We have been blessed generously with natural light around us, so why not harness from it?
Alternative energy will be of great importance in the future. Solar power will make a difference in one's way of living and view once we started utilizing it.
Friday, March 20, 2015
Permanent Shelter: Bahay eCO-BU
Ar. Adonis C. Canonicato submitted this design for a permanent shelter which he calls the "Bahay eCO-BU" (Bahay Kubo - a native Filipino house). It also means eco-House_Build Uniquely.
We have been blessed generously with natural light around us, so why not harness from it?
Alternative energy will be of great importance in the future. Solar power will make a difference in one's way of living and view once we started utilizing it.
We have been blessed generously with natural light around us, so why not harness from it?
Alternative energy will be of great importance in the future. Solar power will make a difference in one's way of living and view once we started utilizing it.
Resilient Schoolbuilding for San Fernando Elementary School in Tacloban
The construction of the school project of the UAP Emergency Architects is currently on-going and is being supervised by UAP District C-3. The schoolbuilding is elevated at a height of 1.0 meter from the existing grade line. The constructed started after the groundbreaking ceremonies last November 2014 attended by the UAP National President, Ar. Ma. Benita O. Regala, the chair of the UAP emergency Architects, Ar. Rey S. Gabitan, the chair of UAP Bayanihang Arkitektura, Ar. Rene Herray and the deputy chair of UAP Emergency Architects, Ar. Richie Tumambing.
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| The perspective of the soon-to-be-completed schoolbuilding mainly funded from donations from the Architects Regional Cuncil of Asia (ARCASIA) |
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| This is the UAP-EA campaign in support of the schoolbuilding project. |
Toilet Facility for Mariki Elementary School
The groundbreaking (or should I say water splashing?) of a Toilet Facility project at Mariki Elementary School in Mariki, Zamboanga City, a community on stilts devastated by the Zambo siege in 2013 was held last Marh 17, 2015. The community on stilts was totally razed by fire during the siege, with some concrete structures left like the Mariki Elementary School (though some structures need to be retrofitted or demolished due to deterioration).
The project is a collaboration of different groups, a UAP Bayanihang Arkitektura (CSR) initiative with UAP Area D and District D-2, National Housing Authority and the UAP Emergency Architects with DepEd and Barangay Mariki. Donations for materials were pledged by Gulf Canary Construction, Shera for the cementboards and roofing, and Rain or Shine for paints. Other donors are welcome to participate.
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| Architects from District D-2 (Zamboanga) and Area D Vice-President Noel Querijero with NEVP Rey Gabitan and Ar. Rene Herray, chair of the UAP Bayanihang Arkitektura Committee |
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| NEVP Rey Gabitan signing the plans which would be placed in the capsule. |
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| Site of the proposed toilet facility. Note in the background the new houses on stilts being constructed, a project of NHA. |
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| NEVP Rey Gabitan ready to swing the capsule, with Area D Vice-Pressident Noel Querijero, District Director Cris Hernandez, Ar. Rene Herray and the principal of Mariki Elementary School assisting. |
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Philippine structural design standards for resilient public buildings
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) released the latest design standards intended for resilient design of public buildings like hospitals thru a memorandum dated Feb. 26, 2014 signed by Sec. Rogelio L. Singson.
The guidelines considers a wind load of 250 kph for Zone 1 and Zone II areas in the Philippines.
Vanuatu disaster response much more difficult than Haiyan
SUVA – Aid agencies have described conditions in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu as among the most challenging they have ever faced, as the Pacific nation’s president blamed climate change for worsening the devastation.
Relief flights have begun arriving in the battered capital Port Vila after Super Tropical Cyclone Pam tore through on Friday night packing wind gusts of up to 320 kilometers (200 miles) an hour.
But workers on the ground said there was no way to distribute desperately needed supplies across the archipelago’s 80 islands, warning it would take days to reach remote villages flattened by the monster storm.
Save the Children’s Vanuatu director Tom Skirrow said the logistical challenges were even worse than Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November 2013, killing more than 7,350 people and ravaging an area as big as Portugal.
“I was present for the Haiyan response and I would 100 percent tell you that this is a much more difficult logistical problem,” he said.
“The numbers are smaller but the percentage of the population that’s been affected is much bigger.”
The official death toll in Port Vila stands at six with more than 30 injured, although experts believe this is a likely fraction of the fatalities caused by the storm.
CARE International spokesman Tom Perry said flying into the capital, where up to 90 percent of homes have been damaged, was “startling.”
“It’s been flattened, all that green is basically horizontal, trees are just kind of standing like broken toothpicks, it’s quite startling... it’s hard to find a home that hasn’t been hit,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Skirrow said 15,000 people were homeless in Port Vila alone and flights over remote islands had confirmed widespread destruction elsewhere in the impoverished nation of 270,000.
“It’s frustrating, we’re still stuck in a small part of Port Vila, we can’t even get to the north of this island (Efate) to find out what’s going on,” he said.
“We’ve had aerial surveillance (of the outer islands)... all we can tell is what we suspected, that everything’s destroyed, but we don’t know what’s happening with the people right now,” he said.
