FEU Public Intellectual Lecture Series | Dr. Mahar Lagmay | Part 1

Summary

Dr. Mahar Lagmay delivered a lecture at Far Eastern University on natural hazards in the Philippines and the role of science and technology in disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA). The Philippines' geographical location makes it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters like typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. Understanding these phenomena, improving public awareness, and leveraging scientific data are crucial in mitigating disaster risks. Highlighting past events, Dr. Lagmay emphasized the importance of preparedness, education, and community engagement in reducing vulnerability and fostering resilience.

Highlights

• The Philippines' unique geographical position makes it prone to diverse hazards, such as typhoons and earthquakes. 📍🔥
• Typhoons bring associated hazards like floods, landslides, and storm surges, not just strong winds. 💨🌊
• Volcanic and seismic activities are common due to the Pacific Ring of Fire, affecting numerous communities. 🌋⚠️
• Past disasters highlight the importance of immediate access to scientific data to aid rescue and recovery efforts. 🚁🔍
• Community involvement and understanding of hazard maps are essential to reducing disaster risk. 🗺️🤝

Key Takeaways

• The Philippines is a hotspot for natural disasters due to its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire and typhoon belt. 🌋🌪️
• Understanding natural phenomena and hazards can save lives through improved preparedness and awareness. 🧠💡
• Community engagement and education are crucial to improving disaster resilience and reducing risks. 👥🎓
• Access to and use of scientific data are vital for informed decision-making during disasters. 📊📡
• Transforming disaster challenges into opportunities through innovation and tourism can aid recovery. 🌍🛠️

Overview

In his insightful lecture, Dr. Mahar Lagmay sheds light on the Philippines' exposure to natural disasters, attributing it to the nation's geological and climatic characteristics. Situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the typhoon belt, the country faces numerous hazards, including cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic activities, and the resulting phenomena such as floods and landslides.

The lecture highlights the crucial role of science and technology in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Dr. Lagmay emphasizes the significance of understanding natural phenomena and harnessing scientific data to enhance disaster preparedness. He underscores the need for greater public awareness, highlighting past calamities like the devastating typhoons and the 2013 Bohol earthquake to illustrate the country's vulnerability.

