Abstract

Considering that the Philippines is archipelagic in nature and is exposed to disasters accentuated by climate change, water resource monitoring and management has been an important concern in the country. The design and implementation of an effective management scheme relies heavily on accurate, complete, and updated water resource inventories, usually in the form of maps and geodatabases. With the aim of developing a detailed and comprehensive database of all water resources in the Philippines, a 3-year project entitled “Development of the Philippine Hydrologic Dataset (PHD) for Watersheds from LiDAR Surveys”, has been initiated by the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Various workflows has been developed to extract inland hydrologic features in the Philippines using accurate Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) and LiDAR point cloud data obtained through other government-funded programs, supplemented with other remotely-sensed imageries and ancillary information. Since the project covers national-scale mapping and inventory, the implementation was structured to be a collaborative effort between fifteen (15) State Universities/Colleges (SUCs) and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), along with multiple National Government Agencies (NGAs) and Local Government Units (LGUs). This paper presents the project’s general structure, focusing mainly on its attempts and accomplishments in strengthening individual capacities of all involved SUCs, HEIs, and stakeholders utilizing hydrologic data for different applications.

Highlights

  • 1.1 Water Resources in the PhilippinesWater resources inventory, monitoring, and management is an important concern in the Philippines

  • According to the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), there are 421 principal river basins in the country with catchment areas ranging from 40 to 25,469 square kilometers, and 18 of which are considered as major river basins (DPWH & JICA, 2003)

  • The project’s objectives are: (1) develop workflows to generate different hydrologic datasets; (2) create detailed maps of water resources extracted from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and other RS datasets; and (3) produce a geodatabase of different hydrologic features which can be used for various applications

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Summary

Water Resources in the Philippines

Water resources inventory, monitoring, and management is an important concern in the Philippines. According to the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), there are 421 principal river basins in the country with catchment areas ranging from 40 to 25,469 square kilometers, and 18 of which are considered as major river basins (DPWH & JICA, 2003) These basins are composed of water channels in the form of streams and irrigation networks stretching to hundreds of kilometers throughout the nation, as well as terrestrial water bodies of varying spatial coverage including wetlands, lakes, marshes, swamps, reservoirs, and ponds, among others. Maps of these resources in various parts of the country are available; the water features are presently not up-to-date. A detailed and accurate water resources inventory is deemed necessary to ensure that proper management is executed to promote better sustainability

The PHD Project
Project Structure and Components
Water Resources Mapping Methods
Streams and Watersheds
Inland Wetlands
CAPACITY BUILDING EFFORTS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE PHD PROJECT
Efforts for Nationwide Capacity Building
Process Trainings
Mentoring
Monitoring
Joint Fieldworks
Echo Trainings
FUTURE ACTIVITIES
Sustaining the Capacity
Training Courses
Stakeholders’ Capacity Building

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