The International Affairs Relation Office (IARO) of Davao del Sur State College (DSSC) spearheaded a two-day activity, welcoming Japanese visitors from the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), seeking to foster collaboration and partnership between ICHARM and DSSC in addressing water hazard and risk management challenges, on June 28-29, 2023.

The first day involved visitation of Brgy. Binaton, Digos City and Brgy. Tibolo, Sta Cruz, areas in Davao del Sur known for their effective water management strategies. The visit to Brgy. Binaton and Brgy. Tibolo on the first day allowed the Japanese visitors to explore and observe firsthand the various water management facilities and techniques applied in the area. With the goal of letting them understand the geographical, environmental, and socio-economic factors that contributes to the successful water management practices in the region. This visit also gave them the opportunity to interact with local water management experts, community leaders, and residents involved in the implementation and maintenance of these strategies.

The second day proceeded to DSSC Boardroom, where DSSC President, Dr. Augie E. Fuentes with the pool of DSSCs Administrative officers welcomed DOST XI, Regional Director, Dr. Anthony C. Sales, alongside visitors from ICHARM comprising Dr. Mamoru Miyamoto, Dr. Kensuke Naito, and Dr. Ralph Allen Acierto.

Each of these esteemed researchers presented their papers regarding the Water Hazard and Risk Management studies they have conducted within the region. Dr. Miyamoto presented his study called “Co-Design for Enhancing Flood Resilience In Davao City, Philippines” with outlined contents of ‘General Concept for Flood Resilience Enhancement’, ‘Methodology Design and Localization’, ‘Local System Development and Integrated Risk Assessment and ‘Human Resource Development by E-Learning and Workshops’, which introduced the development of the ‘Online Synthesis System for Sustainability and Resilience(OSS-SR)’ a platform developed to support consilience by providing information regarding water hazards and risk management, ending the outline with ‘Action Planning and Risk Communication for all Levels of Society’.

Dr. Naito also presented his paper entitled “Assessment of future flood risk using water and energy budget-rainfall runoff inundation 9WEB-RRI) model: Case Study for the Davao River in Philippines’, with components including conducting a series of rainfall-runoff-inundation simulations, simulations of past climate and future climate to assess future flood hazard and associated risk, modeling inputs such as rainfalls using General Circulation Model (GCM), simulation of long-term basin-scale using Water and Energy Budget-Rainfall Runoff Inundation(WEB-RRI), modeling short-term and small scale simulations at higher special resolution using Rainfall Runoff Inundation (RRI), evaluating affected buildings with simulated results superimposed on polygons that indicate building roof (Microsoft Building Footprints), and conducting risk assessment of affected houses at a barangay scale in terms of number.

Followed by Dr. Acierto’s presentation of two papers entitled “Dynamical downscaling for basin-scale climate change impact assessment” and “Attributing weather patterns to Davao River extreme rainfall from Reanalysis and GCM.” Dr. Acierto’s studies tackled General Circulation Model (GCM) projections, Hydrologic Modeling using WEB-RRI, Flood and Drought Impact Assessment, Adaptation measures for climate change, frequency of annual maximum rainfall, rainfall climatology, Davao River’s Heavy Rainfall Event (HRE), HRE Seasonal Frequency, and composites of weather patterns linked to HRE.

The subsequent open forum of inquiries and clarifications where participants from the DENR-ERDB-ARDEC, DOST XI, DSSC Staff, Tibolo Tribal Chieftain representative, and visiting researchers engaged in clarified the series of question regarding the local issues regarding Water Hazards and Risk Management, collecting more feasible angles for the researchers to consider in their studies, pinpointing the activity’s goal of promoting knowledge exchange and mutual learning between DSSC and the ICHARM, and identifying opportunities for future collaboration with the ICHARM partners, the college and other local stakeholders, which can lead to joint research projects and other initiatives. (A.C)