“I am absolutely sure that there will be at least 150,000 people significantly affected, most likely homeless, and about 75,000 of them will be children.”
He said aid agencies were preparing supplies but it would likely be three days before airfields in remote islands were cleared.
Pacific nations regard themselves as at the frontline of climate change, given many are low-lying islands dangerously exposed to rising sea levels, and Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale said changing weather patterns were partly to blame for the destruction. – AFP
Relief flights have begun arriving in the battered capital Port Vila after Super Tropical Cyclone Pam tore through on Friday night packing wind gusts of up to 320 kilometers (200 miles) an hour.
But workers on the ground said there was no way to distribute desperately needed supplies across the archipelago’s 80 islands, warning it would take days to reach remote villages flattened by the monster storm.
Save the Children’s Vanuatu director Tom Skirrow said the logistical challenges were even worse than Super Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in November 2013, killing more than 7,350 people and ravaging an area as big as Portugal.
“I was present for the Haiyan response and I would 100 percent tell you that this is a much more difficult logistical problem,” he said.
“The numbers are smaller but the percentage of the population that’s been affected is much bigger.”
The official death toll in Port Vila stands at six with more than 30 injured, although experts believe this is a likely fraction of the fatalities caused by the storm.
CARE International spokesman Tom Perry said flying into the capital, where up to 90 percent of homes have been damaged, was “startling.”
“It’s been flattened, all that green is basically horizontal, trees are just kind of standing like broken toothpicks, it’s quite startling... it’s hard to find a home that hasn’t been hit,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Skirrow said 15,000 people were homeless in Port Vila alone and flights over remote islands had confirmed widespread destruction elsewhere in the impoverished nation of 270,000.
“It’s frustrating, we’re still stuck in a small part of Port Vila, we can’t even get to the north of this island (Efate) to find out what’s going on,” he said.
“We’ve had aerial surveillance (of the outer islands)... all we can tell is what we suspected, that everything’s destroyed, but we don’t know what’s happening with the people right now,” he said.
“I am absolutely sure that there will be at least 150,000 people significantly affected, most likely homeless, and about 75,000 of them will be children.”
He said aid agencies were preparing supplies but it would likely be three days before airfields in remote islands were cleared.
Pacific nations regard themselves as at the frontline of climate change, given many are low-lying islands dangerously exposed to rising sea levels, and Vanuatu President Baldwin Lonsdale said changing weather patterns were partly to blame for the destruction. – AFP
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Good Samaritan legislation: shielding building professionals in times of emergency
Is there a possibility that building professionals volunteering to communities as response to natural disasters be shielded from civil liability? Here is an interesting development in New Jersey which made that possible as contained in a letter by Kurt Trenton to the Times of Trenton editor:
We at the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects are very pleased with the governor's recent signing of good Samaritan legislation that will shield licensed architects and engineers from liability when they volunteer to help local municipalities respond to natural disasters.
Bill A2025 has received widespread support from both the Assembly and the Senate. By removing prohibitive regulations against building design professionals, the act will allow trained architects and other professionals to quickly and effectively respond to pressing infrastructural issues in times of emergency.
The legislation reflects the mission of the AIA to contribute its collective expertise when it is needed most, which is crucial in the planning and rebuilding of New Jersey's communities.
We commend lead sponsor Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, along with sponsors Paul Moriarity and Upendra Chivukula, for their sound and rational advocacy of the bill.
-- Kurt Kalafsky,
Trenton
The writer is president of the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Source
Can buildings withstand 250mph winds?
It is possible to design buildings to withstand 250 mph winds. You can buy tornado doors that are rated to 300 mph, but those are very expensive. Thick, laminated, and reinforced glass is available that can withstand 250 mph wind, but again, cost is a major issue.
In general the strongest construction systems are reinforced concrete, as can be achieved with insulated concrete forms or ICFs.
Unfortunately, buildings designed to withstand 250 mph wind would be priced out of the income range of most people--especially those in the most vulnerable regions, such as the Philippines. In general, design for such extreme wind resistance can only be justified for emergency management buildings and buildings in extreme environments, such as research stations on Antarctica. Even the most stringent building code in the U.S., the Miami-Dade County code, assumes a design wind speed of only 146 mph.
That said, even designing buildings to withstand 140 or 150 mph winds would be a huge step up from conventional practice today. I have long advocated extending wind provisions of the Miami-Dade County hurricane code to much of the U.S.
Henry L. Green, Hon. AIA, President, National Institute of Building Sciences
Theoretically, it is possible to build structures to withstand such extreme wind events. However, there are a variety of concerns about taking such an approach in response to the rebuilding of an area devastated by this type of event. Naturally, cost is probably the most prohibitive factor. Additionally, the frequency of such events and the likelihood that they will occur in a particular region is limited, so the level of risk is insufficient to warrant such an investment. Other competing interests including the affordability of housing and availability of resources/sustainability are likely to influence the decision on whether to require building to such levels.
