ACADEME-LOCAL GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP TOWARDS EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR SMARTER FLOOD DISASTER MANAGEMENT AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: AN EXAMPLE FROM MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

In this paper, we discuss how an academe-local government partnership can lead the way for the effective use of geospatial technologies for smarter and geospatially-informed decision making before, during, and after a flood disaster. In Jabonga municipality, in the province of Agusan del Norte, in Mindanao, Philippines, two significant flooding events occurred in the year 2014 which were caused by overflowing water bodies due to continuous heavy rains. These flood events inundated populated areas, caused massive evacuation, made roads un-passable, and greatly damaged sources of incomes such as croplands and other agricultural areas. The partnership between Caraga State University and the local government of Jabonga attempts to improve localized flood disaster management through the development of web-based Near-real Time Flood Event Visualization and Damage Estimations (Flood EViDEns) application. Flood EViDENs utilizes LiDAR-derived elevation and information products as well as other elevation datasets, water level records by monitoring stations, flood simulation models, flood hazard maps, and socio-economic datasets (population, household information, etc.), in order to visualize in near-real time the current and future extent of flooding, to disseminate early warnings, and to provide maps and statistics of areas and communities affected and to be affected by flooding. The development of Flood EViDEns as the main product of the partnership is an important application of geospatial technologies that will allow smarter and geospatially-informed decision making before, during, and after a flood disaster in Jabonga.