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Project NOAH (Philippines)

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History and services

Project NOAH was a response to President Aquino's call for a better disaster prevention and mitigation system in the Philippines in the aftermath of the destructive Tropical Storm Sendong in December 2011. It was publicly launched by President Aquino, project head Mahar Lagmay, and other government officials in Marikina on July 6, 2012. The program combines science and technology for disaster risk reduction and management. It is also a responsive program that aims to provide a 6-hour lead-time warning to agencies involved in disaster prevention and mitigation. The project also uses advanced technologies to enhance current geo-hazard vulnerability maps. It is also being developed with the help of the National Institute of Geological Sciences and the College of Engineering of the University of the Philippines; the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA); the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS); the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI), and the Science and Technology Information Institute (STII). The project is now composed of twenty-one institutions from the local and private sectors, including media and telecommunication companies.

The program involves eight major components:

  • Distribution of Hydrometeorological Devices in hard-hit areas in the Philippines (Hydromet) – the installation of automated rain gauges and water level monitoring stations in major river basins and flood-prone areas.
  • Disaster Risk Exposure Assessment for Mitigation – Light Detection and Ranging (DREAM-LIDAR) Project – the development of accurate three-dimensional flood inundation and hazard maps for the country's flood-prone areas.
  • Enhancing Geohazards Mapping through LIDAR– the use of LIDAR technology and computer-assisted analyses to identify landslide-prone areas.
  • Coastal Hazards and Storm Surge Assessment and Mitigation (CHASSAM) – to generate wave surge, wave refraction, and coastal circulation models to understand and recommend solutions for coastal erosion.
  • Flood Information Network (FloodNET) Project – the building of a flood center to provide timely and accurate information for flood forecasts.
  • Local Development of Doppler Radar Systems (LaDDeRS) – to develop local capacity to operate Doppler weather radar systems.
  • Landslide Sensors Development Project – a low-cost, locally developed, sensor-based early monitoring and warning system for landslides, slope failures, and debris flow.
  • Weather Hazard Information Project (WHIP) – the use of television and a web portal to display real-time weather data to help local governments and communities to prepare against natural hazards.

The program has been dubbed as the country's flagship disaster prevention and mitigation program.

In January 2017 however, the Philippine government announced that Project NOAH would be shut down effective March 1, citing lack of funds; it was supposed to remain in operation only until February 28, 2017. On February 23, 2017, the University of the Philippines decided to adopt Project NOAH and continue its operations upon the termination of its administration by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on February 28.

The last component completed before the end of its DOST-administered era was the Integrated Scenario-based Assessment of Impacts and Hazards (ISAIAH), which sought to translate hazards mapped by the project into municipal-level risk assessments that detail the level of exposure and vulnerability of a community. The component allowed citizens to contribute ground-level risk information through the use of OpenStreetMap. The component resulted to completion of 16 provinces mapped with 2.2 million structures added to the database.

On June 20, 2017, the University of the Philippines relaunched the UP Resilience Institute with Project NOAH, now called NOAH Center, as its flagship program.

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