Dr. Lagmay calls for increased community engagement and education to foster resilience. He advocates for innovative solutions, such as using historical disaster events as tourism opportunities, to transform challenges into economic benefits. The lecture concludes with a call to action, urging students and young professionals to volunteer their knowledge and skills to raise awareness and improve disaster preparedness at the grassroots level.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Philippine Hazards The chapter 'Introduction to Philippine Hazards' provides an overview of the various hazards that affect the Philippines, emphasizing the role of science and technology in Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) efforts within the country. The chapter sets the stage for understanding how these tools and strategies are applied to mitigate these risks.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction The chapter discusses the interconnection between Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). It highlights the geographical setting of an area with 300,000 square kilometers of land, located in a region vulnerable to natural hazards due to its position in the Pacific Ring of Fire and the typhoon belt. The chapter also touches on the climatological effects of phenomena like El Niño and La Niña.
• 01:00 - 03:00: Geographical Vulnerability and Typhoon Tracks This chapter discusses the geographical vulnerability of the Philippines to typhoons and the typical tracks these typhoons take. It highlights how typhoons in the eastern part of the country can intensify rain clouds in the South China Sea (or West Philippine Sea), leading to significant weather events such as flooding. Historical data shows that numerous typhoons have impacted Metro Manila since 1948 or 1949, exemplifying the region's susceptibility to such natural disasters.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Hazard Phenomena and Effects This chapter discusses the historical tracking of typhoons in the Philippine area of responsibility. The transcript indicates that each line seen represents a typhoon's path since 1948. As of 1972 and counting towards the year 2000, it shows a pattern where Mindanao is less frequently hit by typhoons when compared to the Visayas and Busan regions, which are more often affected.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis The chapter discusses the impact of typhoons and the associated hazards on agricultural crops, particularly in Mindanao, Philippines. It highlights the area's unique position as the fruit basket of the country, attributed to the relatively low number of typhoons it experiences, thus reducing the damage to crops. The chapter also clarifies that the typhoon itself is a phenomenon, not a hazard, and emphasizes the distinction between phenomena and their associated hazards.
• 07:00 - 11:00: Risk Awareness and Vulnerability in the Philippines The chapter discusses the various hazards associated with typhoons and cyclones in the Philippines. It stresses that the wind itself isn't directly what leads to fatalities, but rather the resulting destruction, such as roofs being torn off and trees falling. The flooding and landslides triggered by excessive rainfall are identified as the primary hazards leading to loss of life.
• 11:00 - 21:00: Natural Disasters and Case Studies in the Philippines This chapter discusses the frequent natural disasters occurring in the Philippines due to its geographical location. The Philippines is not only a typhoon belt but also lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire, making it prone to both storms and earthquakes. The chapter includes details about storm surges in the central Philippines and maps depicting earthquake epicenters.
• 21:00 - 25:00: Importance of Science and Community Engagement The chapter discusses the geographical distribution of earthquakes, particularly focusing on the Pacific region. This area, often referred to as the 'Ring of Fire,' is noted for its high seismic activity due to its location on tectonic plate boundaries. The presence of numerous volcanoes in these zones is highlighted, emphasizing the geological volatility of the region.
• 25:00 - 28:00: NOAA and Real-time Data Utilization The chapter discusses the geographical region known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, which encircles the Pacific Ocean and is characterized by a high level of seismic activity, including numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The focus is on understanding these natural phenomena and the associated hazards, such as building collapses, which pose significant risks to the countries located in this region.
• 28:00 - 30:00: Hazard Maps and Risk Awareness The chapter titled 'Hazard Maps and Risk Awareness' discusses various hazards associated with earthquakes, such as ground shaking and the instability it causes in buildings. It highlights that being indoors during an earthquake can be fatal if structures collapse. Furthermore, the chapter considers tsunamis as another significant hazard related to earthquakes, emphasizing the danger they pose through flooding and the potential for being swept away by strong waves.