Within a community, building codes should serve as the baseline for acceptable levels of risk and how structures should be designed and constructed to withstand an event that could occur at a pre-determined frequency or at a particular level of severity. In the U.S., the strictest requirement for wind events along the coast requires resistance to 130-mph winds. Tornados have similar requirements to withstand 110-mph winds. FEMA’s approach to tornados of greater than 110 mph is to suggest the use of storm shelters/safe rooms. While such extreme events currently occur very infrequently, should they become more frequent due to climate change, prevailing design criteria may need to be re-examined.
Michael Lingerfelt, Chairman of the AIA’s National Disaster Assistance Committee
It is possible to build to resist strong winds. One thing you can do is design a safe room within your home as a place for you and your family to go during a storm and be safe. It might look like a pantry or a closet during normal operation, but in the case of high-strength winds, you go in and you’re safe. It doesn’t need to look like a bunker, but you need to be careful to design it so that it stays in place and is impregnable for airborne debris flying around. FEMA has guidelines for such safe rooms.
Garage doors are usually the first things to fail, so to build resiliently, you can add box beams that will reinforce them. Any hole in that wall is going to cause negative pressure on both sides, which will make the home explode from within.
If you’re in a hurricane zone, having a door that swings in instead of out is one of your weak spots. If your front door swung out, your home would be more resilient. I live in hurricane Florida, so one thing we try to stress is designing roofs in a manner that creates an airflow--it might be sloped on four sides like a milk carton. High winds usually peel a roof off like a can opener. Airflow prevents this.
In terms of affordability, there have been studies showing that somewhere around $2,000 can make your home more resilient--that’s less than your granite countertop--so is it affordable? Yes, but you have to put your money in strategic locations. FEMA will tell you that for $1 spent in mitigation, it saves the Federal Government $4. That has nothing to do with your insurance, or community-based funds. When you sit down and say, if I spend $1 of mitigation I’ll at least save the federal government $4 and I might save my life, you realize it’s worth it.
Experts Forum on Rebuilding Communities and Ecosystems after Yolanda
(This is the Opening Message made by MR. FEDERICO R. LOPEZ, Chairman, OML Center at the Experts Forum held January 23, 2014 at the AIM Conference Center)
“I am hopeful that with the talent gathered here today collaborating; we will make choices that will result in a more resilient Filipino people.”
Welcome and Acknowledgements.
Many of you may ask why a power company like First Gen ended up creating a foundation like the Oscar M.Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management. Allow me a few minutes to share with you how it all began.Around twenty years ago my father, Oscar Lopez, and I began building up First Gen Corporation, the power generating holding company of the Lopez Group. We initiated the use of combined cycle gas turbines in the country when we built our 1,500 Megawatt Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo power plants that were a cornerstone of the Philippine Natural Gas Project. Taken together, the latter was probably the largest single industrial undertaking in the country so far. Because of that effort, our country now enjoys natural gas -- both a cleaner and lower carbon alternative in the Philippine energy mix.
After that, we acquired the country’s largest and the world’s second largest integrated geothermal energy producer, the Energy Development Corporation (or EDC) and a few of the National Power Corporation’s hydro power plants as well. Today, we are proudly the power producer with the lowest carbon intensity measured in tons of carbon per kilowatt-hour. We continue to build on this platform by expanding our plants that use geothermal, hydropower and more natural gas. In fact, just last week, we broke ground on another 414 Megawatt natural gas fired power plant within our First Gen
complex in Batangas. This is just the first in a series of badly needed capacity additions that will also eventually spearhead the entry of imported Liquefied Natural Gas or LNG into the country and give the Philippines an environmentally better alternative.
Pursuing this business model made a lot of sense for us and enables us to sleep better at nights. However, on some quiet nights you sometimes feel like you’ve gone too far ahead of the curve when you see competitors building coal-fired plants all over the country because it’s the least difficult option to pursue. Of course, you even hear voices justifying that the Philippine emissions are so small that we’re merely just a rounding error in the concern for curbing carbon emissions globally. I also remember the frustration I felt reading about the results of climate talks in Durban, South Africa back in December 2011 where the Washington Post described it ridiculously as “an agreement to begin a new round of talks on a new agreement in the years ahead.” and that “The Durban Platform…merely prods countries to come up with a new agreement that will go into effect no later than 2020.” Many described this ensuing period as a lost decade where inaction would hurtle us irreversibly towards a dangerous world that’s 3.5 degrees warmer instead of one that’s kept within a 2 degree change before the end of the century.
However, year after year we were already witnessing extreme weather events striking at the heart of our country and hitting millions of unsuspecting Filipinos with regularity. The litany of infamous storms in the last eight years are now too long to remember: Milenyo,Reming, Helen, Frank, Ondoy, Dante, Bebeng, Sendong, Pablo, even the nameless one we called Habagat, of course Yolanda, and most recently Agaton.
Much of our yearly experiences confirm the various reports from international agencies that the Philippines is among the top 10 most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change.
“Events were telling us that our country’s ability to adapt to the new normal should be a top priority for all Filipinos.”
One of our companies, geothermal producer EDC --which has an organizational footprint all over the country in the mountains of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao -- has already been feeling the more pronounced impact of extreme weather over the last few years from a combination of unusually high rainfall and geohazards. Landslide and weather related losses to our facilities and infrastructure were becoming more common such that between 1990 and 2013 we suffered close to Php 4.5 Billion in damages, including one incident that claimed the lives of fourteen construction workers. What’s alarming is that 86% of that figure was incurred only in the last eight years! Of course the costs to repair the damage and lost revenues of our Leyte geothermal power plants from Yolanda are still not final but will surely run into billions of Pesos as well.
