News — 30 March, 2021

PDC PhilAWARE: Field Mapping Completion, the e-Learning Platform, and Map Presentation to Stakeholders

This month, the HOT Philippines team completed the required field work for the PhilAWARE project and is now presenting output maps to stakeholders. HOT is also working with PDC to prepare an e-Learning platform to remotely support stakeholder mapping initiatives.

Over the past few months, we shared articles documenting the progress of the PhilAWARE project. A collaboration with the USAID and the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) launched in July 2019, PhilAWARE is a custom hazard monitoring and early warning system to improve disaster management and decision making in the Philippines. Supported by PetaBencana.id, PhilAWARE aims to equip the Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) with a hazard monitoring, early warning, and decision support tool.

HOT Philippines is a key partner in the PhilAWARE project—tasked to fill the gaps in the critical geospatial data needed for DRRM by collecting local geospatial information including neighborhood boundary information, and transportation and critical lifeline assets such as hospitals, schools, police, and fire stations.

Throughout the project duration, HOT Philippines focused on remote mapping, OSM training, and field mapping. In March 2021, the HOT Philippines field mapping team has completed the field work in Pampanga required by the donors, and are currently presenting the output maps to the local government units (LGUs; concerned municipalities or cities).

Previously, we also shared on social media the completion of remote mapping and validation activities in a separate pilot area: Quezon City. The mapping team members behind this milestone were Lev Daran, Jye Abella, Leendel Punzalan, Enteng Siaga, Apollo Corral, JM Espares, Gab Valeriano, Dan Handig.

Field Mapping and Training Completion

Field work was carried out in the province of Pampanga. The mapping team members who collected map data on field are Aimon Pangan, Honey Fombuena, Mike Grabriel, Andrea Sebastian, Genesis David, Kristele Hicban, Aron Marin, Marc Boyles, Jared Juan, Cha Atienza.

• 18/22 municipalities trained: Arayat, Guagua, Macabebe, Mexico, San Luis, Santa Rita, Bacolor, Lubao, Magalang, Minalin, San Simon, Santo Tomas, Candaba, Mabalacat, Masantol, Porac, Santa Ana, Sasmuan

• 13/18 municipalities mapped: Arayat, Guagua, Mexico, San Luis, Santa Rita, Bacolor, Lubao, Minalin, Santo Tomas

• 4 cities/municipalities unable to commit due to the COVID-19 situation: Angeles, Apalit, Floridablanca, San Fernando

Currently, there are two validators hired to finish data clean-up: Coby Jacela and Vince Dy.

Map and Methodology Presentation to Stakeholders

Following the completion of field work, the field mapping team spent the rest of March 2021 cleaning the data and preparing for the map and methodology presentation to stakeholders. The goal of the presentation is to share the project’s progress and map data with the LGUs, and help them locate resources for mapping and training initiatives.

Two output maps are presented to each LGU: one that shows the map data over imagery, and one that highlights the locations of POIs and other elements in the map key. Above is an example of an output map for one municipality in Pampanga: Santo Tomas. 13 pairs of output maps will be presented to the stakeholders.

The output maps will also be uploaded on the Wiki pages linked in the resources section below.

As of writing, three presentations have been completed. The series of stakeholder meetings are still being coordinated by Joji Bonilla, Country Manager of HOT Philippines. Since strict lockdowns in the Philippines have been imposed again, the presentations and sharing of resources are done online.

Creation of the e-Learning Platform

Trainings for the duration of the PhilAWARE project were led by Sen Roxas, Training Manager of HOT Philippines, and Honey Fombuena, former Data Validation Lead for the project. Volunteers from the local government units were given trainings on the following:

In order to remotely support trainings of local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders, HOT Philippines is working on an e-Learning platform. Topics covered in the platform include introductions to HOT and OSM, using the Tasking Manager, Data Validation, and downloading OSM data. The topics are introduced in chapters, with learning videos, instructional text and GIFs, and quizzes or similar evaluations. The platform is hosted by PDC, and will soon be accessible to stakeholders.

Resources for the General Public

Finally, we would like to share with the general public the Wiki pages created for the PhilAWARE project. You may refer to these resources for further information regarding the project. We will be updating these pages over the next couple of days.

• PhilAWARE Data Model: This page outlines the data model used by the field mapping team. This was created by Feye Andal, former Tech and GIS Specialist of HOT Philippines, and is being updated by members of the OpenStreetMap Philippines community.

• HOT Philippines’ PhilAWARE Project: This page contains general information about the project. You may find here the mapping methodology, project calendar, collaterals, and media mentions which you may refer to for your own projects or publications. This page was created by Aimon Pangan, former Field Coordinator of HOT Philippines, and is being updated by Jikka Defiño, former Communications Associate of HOT Philippines.

Should you wish to get more information about the project or suggest edits, please contact Joji Bonilla, or the Wiki page authors through their linked OSM/Wiki accounts.