FEU Public Intellectual Lecture Series | Dr. Mahar Lagmay | Part 1 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] i'll be talking about philippine hazards focusing here in our country and how science and technology is used for cca drr
• 00:30 - 01:00 drr stands for disaster risk reduction okay and cca climate change adaptation we have an area of about 300 000 square kilometers land area uh and its location is the prime target for hazards we are in the pacific ring of fire and we are in the typhoon belt climatological effects of el nino and la nina in the southwest
• 01:00 - 01:30 monsoon synthetic when there's a typhoon in the eastern part of the philippines it gives vitamins to the rain clouds in the south china sea or the west philippine sea so parang tapos western part and it has caused flooding events in metro manila here i show you since 1948 or 1949 there have been a lot of typhoons that
• 01:30 - 02:00 have entered in the philippine area of responsibility so each line that that you are seeing represents the track of a typhoon since 1948. so we're just in 1972 counting that counting to uh year two thousand you can see that of all the tracks now if you combine all of these tracks mintana mindanao is not that well covered but visayas in busan are very well covered
• 02:00 - 02:30 no and because there are not many typhoons in mindanao there's less damage to agricultural crops there's less damage to crops and that's probably one of the reasons why mindanao is the the fruit basket of the philippines and you can see that of all of these typhoons associated hazards now that the typhoon is not the phenomena it's not the hazard it's the phenomenon
• 02:30 - 03:00 what kills people are the strong winds that can rip off the the roof of houses make trees fall down and when you get hit you die uh it's the floods when pangala no you die that's the hazard so the typhoon is not really or the cyclone is not the the hazard it's the landslide that is triggered by the excessive rainfall okay that's the hazard tapos storm
• 03:00 - 03:30 surges you've heard the storm surge it happened in in in the central philippines region aside from uh being typhoon belt and pacific we're also in the pacific ring of fire now so all of these yellow and green ones and red areas okay are actually earthquake epicenters that have been plotted on the map not all earthquakes happen
• 03:30 - 04:00 just anywhere no they they happen in specific zones and in the area of the pacific surrounding the pacific you have a lot of earthquakes happening it's based on the historical record of earthquakes no and because it surrounds the pacific and also because these places where earthquakes occur around the pacific are associated with many volcanoes no and volcanoes are associated with fire
• 04:00 - 04:30 buying lava it's very very hot that's the reason why it's called the pacific ring of fire it's surrounding the pacific ocean so the countries surrounding the pacific ocean experience a lot of earthquakes and there are volcanoes and again the the eruption itself is the phenomenon the earthquake itself is the phenomenon so the hazards associated with the earthquake are you collapse of a
• 04:30 - 05:00 building the ground shaking or the earthquake itself if you're not in an open field you will not die no it's the hazard it's a partner shaking it will make the the building uh unstable if it collapses you die no so these are the hazards other hazards associated with earthquakes are tsunamis so if the tsunami happens you get buried or you get flooded in your area and you can't swim and there's a wave that brings you and
• 05:00 - 05:30 gets your head to to hit a wall then you die so volcanoes in volcanic eruption you don't get killed especially if you're far away but if you're near lava okay if you're near the volcanic eruption and you come in contact with lava and it surrounds your house you'll die from the excessive heat those are the hazards now we have to deal with the hazards we know
• 05:30 - 06:00 that this phenomena that brings forth the hazards will always be here but we need to be aware of what these hazards really are but in order to understand the hazards we also must understand the phenomena now so this is where science comes in the philippines is the third most vulnerable country in the world to natural hazards name it we have it except for hazards associated with snow
• 06:00 - 06:30 malam italian hazards and at the same time there are a lot of people that are exposed to that hazard and these people don't have enough capacity to be able to address the hazard you know i say but one of the reasons probably is there there are persons with disabilities or they are poor and they don't understand they're not aware and that increases what we call as risk no so you have the hazard people are exposed and these people are
• 06:30 - 07:00 are vulnerable but their capacity to address the hazard is not that good and therefore if you combine all of them it leads to our understanding of disaster risk one manifestation of that of that high risk is probably your poor awareness or your poor understanding of the hazards in our country do you agree do you know of the hazards
• 07:00 - 07:30 in our country there are about more than 20 can you can you name all of them do you know the hazards in this area probably not no so you are college students no and if you don't know all know so what more the people who don't study so you can just imagine that we really need to build awareness no so as to reduce the
• 07:30 - 08:00 risk the risk and one manifestation also of that high vulnerability and high risk is that we have been experiencing disasters so these are the hazards no we have pyroclastic flow associated with volcanic hazards pyroclastic flow debris avalanche lahar lava tsunami noxious gas fire landslides ground subsidence liquefaction ground rupture collapse of structures earthquake generated tsunami