But with every crisis comes an opportunity to learn and emerge stronger. Being a victim ourselves at the center of this and other storms means we can also be instrumental in finding solutions. In response to all the landslides of the past, we systematically mapped all possible geohazard areas in
our sites that could affect our people, assets and surrounding communities. Since 2006, we reinforced more than a hundred landslide prone areas with more than Php855 Million of mitigating measures like riprapping, shot-creteing, soil nailing, benching/terracing of slopes, installation of gabion walls and various drainage control measures; and where it was not possible to do these; we rerouted steam pipelines and other critical facilities out of harm’s way. Yet, despite these significant investments, the extreme weather continues to wreak havoc and cause damage.
With Yolanda last December, EDC had more than 700 employees who were themselves victims of the storm. But barely a few days after, when we found and accounted for the safety of every one of them and their families, they rapidly transformed into the backbone of our relief efforts not only in Kananga and Ormoc but all other devastated areas of the island as well. Our heavy equipment all fuelled up and ready before the storm, quickly cleared more than 15 kilometers of impassable roads between Kananga and Ormoc City. Within the first week, when it was apparent that transport logistics were the real bottleneck of relief efforts, we hired barges and aircraft to bring in a significant amount of food, gensets and diesel fuel to power up the Ormoc water district plus its two hospitals and City Hall.
We also airlifted about eight tons of medicines and solar chargers/lamps and shipped tarpaulins, mosquito nets and vital relief goods, initially into Ormoc, but later via the Philphos port in Isabel, Leyte. This port later proved quite vital to our relief efforts but to get it working we had to transport several of our 60-160 ton capacity cranes there as well. Our barges, trucks and aircraft mobilized more than 1,107 tons of relief goods that were either bought by us or secured through a working partnership with sister company ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya. We also transported more than 1,751 tons of DSWD relief goods from their National Relief Operations Center and Manila Port warehouse to the Isabel port in Leyte. We arranged for the goods to be repacked and assisted in its distribution to those most in need.
All told, we conservatively estimate that those efforts mobilized an estimated 10.7 million meals for over a million affected lives in the last two months since Yolanda hit. When I thanked our EDC employees at a solidarity mass we held in Leyte before Christmas last month, I reminded them that we will never forget that despite being Yolanda victims themselves, they managed to find creative ways to provide not only food but also hope to more than a million of our fellowFilipinos in Leyte just when they needed it most.
“These experiences tell me that although being at the very heart of a storm is dangerous, it also provides an immense opportunity to learn and help others build their own resilience as we share that learning.”
There is general agreement that the Philippines should learn to adapt fast to the new normal. But what is the new normal? Can anyone say with certainty what to prepare for? Higher sea levels? How high? More rain? How much? Stronger winds? Droughts? Diseases? Threats to food or water supply? Some of these or all of these? How can anyone prepare and prioritize where to spend the limited resources we have given this amount of uncertainty? Are there best practices that are alreadyin use elsewhere in the world?
What is certain is that millions of Filipinos will continue to suffer the brunt of devastation from climate change.To us, what is equally certain is that we stand a better chance of adapting if we can bring together both science and real world experience to bear on the new normal as it comes to clearer view.
And so, almost two years ago in August 2012 after separate discussions with friends like Climate Change Commission’s Secretary Lucille Sering, Fr. Jett Villarin of Ateneo, Toni Loyzaga of the Manila Observatory, MaharLagmay, Benny Pacheco and Fred Pascual of UP and Brother Ricky Laguda of De La Salle we signed an MOU with the three charter partners (UP, La Salle, Ateneo) and launched the OML Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation.
Our energy companies under First Gen and EDC committed Php150 Million in seed funding and we subsequently engaged Dr. Rodel Lasco to head the center as its Scientific Director. For those of you that don’t know him, Dr. Rodel is one of the sixty eminent scientists that make up the prestigious National Academy of Science and Technology or NAST. He also happens to be on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who along with other scientists around the world shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007 for their work in bringing Climate Change to global attention.
The vision behind the center is to create an open source for learning and collaboration so that we adapt at the shortest possible time and mitigate impact to the greatest extent possible. The center is funding research, studies, fora and conferences such as this that encourage a lively exchange of ideas among the country’s best minds and the world’s recognized experts to help all of us better understand and prepare for this new world of extreme weather and other calamities such as earthquakes and even volcanic eruptions that result from our being in the Pacific Ring of Fire. We want the OML Center to be a catalyst that will enable and encourage collaboration among a diverse range of specialists such that it serves as a platform for collaboration and an open source for sharing better practices and learning.
