For a country known to have extreme weather conditions, a national forecasting system for rains, typhoons, and floods is a must, especially these days as the country is being hit hard with storm systems.
President Benigno Aquino III recently activated the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards (NOAH) Program of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Its goal is to give Filipinos ample warning, hours or days before any forthcoming typhoons, floods and other natural hazards are in full effect.
Science Secretary Mario Montejo said that Project NOAH is a testament to what Information Technology can do. This project aims to inform the public of the specific places, where it will exactly rain. Also, this forecasting system has the ability to detect the intensity of the rain and its resulting flood levels.
For typhoons and floods, the lead time will be 12 to 18 hours or even more. Rain intensity could be measured. This will be categorized as slight, medium, heavy and torrential. For thunderstorm forecasts- the accuracy is scaled at 50%, four hours before their arrival, 60% three hours before, 70% two hours before, and 80% an hour beforehand.
Forecast for tropical cyclones will be made known one to five days before they hit the country. The data from water level sensors will be made known within six to nine hours before floods are expected to come. Rain gauges, automated weather stations and Doppler radar will give information 24 hours prior to typhoon landfall, and satellite images will give out data five days prior to landfall.
Project NOAH would install the following features:
- High-resolution flood hazard maps
- 600 automated rain gauges
- 400 water level measuring stations in 18 major river basins
Among the river basins that will be monitored are: basins of Marikina, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Agno, Pampanga, Bicol, Cagayan, Agusan, Panay, Magaswang Tubig, Jalaur, Ilog-Hilabangan, Agus, Davao, Mindanao, Tagum-Libuganon, Tagaloan and Buayan-Malungun.
Come December, installation of equipment using three-dimensional mapping and flood simulation will be finished.
In his press briefing with reporters, Secretary Montejo said that this is the first time an extensive warning system will be operational. He also added that rain and water level gauges during the last 30 years were limited to the Pampanga, Agno, Bicol and Marikina river systems, whereas this time, six major rivers have already been covered by NOAH after just one year of operation.
Project NOAH is focused initially, on the Marikina Watershed since March. The program consists of the following:
- Streaming data from the automated rain gauges and water level sensors.
- Flood hazard maps obtained from Google Maps.
- Graphical satellite radar and Doppler data forecasts.
- Translated rain intensity and volume measurements in terms of warning and evacuation level alarms, hours or days ahead of the flood event.
At the moment, NOAH has already been installed in 6 river systems. The project will be expanded to cover other river systems until the end of the year. By then, flood mapping, wind strength and temperature monitoring equipment will be all installed.
In time, NOAH is expected to strengthen the weather forecasting capabilities of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the earthquake and volcanic monitoring of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).
DOST is the mother bureau of the two aforementioned government agencies. while NOAH scientists, PAGASA, PHIVOLCS and other concerned government agencies will collaborate in disaster science research, advanced technology and innovative information services.
