Project NOAH to improve hazard maps

Set to receive fresh and substantial funding from the government, the team behind Project NOAH plans to enhance its hazard maps to include multiple flood analyses for improved planning.

- By EJ MACABABBAD

The bicameral conference committee earmarked P1 billion for Project NOAH, which stands for Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards, sourced from the P255-billion cut in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The funding is placed under the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute (UPRI), which absorbed the project in June 2017.

House appropriations committee chair Rep. Mikaela Suansing said the UPRI will work closely with the DPWH to “refine” ways of designing and monitoring flood control projects.

The government's newly launched flood mitigation program, Oplan Kontra Baha, will be guided by studies from Project NOAH to identify areas outside Metro Manila that also need flood control measures.

UPRI executive director Mahar Lagmay said that besides lending expertise for Oplan Kontra Baha, the P1 billion will fund overdue updates for its vaunted hazard maps, which currently only use 30 years of rainfall data from the state weather bureau.

The maps do not show flood, landslide and storm surge hazard levels when cyclones deliver a 25-, 50or 100-year flood return.

Current floodwaters in Metro Manila already have a 100-year return period, which, in the past, would have only occurred once in a century.