The center was off to a modest but solid start and last year we released our first round of research grants to a diverse set of projects that ranged from impact and risk analysis on food and environment security in Tarlac; to an integrated analysis on risks to climate change and disasters in Iloilo, Davao City and Davao Oriental; to even one on a design for car flotation systems. But the idea for today’s forum came as EDC President Ricky Tantoco and I were driving around Kananga, Ormoc and Tacloban after Yolanda where we were struck by the amount of rebuilding that has to happen just to bring people’s lives back to where they were before. We also just met with a team from DesafioLevantemos Chile who lived amongst the Leytenos for ten days courtesy of Ambassador Roberto Mayorga. Desafio Chile is their third largest foundation and one of those responsible for getting Chileans to “bring down their fears, rebuild and dream again” after the devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010.
“The one message their team kept repeating to us during their stay was ‘please seize this as an opportunity to rebuild better than before.’ It will all be worth it.”
We all know that we must rebuild lives and bring back normalcy as quickly as possible and we will all be tempted to go for speed and just restore what was there pre-Yolanda. But for Ricky and I and many of you committing time and resources to the reconstruction effort, the question in our minds is how do we rebuild “better than before?”
So I’m glad, with all your support, we have been able to pull together such a forum today in the early stages just as the long and arduous road to reconstruction is about to begin. I am hopeful that with the talent gathered here today collaborating; we will make choices that will result in a more resilient Filipino people.
Let me just say that on behalf of my father and all of us at the OML Center, we’re quite touched by the overwhelming response we received from all of you especially those who flew over with such short notice to listen, participate and share your ideas, expertise and experiences with everyone today. It’s precisely this kind of selflessness and collaboration we will all need to tackle some of the biggest challenges yet to come. Thank you very much and I wish us all the best today.
“I am hopeful that with the talent gathered here today collaborating; we will make choices that will result in a more resilient Filipino people.”
Welcome and Acknowledgements.
Many of you may ask why a power company like First Gen ended up creating a foundation like the Oscar M.Lopez Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management. Allow me a few minutes to share with you how it all began.Around twenty years ago my father, Oscar Lopez, and I began building up First Gen Corporation, the power generating holding company of the Lopez Group. We initiated the use of combined cycle gas turbines in the country when we built our 1,500 Megawatt Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo power plants that were a cornerstone of the Philippine Natural Gas Project. Taken together, the latter was probably the largest single industrial undertaking in the country so far. Because of that effort, our country now enjoys natural gas -- both a cleaner and lower carbon alternative in the Philippine energy mix.
After that, we acquired the country’s largest and the world’s second largest integrated geothermal energy producer, the Energy Development Corporation (or EDC) and a few of the National Power Corporation’s hydro power plants as well. Today, we are proudly the power producer with the lowest carbon intensity measured in tons of carbon per kilowatt-hour. We continue to build on this platform by expanding our plants that use geothermal, hydropower and more natural gas. In fact, just last week, we broke ground on another 414 Megawatt natural gas fired power plant within our First Gen
complex in Batangas. This is just the first in a series of badly needed capacity additions that will also eventually spearhead the entry of imported Liquefied Natural Gas or LNG into the country and give the Philippines an environmentally better alternative.
Pursuing this business model made a lot of sense for us and enables us to sleep better at nights. However, on some quiet nights you sometimes feel like you’ve gone too far ahead of the curve when you see competitors building coal-fired plants all over the country because it’s the least difficult option to pursue. Of course, you even hear voices justifying that the Philippine emissions are so small that we’re merely just a rounding error in the concern for curbing carbon emissions globally. I also remember the frustration I felt reading about the results of climate talks in Durban, South Africa back in December 2011 where the Washington Post described it ridiculously as “an agreement to begin a new round of talks on a new agreement in the years ahead.” and that “The Durban Platform…merely prods countries to come up with a new agreement that will go into effect no later than 2020.” Many described this ensuing period as a lost decade where inaction would hurtle us irreversibly towards a dangerous world that’s 3.5 degrees warmer instead of one that’s kept within a 2 degree change before the end of the century.
However, year after year we were already witnessing extreme weather events striking at the heart of our country and hitting millions of unsuspecting Filipinos with regularity. The litany of infamous storms in the last eight years are now too long to remember: Milenyo,Reming, Helen, Frank, Ondoy, Dante, Bebeng, Sendong, Pablo, even the nameless one we called Habagat, of course Yolanda, and most recently Agaton.
Much of our yearly experiences confirm the various reports from international agencies that the Philippines is among the top 10 most vulnerable countries in the world to the effects of climate change.
“Events were telling us that our country’s ability to adapt to the new normal should be a top priority for all Filipinos.”
One of our companies, geothermal producer EDC --which has an organizational footprint all over the country in the mountains of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao -- has already been feeling the more pronounced impact of extreme weather over the last few years from a combination of unusually high rainfall and geohazards. Landslide and weather related losses to our facilities and infrastructure were becoming more common such that between 1990 and 2013 we suffered close to Php 4.5 Billion in damages, including one incident that claimed the lives of fourteen construction workers. What’s alarming is that 86% of that figure was incurred only in the last eight years! Of course the costs to repair the damage and lost revenues of our Leyte geothermal power plants from Yolanda are still not final but will surely run into billions of Pesos as well.
