LOCALISING STRATEGIES FOR MAKING CITIES RESILIENT TO DISASTERS Workhsop

Under the British Council’s Researcher Links scheme offered within the Newton Fund and supported by the Dept. of Science and Technology (DOST) and PCIEERD, the international workshop on "Localising Strategies for Making Cities Resilient to Disasters was successfully organized by the faculty and staff of De La Salle University and University of Huddersfield last 22nd to 26th January 2018 at the Century Plaza Hotel, Manila, Philippines.

In the welcome program on Jan 22, 2018, Dr. Andres Oreta (Philippine coordinator) welcomed the guests and participants while Prof. Raymond Girard Tan (DLSU, VCRI) gave the opening remarks. Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga (Huddersfield University) introduced the workshop objectives and schedule. The highloghts of the workshop are summarized below. 

The Faculty and Staff of the Organizing Committee from DLSU and HUD

Dr. Mutuc delivers the first keynote lecture

18 participants from various universities of the United Kingdom and 21 particpants from universities, GO's and LGUs of the Philippines were selected by the workshop organizers to attend the five day workshop. The participants from DLSU were Dr. Mario De Leon, Dr. Jason Maximino Ongpeng, Dr. Marla Redillas and Mr. Raniel Cris Macabare of the CE Dept., Dr, Lawrence Materum (ECE Dept), Shieradel Jimenez, part-time faculty teaching Business Management and Dr.  Nadine Ledesma of DLSU Araneta University.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WORKSHOP 

(http://www.buildresilience.org/nrl-philippines/index.php)

1.    KEYNOTE LECTURES

·         Keynote Lecture 1: Dynamics of Disasters – Assoc. Prof., Dr.  Jose Edgar Mutuc, DLSU

·         Keynote Lecture 2: Why are cities at risk of disaster?? – Prof. Richard  Haigh, HUD

·         Keynote Lecture 3: The New Ten Essential for Making Cities Resilient: A Framework for Research – Prof. Andres Winston C. Oreta, DLSU

·         Keynote Lecture 4: The Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 and Global and Local Challenges in the Making Cities Resilient Campaign -  Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga, HUD

2.    BRIEFING SESSIONS (BF)

·         BF1: Local Issues on DRR in the Philippines - Resource Persons from Makati (Mayor Abigail Binay) and Albay (Dr. Cedric Daep) presented lessons on the 10 E’s application in their cities.

·         BF2 - An introduction to the development of a roadmap for research futures and capacity development on making cities resilient to disasters  -  Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga  (HUD)

·         BF3 - Integrating public engagement into research - Prof. Richard Haigh, (HUD)

·         BF4 - Getting funding for our research -  Resource persons from DLSU (Dr. Raymond Tan, VCRI and Dr. Manny Biona, CESDR Director) presented source of funding for research on DRR-CCA. 

3.    PANEL DISCUSSIONS (PD) 

·    PD1: An expert panel to lead a discussion about the current landscape and future opportunities for advancing the dialogue between DRR and urban cities. Resource persons include Atty. Violeta Seva (Makati City consultant), Prof. Dilanthi and Prof. Haigh.

·         PD2 - Pathways to impact. A discussion about how to convert research knowledge into evidence based policy development. Resource persons were Mr. Uriel Correos (Surigao City, Dr. Antonio Fernandez (UP CIS) and Prof. Haigh.

The two panel discussion were moderated by Prof. Marites Tiongco, Dean of DLSU School of Economics.

4.    SKILLS DEVELOPMENT (SK)

·         SK1: Academic writing - Prof. Richard Haigh (HUD)

·         SK2: Publishing your research  - Prof. Richard Haigh (HUD)

·         SK3: Iinteractive session on building your research profile - Prof. Dilanthi Amaratunga (HUD)

5.     PARTICIPANTS’ POSTER PRESENTATION (PPP)

 A five-minute self-introduction of each particpant and a presentation of a summary of a research related to the theme of the workshop. The PPP sessions were moderated by Dr. Lessandro Garciano, DLSU CE Dept. chair.

6.     GROUP INTERACTIVE SESSIONS (GIS)

The participants will be grouped into five clusters to address issues, strategies and challenges related to the 10 Essentials for Making Cities Resilient. There were four sessions of the GIS. GIS1 was moderated by Dr. Mutuc, GUS2 was moderated by Dr. Marlon Era (DLSU BS Dept) and GIS3 and GIS4 were moderated by Dr. Tanhueco.