• 08:00 - 08:30 floods storm surge strong winds rain induced landslides so there are so many hazards are you prepared for each of these hazards in the philippines uh of all the types of hazards the number one are are those that are associated with cyclones and extreme weather no like floods and storms these are the blue and the red ones no so you can see that from 1970s up to the decade from 2000 to 2009 it's really the
• 08:30 - 09:00 floods and storms that cause a lot of damage now because they they come in several times a year so in a year about 20 cyclones enter the philippine area of responsibility and in luzon and visayas there are about six to seven that make landfall in the in mindanao they're about less than one on average per year distribution of natural disasters you can see that
• 09:00 - 09:30 floods and storms are the most reported just to give you an idea of what kind of disasters have happened in the philippines this is one that happened in 2009 a massive landslide the technical term is called a debris avalanche now this ridge okay that ridge which is about 700 meters high
• 09:30 - 10:00 okay 700 meters high rocks there collapse and flowed down no end mass and developed a landslide footprint which was four kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers wide and the town of ginsa ugon was buried and the town had the population of 1857. so this is the 700 meter ridge it went down that is about 4 kilometers 1.5 kilometers wide in the
• 10:00 - 10:30 town of ginsa ugon was buried under 30 meters of rubble many people died fatalities 1226 missing 980 bodies recovered 139 a treated for injuries those who died in the hospital too and they were trying uh to find that elementary school which was buried supposedly buried under 30 meters of rubble
• 10:30 - 11:00 it was a 2 000 man strong search and rescue team composed of the u.s navy u.s marines philippine army miners volunteers or 2000 strong with people from taiwan with search and rescue dogs spain singapore japan they all tried to contribute even people from the academy tried to locate that school because there were text
• 11:00 - 11:30 messages on the second up to the second day that for 250 or nearly about that number were still inside the elementary school so they were trying to search frantically for that with back hosts and you can see that they were trying to dig up all sorts of places because they did not know where that school was located anymore there was no landmark to locate the the school so they would just get they just kept on digging
• 11:30 - 12:00 guessing where the school was no and just to give you an idea how big that landslide was uh that backhoe is this one the backhoe in the yellow buckle is that one so how can you search for a buried school with 200 plus children if the landslide is that big maybe we need a little bit of science
• 12:00 - 12:30 there what we did was uh we tried to go up on board the helicopters take pictures and then try to stitch the photographs and try to figure out using a geographic information system where the the recovered person personal effects uh and then uh we tried to to put in place and find out where the original
• 12:30 - 13:00 location of the of the school was or the town and there was also a gps point that was available because they were trying to you know figure out they were trying to measure the default because it was near the philippine fault they were trying to measure the fault and that gps you you know what the gps is right what had a millimeter scale accuracy so that gps point was only provided on the seventh day
• 13:00 - 13:30 why because uh when we asked for it from government agencies they said that we are not part of government so they only gave it on the seventh day so that is where uh some things need to be in place no so that we it can be ensured that these scientific data are available so that during times of emergencies they can be used enough with bureaucracy
• 13:30 - 14:00 in the same year in 2006 there were there was this lahar you know debris that was flowing no at the rates of about 10 to 50 60 kilometers per hour which cascaded down the slopes of my own volcano and killed nearly 2 000 people buried a lot of houses and one characteristic of that is that there are big boulders on top no strong
• 14:00 - 14:30 uh in the debris field we call that kind of phenomenon as al-ahar a lot of people died in ginobatan because of the lahars kamali the raga bonga padang and basud no and the reason why they died is because they were caught by surprise they thought that they were not sufficiently far from the river so they were here they thought that they were sufficiently far but what happened was that
• 14:30 - 15:00 the river okay that's the original course of the river uh there were dikes that breach upstream so this dike here that bike here breached and they were caught by surprise and they were overwhelmed by the lahars okay and also in that part now this is a picture of uh the impacts of tropical fruck now that hit iloilo and this picture
• 15:00 - 15:30 reminds us that flood plains which are the areas beside the river which we claim as ours is not really ours no it's part of the river so when there are big floods the river reclaims this land called as flood plains the the flat part beside the rivers and you can see that the river instead of get following that course just went down straight and those are flood
• 15:30 - 16:00 plains that was or that were reclaimed by the river because it's it's theirs so there was also another big flood event in 2011 kandaba you can see this pampanga river which is about 50 meters wide or maybe up to 100 but when the floods came in the river swelled from 50 to 100 meters it became as wide as as what