But with every crisis comes an opportunity to learn and emerge stronger. Being a victim ourselves at the center of this and other storms means we can also be instrumental in finding solutions. In response to all the landslides of the past, we systematically mapped all possible geohazard areas in
our sites that could affect our people, assets and surrounding communities. Since 2006, we reinforced more than a hundred landslide prone areas with more than Php855 Million of mitigating measures like riprapping, shot-creteing, soil nailing, benching/terracing of slopes, installation of gabion walls and various drainage control measures; and where it was not possible to do these; we rerouted steam pipelines and other critical facilities out of harm’s way. Yet, despite these significant investments, the extreme weather continues to wreak havoc and cause damage.
With Yolanda last December, EDC had more than 700 employees who were themselves victims of the storm. But barely a few days after, when we found and accounted for the safety of every one of them and their families, they rapidly transformed into the backbone of our relief efforts not only in Kananga and Ormoc but all other devastated areas of the island as well. Our heavy equipment all fuelled up and ready before the storm, quickly cleared more than 15 kilometers of impassable roads between Kananga and Ormoc City. Within the first week, when it was apparent that transport logistics were the real bottleneck of relief efforts, we hired barges and aircraft to bring in a significant amount of food, gensets and diesel fuel to power up the Ormoc water district plus its two hospitals and City Hall.
We also airlifted about eight tons of medicines and solar chargers/lamps and shipped tarpaulins, mosquito nets and vital relief goods, initially into Ormoc, but later via the Philphos port in Isabel, Leyte. This port later proved quite vital to our relief efforts but to get it working we had to transport several of our 60-160 ton capacity cranes there as well. Our barges, trucks and aircraft mobilized more than 1,107 tons of relief goods that were either bought by us or secured through a working partnership with sister company ABS-CBN’s Sagip Kapamilya. We also transported more than 1,751 tons of DSWD relief goods from their National Relief Operations Center and Manila Port warehouse to the Isabel port in Leyte. We arranged for the goods to be repacked and assisted in its distribution to those most in need.
All told, we conservatively estimate that those efforts mobilized an estimated 10.7 million meals for over a million affected lives in the last two months since Yolanda hit. When I thanked our EDC employees at a solidarity mass we held in Leyte before Christmas last month, I reminded them that we will never forget that despite being Yolanda victims themselves, they managed to find creative ways to provide not only food but also hope to more than a million of our fellowFilipinos in Leyte just when they needed it most.
“These experiences tell me that although being at the very heart of a storm is dangerous, it also provides an immense opportunity to learn and help others build their own resilience as we share that learning.”
There is general agreement that the Philippines should learn to adapt fast to the new normal. But what is the new normal? Can anyone say with certainty what to prepare for? Higher sea levels? How high? More rain? How much? Stronger winds? Droughts? Diseases? Threats to food or water supply? Some of these or all of these? How can anyone prepare and prioritize where to spend the limited resources we have given this amount of uncertainty? Are there best practices that are alreadyin use elsewhere in the world?
What is certain is that millions of Filipinos will continue to suffer the brunt of devastation from climate change.To us, what is equally certain is that we stand a better chance of adapting if we can bring together both science and real world experience to bear on the new normal as it comes to clearer view.
And so, almost two years ago in August 2012 after separate discussions with friends like Climate Change Commission’s Secretary Lucille Sering, Fr. Jett Villarin of Ateneo, Toni Loyzaga of the Manila Observatory, MaharLagmay, Benny Pacheco and Fred Pascual of UP and Brother Ricky Laguda of De La Salle we signed an MOU with the three charter partners (UP, La Salle, Ateneo) and launched the OML Center for Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management Foundation.
Our energy companies under First Gen and EDC committed Php150 Million in seed funding and we subsequently engaged Dr. Rodel Lasco to head the center as its Scientific Director. For those of you that don’t know him, Dr. Rodel is one of the sixty eminent scientists that make up the prestigious National Academy of Science and Technology or NAST. He also happens to be on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who along with other scientists around the world shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007 for their work in bringing Climate Change to global attention.
The vision behind the center is to create an open source for learning and collaboration so that we adapt at the shortest possible time and mitigate impact to the greatest extent possible. The center is funding research, studies, fora and conferences such as this that encourage a lively exchange of ideas among the country’s best minds and the world’s recognized experts to help all of us better understand and prepare for this new world of extreme weather and other calamities such as earthquakes and even volcanic eruptions that result from our being in the Pacific Ring of Fire. We want the OML Center to be a catalyst that will enable and encourage collaboration among a diverse range of specialists such that it serves as a platform for collaboration and an open source for sharing better practices and learning.
The center was off to a modest but solid start and last year we released our first round of research grants to a diverse set of projects that ranged from impact and risk analysis on food and environment security in Tarlac; to an integrated analysis on risks to climate change and disasters in Iloilo, Davao City and Davao Oriental; to even one on a design for car flotation systems. But the idea for today’s forum came as EDC President Ricky Tantoco and I were driving around Kananga, Ormoc and Tacloban after Yolanda where we were struck by the amount of rebuilding that has to happen just to bring people’s lives back to where they were before. We also just met with a team from DesafioLevantemos Chile who lived amongst the Leytenos for ten days courtesy of Ambassador Roberto Mayorga. Desafio Chile is their third largest foundation and one of those responsible for getting Chileans to “bring down their fears, rebuild and dream again” after the devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010.