7.    SITE VISIT  - A site visit to Makati, a  UNISDR Model City for Making Cities Resilient. facilitated by the Office of Mayor of Makati and the Makati DRRM office.

Dr. Oreta (PH Coordinator) and Dr. Dialnthi (UK Coordinator) with Makati Mayor Abby Binay

Prof. Haigh of HUD delivers keynote lecture 2

Prof. Oreta (DLSU) delivers keynote lecture 3

Prof. Dilanthi (HUD) delivers keynote lecture 4

Dr. Garciano moderated the PPP Session while Dr. Tanhueco moderated Day 1 and GIS 3/4

Dr. Mutuc at the Makati City Site Visit

Group Interactive Session (Dr. Materum, Dr. Ongpeng and Engr. Macabare belong to group D)

Dr. Redillas with group E members in one GIS

Dr. De Leon with group B members in a GIS

The workshop was coordinated by Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga (Global Disaster Resilience Centre, University of Huddersfield, UK) and Professor Andres Winston Oreta (De La Sallle University, Manila, Philippines). The mentors were Professor Richard Haigh (University of Huddersfield, UK), Professor Renan Tanhueco and Professor Jose Edgar Mutuc (De La Sallle University, Manila, Philippines), and Abhilash Panda (UNISDR Making Cities Resilient). The DLSU Organizing committee belonged to the CE Department and the CESDR Subcenter for DRR-CCA.

CE Faculty at University College London for PRISMH Project

The PRISM Team from DLSU, UCL and XU

With UCL Researchers

Dr. Lessandro Garciano (CE Dept. Chair and PRISMH PH Project leader), Prof. Andres Oreta and Engr. Richard De Jesus held an academic visit the University College London (UK) in relation to the British Council - CHED funded project, "Philippine Resilience of School Infrastructureto Multi-Hazard (PRISMH)" last June 19-26, 2017. PRISMH, a collaborative project of DLSU with UCL and Xavier University (CdeO) seeks to develop a science-based resilience assessment framework for school infrastructure subjected to different natural hazards in the Philippines.

The activities conducted during the one-week academic visit were:

• June 19 - PRISMH Seminar on Safety of Schools where professors and researchers of  the Civil Engineering Department of UCL and EPIcentre presented papers

• June 20 - The Kick-off meeting of PRISMH where the accomplishments of the first three months of the projects were discussed in the morning.  In the afternoon, DLSU, XU and UCL researchers presented their respective researches. Dr. Garciano introduced the CE Dept. of DLSU and his on-going researches on PSHA, Schools and Wind Eng'g. Dr. Oreta presented his work on safe schools. Engr. De Jesus presented his researches on concrete deterioration.
• June 21 - Dr. Garciano and Dr. Oreta presented plenary papers on school evacuation in the 7th Annual Confrence of UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction (IRDR).
• June 22 - Debriefing meetings of the PRISMH Project to discuss future tasks and Lab tour were held
• June 23 - Site Visits

With the IRDR Director and Dr. Galasso

DLSU faculty and Phil. participants in the UCL IRDR 7th Annual Conference

7th Annual Conference UCL IRDR
(Photo from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/rdr/irdr/general-news/irdr-annual-conference-report)

International kick-off meeting of the e-Asia Joint Research Program

The international kick-off meeting of e-Asia Joint Research Program “Intelligent Integrated Transport for a Smart Life” at De La Salle University, Manila was successfully held last February 1-2, 2017. The venue was at the Conference Room, 7th Floor, Henry Sy Sr. Hall. In the meeting, the three-year research plan among the three countries involved (Japan, Philippines and Thailand) as well as the direction of research was discussed.

On February 1, the group did a tour of Metro Manila by riding the LRT1, LRT2, and MRT3. The group made observations of the connections between these mass transit systems as well as the activities surrounding the stations.  While in the afternoon of February 2, right after the workshop, the group met Secretary de la Pena (DOST) and Usec. Guevara (DOST) to discuss about the eAsia project.