• 16:00 - 16:30 10 kilometers no looking 10 kilometers from here to there so you can see the the force of nature now sometimes it can be really overwhelming if the phenomenon or if the hazard is extreme and no amount of intervention or structural intervention can stop it we'll just waste money trying to stop it because the force of
• 16:30 - 17:00 nature is well beyond what we can do or what we can design you see the pampanga river which is this one but the floods really go all the way as thick as as wide as 10 kilometers and then there was the sendong disaster in 2011. uh there was a a flood the rivers well this is a flood plain they have claimed it as theirs and when
• 17:00 - 17:30 the floods came in they happen once every 100 years or once every 200 years but when they come they can devastate the whole area within that flood plain and that is what happened in mandulok river in iligan wherein thousands of people died no there was this community an informal settlement composed of about 500 shanties no and all i saw was
• 17:30 - 18:00 an area full of sun in that same place orchids home subdivision just beside that informal settlement was this subdivision relatively upscale and when the floods came in it was reduced to a pile of rubble so this is how the impacts of hazards affect our communities and they happen almost every year and it creates so much loss and damage now that it runs up to the
• 18:00 - 18:30 billions of pesos and if it happens every day how can we develop how can we progress and how can our economy sustain that rise if each and every year we lose a lot from the impacts of hazards that means that we need to do something about it of course in tacloban this is the most famous probably of all the hazards because it's touted to be the one of the strongest or in fact the
• 18:30 - 19:00 strongest cyclone that has ever made landfall that's that's what it is known to be and it created storm surges and these storm surges killed a lot of people and of course in 2013 we also had that just a month before yolanda struck there was this earthquake creating a rupture on the ground and that rupture was several kilometers long
• 19:00 - 19:30 three meters high a wall similar to that you can see the person for scale and that didn't previously exist no it was just flat ground this was continues with this but when it it ruptured it generated that bohol earthquake in 2013 killing hundreds of people and that uh that wall is quite rare by world standards because not all earthquakes generate such a feature
• 19:30 - 20:00 so what the governor did was he tried to convert that that disaster into something that they could earn from as a tourism since it was six to seven kilometers long and it was high and it was a rare event no he called it the great wall of bohol now so that's that's ingenuity no i'm trying to find something uh make it a source of livelihood
• 20:00 - 20:30 from a disaster event so we can we can do that now we have to innovate we have to be uh thinking all the time to find ways to to solve the impacts uh solve the the harsh impacts of disasters and more recently in 2017 we have this map showing that community as exposed to hazards but you know this map was not used
• 20:30 - 21:00 that means that we need we need to go out there and bring the science to the communities to the barangays so are you willing to volunteer and go to the barangays in italy or in marawi or you know to teach them of all of these hazard maps to show them where the safe areas are and where the dangerous areas are we need people to share all of these information and we try to use all kinds of media
• 21:00 - 21:30 platforms like twitter like facebook like the internet to teach people but it's not enough there needs to be some kind of engagement and if they see young people students from feu going down today they feel that they are loved and they engage they talk to you and when they talk to you they get more aware of the disasters so that is what we need so if we can organize people
• 21:30 - 22:00 to mainstream all of these scientific information down barangay level that should be best there are many many many laws that are related to disaster risk reduction [Music]
• 22:00 - 22:30 just to show you what noaa is about
• 22:30 - 23:00 please visit the site
• 23:00 - 23:30 that's a map of the philippines you can
• 23:30 - 24:00 see the satellite information the clouds
• 24:00 - 24:30 the red yellow and white clouds refer to rain so you can see the philippines in the vicinities where it rains it also shows the pakasa trap no need to read the advisories every six hours there are rainfall sensors deployed all over the country that stream data every 15 minutes either you
• 24:30 - 25:00 can look at them one by one or just look at the map and see where it's raining so like for example if it's raining here you know that that watershed will experience flooding and when there's that kind of information you must know where to go the red places are areas of floods these are crowdsourced information to validate the simulated floods and then we also
• 25:00 - 25:30 have landslide hazard maps for the entire country shown at high resolution and for debris flows so that people can avoid the debris flows those ones that i showed storm surges as well so all over the philippines the fifth longest coastline we have storm surge inundation maps and it's available for any part of the country unfortunately the floods are not yet complete but for last night and storm surges they're complete so you
• 25:30 - 26:00 can plot exposed areas like schools like where dengue happens police stations etc hospitals and see whether these infrastructure or these institutions are at risk from a particular type of hazard like for example these areas they must be aware these schools must be aware that there's a chance that they will get flooded they must know
• 26:00 - 26:30 the risk if they don't want to get out in that place you