DEVELOPING A LOCALIZED OPTIMAL FLOOD BARRIER IN THE PHILIPPINES

Abstract

In the Philippines, flood is a usual experience due to its geographical location near the equator. This calls for governmental units to establish flood control protocols that utilize equipment to effectively mitigate the impact of the floods. However, the existing protocols lack proper equipment integrated in their flood protocols that effectively handle flood occurrences. This research aims to improvise the current practices of the Philippine local government units in combating flood by proposing the optimal flood barrier design to be deployed for flood control and damage mitigation and investigate the optimal flood barrier for deployment. The methodology involves revisiting operational manuals of the target community of the Philippine governmental units and exploring existing flood barrier designs in literature and the market, whether in or out of the Philippines. Barriers designed in the literature and market were investigated, where there is a physical experiment conducted for the optimal design using physics concepts and past tests performed by studies. Results demonstrated the amount of force that can be resisted by the barriers, the amount of flood water until it floats, and the maximum velocity until barriers move. This is the first study to investigate the designs of flood barriers that are suitable for deployment and selects the optimal barrier for flood control for the Philippine setting while integrating it to the Philippine flood protocols. This research will be valuable to studies in regards with flood emergency disaster management planning.