In attendance during the meeting are Prof. Kenji DOI (Osaka University), Prof. Ikuo SUGIYAMA (Kobe Institute of Computing), Dr. Haruo TAKEDA (Hitachi, Japan), Prof. Hiroto INOI (Osaka University), Dr. Monsak SOCHAROENTUM (NECTEC-ITS, Thailand), Prof. Elmer DADIOS (ECE Dept.), Prof. Alexis FILLONE (CE Dept), Dr. Nicanor ROXAS Jr. (MEM Dept.), Engr. Edwin SYBINGCO (ECE Dept.), as well as the staff and graduate students of Gokongwei College of Engneering. Observers from Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) of the Dept. of Science and Technology - Mr. Nonilo A. PENA and Miss Rachel R. HABANA also came. 

EAsia International Kick-off Meeting with the Japanese and Thai Delegations

EAsia Research group visit Secretary Fortunato de la Pena and Usec. Amelia Guevara at the DOST-PHILVOCS office to discuss about the research

DLSU-TCU Joint Forum in Civil Engg held

Group Photo of the Presentors and Faculty

 The CE Department led by the dept. chair, Dr. Lessandro Garciano organized a DLSU-Tokyo City University Joint Forum in Civil Engineering on Nov. 16, 2016 at the Andrew Gonzalez Building, AH1403. GCOE Vice Dean Dennis Cruz gave the welcome remarks. Prof. Hiromi Shirahata of TCU introduced TCU and its programs. There were eight papers presented by the TCU graduate students and also eight papers from DLSU. DLSU CE Department has a student exchange program with TCU.

Prof. Shirahata of TCU

DLSU signs MOU with PPA on offering Master's degree on ports and harbours engineering

The Civil Engineering Department achieved and reached another milestone last November 4, 2016 with the signing of the general Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and DLSU. Dr. Gerardo C. Janairo, DLSU Chancellor and Atty. Jay Daniel R. Santiago, PPA General Manager, signed the MOU to jointly develop a new graduate program in Ports and Harbours Engineering and Management (MS PHEM). Present to witness this event were representatives from  PPA top management and DLSU GCOE administrators, Dr. Jonathan R. Dungca, Dean of the Gokongwei College of Engineering (GCOE) and Dr. Lessandro Estelito O. Garciano, Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering.

Under the provisions of this MOU, both parties shall endeavour on the following general forms of cooperation:

1.      Joint research activities

2.      Exchange of academic materials and publications

3.      Exchange of faculty and personnel members for research, lectures and discussions

This new MS PHEM program will commence during the 1^st term AY 2017 – 2018. The program follows the 36 unit - MS curriculum with 6 units of Advanced Mathematics, 15 units of Major Courses on Ports and Harbours, 6 units of Electives, 3 unit of Methods of Research and 6 units of Thesis. Aside from the CE faculty, professional lecturers from the industry including PPA will be invited to conduct the courses. This innovative graduate program will cater to the demands of port engineers and young professionals who aim to pursue higher academic degrees to advance their career in Ports and Harbours.

The development of the program started during the term of Jason Ongpeng as CE Dept. Chair and was finalized in the term of Dr. Garciano.

Garciano & Oreta at XU (CDO) for Earthquake Eng'g Lectures

Announcing the XUERC Earthquake Engineering Lectures

CE Department Chair, Dr. Lessandro Garciano and Prof. Andres Oreta delivered lectures on Earthquake Engineering at Xavier University, Cagayan De Oro City on Oct. 1, 2016. They were invited by DLSU MSCE alumnus, Engr. Dexter Lo who is also the founding director of the XU Engineering Resource Center. PhD students from University College London also presented lectures on the same event which was attended by XU civil engineering students and faculty members.

Oreta and Garciano are presently engaged in a collaborative project, "Safer Communities through Safer Schools" or SCOSSO (meaning "shake" in Italian) where seismic assessment of schools at CDO are conducted. The project is with UCL as the lead partner and XU ERC as cooperating institution. Before going to CDO, the SCOSSO team composed of UCL, DLSU and XU ERC members met at Cebu City during the 6th ASIA Conference on Earthquake Engineering  (6ACEE).

Oreta & Garciano with UCL and XU ERC partners at the 6th ASIA Conference on Earthquake Engg, Cebu City last Sept. 23, 2016. (Photo by Dexter Lo)

Certificate of Appreciation to Dr. Oreta at XU

Certificate of Appreciation to Dr. Garciano at XU

The Resource Speakers from DLSU and UCL with the XU Faculty at XU

With the XU ERC volunteers for the SCOSSO Project at XU