“The one message their team kept repeating to us during their stay was ‘please seize this as an opportunity to rebuild better than before.’ It will all be worth it.”
We all know that we must rebuild lives and bring back normalcy as quickly as possible and we will all be tempted to go for speed and just restore what was there pre-Yolanda. But for Ricky and I and many of you committing time and resources to the reconstruction effort, the question in our minds is how do we rebuild “better than before?”
So I’m glad, with all your support, we have been able to pull together such a forum today in the early stages just as the long and arduous road to reconstruction is about to begin. I am hopeful that with the talent gathered here today collaborating; we will make choices that will result in a more resilient Filipino people.
Let me just say that on behalf of my father and all of us at the OML Center, we’re quite touched by the overwhelming response we received from all of you especially those who flew over with such short notice to listen, participate and share your ideas, expertise and experiences with everyone today. It’s precisely this kind of selflessness and collaboration we will all need to tackle some of the biggest challenges yet to come. Thank you very much and I wish us all the best today.
Forming the UAP Emergency Architects
Rationale and Objectives:
The Philippines is one of the ten most afflicted countries in the world in terms of lives and property lost as a resutlt of damage due to natural calamities such as earthquakes and typhoons that visit the islands annually. The destruction caused by these natural phenomena in terms of loss of lives, structures and livelihood reinforces the suffering of the poor who are the most affected. In times of disaster, not only food supply is the main problem, the provision of temporary shelters is also of great concern before facing the heavier economic burden of rebuilding their homes and livelihood in the future.
While most post-disaster management strategies are concentrated on relief work, so much has to be undertaken with regards to the shelter component of disaster victims. The viscious cycle of disaster-destruction-reconstruction has to be considered towards a more wholistic disaster mitigation and management strategy which would involve building resilience in communities so they have the capacity to cope and recover if a disaster strikes.
In view of very recent devastating Typhoon Yolanda that hit the Philippines which affected large urban areas in the Visayas, the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) has initiated the establishment of the UAP Emergency Architects Group that will respond to the challenge of assisting communities towards rebuilding in a sustainable manner following natural or man-made disasters. UAP believes that architects, in collaboration with other built environment professionals, can provide the necessary help to communities in mitigating against disaster through proper planning and design, and sensitively managing the process of rebuilding.
The Immediate Task:
Because of the current situation in the areas hardest hit by Typhoon Yolanda, the UAP Emergency Architects Group has identified initially the provision of temporary shelters for those whose homes were demolished by the wrath of the typhoon considered as the strongest typhoon in the world. The UAP-EA Group is doing preliminary assessments on possible locations in Tacloban City to house the temporary shelters. The provision of temporary emergency shelters in an identified area will also include mobile showers/laundry (Kapamilya Shower, a project of UAP in partnership with ABS-CBN), a mobile kitchen and a mobile clinic to respond to the needs of the population in the shelter camp.
At the start, temporary tent-like structures are to be provided to displaced families while the UAP-EA Group prepares more sustainable temporary structures that would provide better living conditions for beneficiaries. Studies are currently being undertaken towards more viable and secure temporary shelter provisions (like container vans and bus-homes) which can be easily delivered to disaster-stricken areas and for probable re-use.
This immediate task of the UAP-EA Group will cover only the first stage of a more comprehensive action to rebuilding. Consequently, the group shall follow the complete action agenda of the international emergency architects group that will include temporary shelter, long-term reconstruction and capacity building as well. Actions of the group will be anchored on the principle that rebuilding is to be done in a manner that is environmentally and socially sustainable.
Resilient Schoolbuilding Design 2
In times of calamity, schools are converted into emergency evacuation centers. S3H(Sustainable+Strong+Schoo+Home) focuses on how versatile a school can be. The combination of sustainability through the various use of indigenous materials, and other green design features with durability, makes it different and more efficient than generic school buildings.
Bamboo is used as the main component for the classroom design, its durability and availability allows a faster and cheaper method of construction. A-frame trusses that support the roof also acts as
columns connected directly to the ground.This design makes it more resilient against high speed wind disturbances. Storm shutter louvers, measured to an appropriate size envelope the building fenestrations. This allows a passive wind direction and lessens wind drag as wind exits immediately as it penetrates the building, it can be used also to protect windows from breaking during storm.
Resilient Schoolbuilding Design 1
This design for a two-classroom building which can be converted into a temprary shelter to serve as an evacuation center during typhoons and other disasters was submitted to UAP-EA by Ar. Adonis C. Canonicato.
UAP Emergency Architects – Architects for Safer Communities
The Philippines is one of the ten most afflicted countries in the world in terms of lives and property lost as a resutlt of damage due to natural calamities such as earthquakes and typhoons that visit the islands annually. The destruction caused by these natural phenomena in terms of loss of lives, structures and livelihood reinforces the suffering of the poor who are the most affected. In times of disaster, not only food supply is the main problem, the provision of temporary shelters is also of great concern before facing the heavier economic burden of rebuilding their homes and livelihood in the future.
