by Jay P. Abawag | June 25, 2019
The Naga City Community Risk Indexing Workshop was conducted by the Institute for Environmental Conservation and Research (INECAR) of Ateneo de Naga University last May 29 and June 21, 2019. The first run was held at the Instructional Media Center in Ateneo de Naga University while the second run was held at the Auditorium of the Museo ni Jesse Robredo in Naga City. A total of 65 participants coming from at least 20 barangays of the city attended the activities.
The activity aimed to provide brief information to the participants on the basic concepts of risk variables such as hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. In addition, it also intended to provide the participants with the basic knowledge on risk indexing, as one of the ways in generating risk maps.
Participants were grouped according to barangay and asked to assess the hazards specific to their own community in relation to its risk or possibility of becoming a disaster. They also had the chance to put weight on each hazard identified using forms and printed hazard maps included in their workshop kit. Afterward, the exposure and vulnerabilities, pre-identified by INECAR, was then assessed in relation to its risk and given weight according to its level of importance. The outputs of the participants were processed, consolidated, and presented after the workshop. The result of the workshop will eventually be incorporated with the other data from various sources in coming up with the Risk Map for the whole city of Naga.
This activity is under the Coastal Cities at Risk (CCAR) 2 project of the Ateneo de Manila University and Manila Observatory in partnership with the Ateneo de Naga University and Local Government Unit of Naga. The project is being implemented to coastal cities in the Philippines that are highly vulnerable to catastrophic climate and disaster events due to natural hazards and coastal, riverine and deltaic urbanization patterns. The project also aims to enhance the capacity of coastal cities through a better understanding of the complexity and dynamics of climate and disaster risk.