HyDEPP: SATREPS Group 1 conducts first meeting for the year
April 11, 2022
The first official meeting for the year of the Group 1 of the HyDEPP SATREPS project was conducted last Thursday, April 7, 2022 via webex. All the key persons from both partner countries (Japan and Philippines) were present during the meeting. Primarily, the meeting was for the Japanese members to present the plans for FY 2022 and to introduce the data sharing tools for the DIAS web portal but also included other updates from both sides in connection to data collection and sharing.
Philippine side was headed by Dr. Patricia Sanchez (Project Manager) and Dr. Roger Luyun, Jr. (Group Leader). Other Group 1 Philippine members present were Dr. Cristino Tiburan, Jr., Mr. Dante Gideon Vergara and Mr. Francis Faderogao. JICA, on the other hand, was represented by Ms. Makiko Ohashi (Expert) and Mr. Julius Galang (Project Assistant).
Dr. Masaki Yasukawa from ICHARM started with the 2022 timeline of the project for the Japan side as well as the status of data (i.e. arrived or still awaiting arrival) sourced from Philippine agencies (DPWH, DOST, LLDA, MMDA). Dr. Roger Luyun then shared the current efforts on the Philippine side specifically regarding the consolidation of second hand data from previous related projects. The current challenge is the restrictions by the agencies who own the data.
Dr. Miho Ohara from ICHARM and the overal Project Leader from Japan side then shared details regarding the acquisition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) drones. The said equipment is expected to significantly help in conducting field survey on the basins. Plans for training are already being prepared by Dr. Ohara while procurement and delivery to Philippine side is already being coordinated with JICA through Ms. Ohashi.
Also among the main agenda of the meeting was the demonstration of data sharing tools of the DIAS website which was shared and discussed by Dr. Katsunori Tamakawa of ICHARM. Dr. Tamakawa presented the step-by-step procedures on how to upload and download data into and from DIAS. Creation of a user account is the first step.
Additional updates on the project were presented by Dr. Ralph Acierto (ICHARM) and Dr. Patricia Sanchez. Dr. Acierto discussed the status of the server in UPLB for the benefit of those who were not present during the meeting with UPLB ITC last March 28. Then, Dr. Sanchez presented the details of the proposal that was recently submitted to DOST for local funding which is still part of the Philippine counterpart activities for data collection and consolidation.
Lastly, the Group set the schedule of the next e-learning session for the hands-on training on the data sharing tools that was already demonstrated during the meeting.