The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Observation for Sustainable Development Climate Resilience (EO4SD CR) has released a new brochure providing an overview of its work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) where EO data was provided to improve the flood risk management related to its projects in the Philippines.
The Philippines is regularly inundated by disasters, including flooding events. However, flood risk management in the country has been largely ineffective. To help ADB secure more detailed data on floods in the Philippines, the Cluster developed an Inundation Monitoring Service (IMS) for Jalaur River Basin that detects seasonal fluctuations in water bodies and monitors long-term changes. The maps provided by the IMS show the extent of flooded areas over time, helping the ADB build a more detailed understanding of the flood response needed in a particular area. This allows for better infrastructure investment in flood protection, and disaster response and early warning.
Click here to download the brochure.
In addition to the delivery of the IMS product, the Cluster provided a capacity building programme to support ADB staff in better understanding EO-derived data and services so that they can apply it to their own work. Capacity building activities include targeted support through practical training, and awareness raising and knowledge transfer through online courses and webinars.
The EO4SD CR cluster provides insight about the potential of Earth Observation (EO) data to support climate-resilient decision making at the regional and national scale. In collaboration with several International Financial Institutions, the EO4SD CR cluster has developed EO-based screening and risk management products that can be integrated into different platforms and project cycles.
Other summaries of EO4SD CR projects can be found here, as well as a webinar series outlining how different EO data products have been used and hands-on guided sessions on how to use the different data platforms.
The Jalaur River Basin is located on the Eastern side of the Philippine island of Panay.