PHIVOLCS progressing with SAMBRO implementation

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) is mandated with the detection and alerting of earthquake, tsunami, volcanic, and landslide hazard events in the Philippines. Currently they are engaged with the Mayon volcano. Earthquakes are quite frequent, being surrounded by multiple trenches and sitting in the pacific ring of fire.

The CAP-on-a-Map project had involved PHIVOLCS in the capacity building and implementation exercises. However, there were delays in securing the required IT resources to operationalize SAMBRO. We are now working in developing and testing the CAP message templates. The aim is go-live by the second quarter of this year.

Training of SAMBRO Master Trainers in Thailand

Sahana Alerting and Messaging Broker (SAMBRO) continues to mature; especially with the Maldives, Myanmar, and Philippine implementations. Trainees from the three countries belonging to their Meteorological and Disaster Management Agencies are receiving training. They will receive training on GIS concepts, techniques, and tools required for developing predefined alert areas and training on administering, configuring, and implementing the CAP-enabled SAMBRO software. The training is part of the ‘CAP on a Map‘ project aiming to improve institutional responsiveness to coastal hazards.

Relevant Resources

• Training curriculum
• Beginning of the training
• After the first week
• Final day with ESCAP

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APT Manila meeting leading to Sahana Center of Excellence at AIT

The International Telecommunication Union - Development Sector (ITU-D) invited me to present on an "Introduction to Operationalizing the Common Alerting Protocol (ITU-T X.1303) Standard". The presentation was made at the 4th Asia Pacific (AP) Telecommunity on Disaster Management / Communications; held at the SMX Convention Centre, Manila, Philippines, from 23-25 July 2013.

The panel was Chaired by: Dr. Eun-Ju Kim (Regional Director, ITU Regional Office for AP), Mr. Wisit Atipayakoon (ITU Regional Officer for AP), D. Manluz Hazarika (AIT Geoinformatics Center Assistant Director), and myself. The panel topic termed as the "ITU Session".

A noteworthy historic event was meeting Manzul who is affiliated with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Goeinformatics Centre. His presentation was on: Applications of Geoinformatics and Space Technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Besides speaking of CAP, I also spoke about the Sahana Disaster Management Software, specifically the developments of the Sahana CAP Broker. Then we got to talking about ongoing and possible future projects. Our conversation continued at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila.

The propositions were on combining the AIT Goeinformatics remote sensing and risk mapping technologies with the Sahana Software. The pre-disaster risk mapping exercises would complement the alerting and post-disaster incident reporting. The integrated technologies would offer solutions for Regional Governments and In-line Organizations. That is when I brought up the idea of a Sahana Centre of Excellence at AIT.

The intent of the Sahana COE@AIT would be to foster research and development capacity at the Goeinformatics Centre to provide the essential information management systems and the know how. Manzul and I agreed that we would set sail with this idea and fine resources to make it happen.