard survey to determine the
approximate rates of shoreline changes through time due to coastal erosion or
accretion, and to identify potential marine and coastal geohazards and the appropriate
measures to prevent massive impact.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">Jasareno said the
agency has already completed the nationwide geohazard assessment and mapping program
at a scale of 1:50,000 two years ago, covering a total of 1,634 cities and
municipalities. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-justify:inter-ideograph;text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt" lang="EN-US">He also said that
all LGUs have already furnished copies of their respective geohazard maps and
have been properly oriented on the use of the maps.</span></p></div>
</div><br>
</div><br>-- <br>Rem Zamora<div>Photojournalist<br>0917-592-74-33-- <br></div></div><br>cheers,<br>maning<br>------------------------------------------------------<br>"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden<br>
wiki: <a href="http://esambale.wikispaces.com/">http://esambale.wikispaces.com/</a><br>blog: <a href="http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/">http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/</a><br>------------------------------------------------------<br>
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