Saturday, December 26, 2015

Hazard Maps Seminar @UP NIGS 12052015

Last December 6, I attended a seminar which was forwarded to me by a former ASP classmate. When I first received the invitation, I couldn't inform H immediately if I could make it since that Saturday was already allotted for the office's center-wide Christmas party, something I shouldn't miss since the theme is Rock Music and all of my fave rock bands are sure to be reinterpreted in the different teams' performances. In the end, my love for maps prevailed. I also wasn't too keen on going to Pampanga to party all night.

It was also the last day of a personal project so I decided to just skip the party in favor of this seminar. It doesn't disappoint. Maybe because I am neither an architect nor an urban planner nor a geologist that's why I was happy to have learned a lot. Because mapping is integral in archaeology simply because spatial analyses are also involved, I was super interested in this seminar. It also gave me a chance to know other uses for mapping and why it is suddenly becoming the "in" thing especially in matters involving disaster risk management and mitigation.

Finally happy to see the great Dr. Mahar Lagmay in person (so I made sure to get a fullbody shot!). He talked about Project NOAH, what the project has done so far and upcoming projects which I am very excited about. I hope I can be part of this project. It looks so cool and I have visited their den in NIGS once when we were toured there. And I so love their sophisticated equipment!!! I regret not taking up Geology in college. #cries
Introduced as Dr. Mahar Lagmay's righthand man, Mr. Oscar Lizardo is Project NOAH's Chief Technology Officer who talked about how the average person can use the database developed by Project NOAH and how to leverage the NOAH app.

Arch. Geomilie Guittap discusses the oft-ignored part in disaster management: how to deliver relief goods to affected communities. Hers is an interesting talk that draws parallelism and notes differences between commercial supply chain and humanitarian relief chain. The speaker is someone I would really love to connect to since she is confidently smart with a beautiful heart. (Inspired by Pia Wurtzbach's response in the recently concluded Ms. Universe Pageant.)

Arch. Nicasio Espina Jr. talked about how risk and hazard maps influence design and urban planning and talked a lot about the CLUP (Comprehensive Land Use Plan). While it is cool that we have the CLUP, I am actually far more interested in how CLUP is used, or is it just another theory sadly unused in practice? (I love hs curly hair! And he resembles Hiro Mizushima, the actor who played the lead character in Kamen Rider Kabuto...)
And so spending the whole day in my beloved alma mater, what else is there to regret? Definitely nothing. Parties end when they end, but seminars make possible the beginning of something wonderful because great ideas are shared on the floor for the benefit of mankind.

That ^, and finally knowing a little bit more about urban planning. 

No comments:

Post a Comment