Project ODeSSEE is our innovation for disaster mitigation amid the COVID Pandemic.
It stands for “Optimization of Decision Support System for Effective e-Governance” (ODeSSEE)on Preemptive Evacuation for Flood Disaster amidst Covid-19 in Cagayan Valley. An innovation brought by the Business Intelligence Research and Development Center stationed at ISU Cauayan Campus, which was also instrumental in bringing the Health Guard App to the region.
A Look to the Contemporary Hitches on Disaster Mitigation amid the Pandemic
The result of the Hazard Vulnerability Assessment reveals that Cagayan Valley is highly susceptible to hydro- meteorological hazards, specifically rain-induced flood and rain-induced landslide. The Office of Civil Defense Region 2 (OCD-R02) aims zero casualty in every proactive disaster response, but the response to emergencies in the face of a persisting disaster – the coronavirus pandemic – makes it more complex.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management (NDRRM) Memorandum No. 54, series of 2020 emphasized the use scientific data to be risk-informed on the demographic profile from “low to high risks” Covid-19 areas—which will serve as a reference of the Regional DRRMC member agencies and other response clusters in their decision-making as well as planning disaster preparedness during the coronavirus health crisis is crucial in managing consequences of disaster and spread of COVID-19.
The current process of City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) in creating a preemptive evacuation plan is the conduct of pre disaster risk assessment (PDRA), a consultative meeting is convened to discuss the flood hazard areas of the locality, identify risk based on the records of flood susceptible areas with its respective susceptible number of individuals and households. The capacity and capability of the responder’s report are also being prepared. The
existing evacuation centers for flood are also being used as Covid-19 quarantine facilities. The partner LGUs has no existing automated preemptive evacuation plan that consists of an identified evacuation center integrating the Covid-19 affectations locations and quarantine facilities.
LGUs and barangays have an existing number of flood susceptible households but no existing database of household profiles who require immediate assistance for evacuation. Furthermore, the OCDR2 – CVDRMMC has no existing real-time application in monitoring the Local DRRM actions of respective municipalities to have a basis on what particular extent of disaster response assistance can be provided.
Fostering Resiliency through Smart Solutions for Health and Natural Disasters
To address the challenges of creating a preemptive evacuation plan for flood disaster, the Isabela State University is currently developing the ODeSSEE for flood disaster integrating the Health Guard Ph application. The project ODeSSEE would apply data-driven process in creating preemptive evacuation plan for flood disaster integrating COVID-19 profile which includes affectations of covid-19 cases in respective barangays of partner LGUs and covid-19 zoning to manage disaster preparedness.
Through the project, a centralized database will be created to identify and monitor evacuation centers of LGUs, managed and supervised by the OCD Region 02. Applying scientific data processing of historical data OCDR2 on flood disaster and Covid-19 database of HealthGuard application, the project ODeSSEE could generate safe, unsafe and alternative evacuation areas for flood disaster while securing the Covid-19 quarantine facilities and individuals to prevent spread of the virus. It will also monitor evacuees (ingress/engress) and responders management.
This is the initial action of the university to convene practitioners in DRRM and lead to promote integration of scientific process in providing decision support in preemptive evacuation planning through data science and analytics. The research result of project ODeSSEE can be also used as a basis in creating policies and evacuation plans for flood disaster for LDRRMO and OCDR2.