While most post-disaster management strategies are concentrated on relief work, so much has to be undertaken with regards to the shelter component of disaster victims. The viscious cycle of disaster-destruction-reconstruction has to be considered towards a more wholistic disaster mitigation and management strategy which would involve building resilience in communities so they have the capacity to cope and recover if a disaster strikes.
In view of the very recent devastating Typhoon Yolanda that hit the Philippines which affected large urban areas in the Visayas, the United Architects of the Philippines (UAP) has initiated the establishment of the UAP Emergency Architects that will respond to the challenge of assisting communities towards rebuilding in a sustainable manner following natural or man-made disasters. UAP believes that architects, in collaboration with other built environment professionals, can provide the necessary help to communities in mitigating against disaster through proper planning and design, and sensitively managing the process of rebuilding.
The objectives of the group shall be to make available to devastated communities the necessary technical expertise to help reduce avoidable risks from disasters; to provide appropriate and sustainable assistance to the populations affected by disasters and calamities; to develop the capability of architects in helping communities affected by disasters; and to preserve and promote architectural, historical and cultural heritage.
The group shall undertake assistance in three stages: the immediate disaster phase or temporary shelter stage; the reconstruction phase; and the capacity-building. The immediate disaster stage will include conduct of field assessments to determine nature and extent of damage to buildings, infrastructure and communities and formulate appropriate strategies for repair, retrofit, rebuild , reconstruction or relocation. Since the process of rebuilding will be a multi-sectoral effort, the group will continually develop partnerships with other allied professions in assessing damage and future consequences, and propose immediate actions to prevent further damage both in the immediate disaster phase and the post disaster reconstruction phase.
The UAP-EA will be another humanitarian group in providing assistance to communities and to prevent duplication of help, the group shall collaborate with communities, government agencies and aid organisations in the immediate distribution and construction of shelter relief such as tents and ensure correct layout according to site conditions. Other tasks will include the identification of vernacular materials and building techniques to determine possible measures the local population can take to secure and repair their own buildings and undertake measures to make use of salvage disaster debris into recyclable materials for immediate and long term shelter reconstruction.
Architects being the prime professional in the design of buildings/structures, the UAP-EA shall likewise take the lead in developing guidelines for provision of temporary shelter needs vis-a-vis feasible long term reconstruction programs. The group hopes to build an encyclopaedia of designs for applicable temporary shelters which will be made available to aid organizations willing to provide them, including development of design prototypes for mobile community facilities such as, mobile clinics, mobile day-care centers, mobile playground, mobile kitchens, mobile showers, toilets, mobile schools and mobile multi-purpose centers.
The second stage of assistance or the reconstruction phase shall include the formulation of design guidelines for disaster-resilient structures. The design guidelines will serve as reference in developing appropriate designs for permanent housing, community facilities and permanent evacuation centers provided with alternative sources of power and water supply and a continuous means for communications. The group shall also propagate the use of alternative sustainable materials for construction which are earthquake, typhoon and flood-resilient and shall collaborate with other allied professions in the planning, design and rebuilding of communities in a manner that is environmentally and socially sustainable.
The third phase will focus on capacity-building for architects and the communities. It shall include the delivery of lectures, workshops and trainings on disaster risk reduction and mitigation measures applicable to building design to limit the adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters. Architects will be trained on necessary skills to help populations affected by disasters and calamities. It may also cover the training of architects on alternative construction materials like earthbags and strawbale.
The UAP Emergency Architects shall also assist communities in building resilience so they have the capacity to cope and recover if a disaster strikes. It will include community skills training to increase adaptation for potential climate change impacts and improve the sustainability and health of the community. The building of development capacity in communities who need construction assistance shall incorporate the principles of risk minimization. It may also include skills training to communities on alternative construction materials.
Building back better is our only recourse to make our communities safer and the task is indeed very heavy. The UAP Emergency Architects group is still at its infancy stage and learning from other humanitarian groups in providing the necessary assistance. Hopefully, in the future the group shall be able to follow the complete agenda for a comprehensive action plan to rebuilding and its actions will be anchored on the principle that rebuilding is to be done in a manner that is environmentally and socially sustainable.
As a response to the Yolanda disaster, the UAP Emergency Architects formulated an assessment tool and has undertaken field assessments in Northern Iloilo and Capiz. The field survey was made to determine initial help that could be provided to communities. The assessment of damages structures also helped in formulating initial design guidelines for proposed permanent shelters and facilities. The guidelines will be finalized after validation are done thru further secondary researches. These design guidelines will be published in partnership with the Samahang Kartonistas ng Pilipinas and will be available in local dialects.
As a result of collaboration with other local and international humanitarian groups and from the needs survey, the UAP Emergency Architects embarked on an initial assistance in the form of distribution of community construction tool kits with funds coming from donations given by different UAP chapters and Arcasia member associations. The local chapters in Northern Iloilo and in Capiz, under District C-4, coordinated with local government units in the distribution of the said kits. Similar distribution of tool kits shall be done in other areas as well in accordance with the timeframe formulated by the UN Office of the Commission for Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) of which the UAP-EA has become a member belonging to the shelter cluster and in the education cluster.
The UAP Emergency Architects partnered with the UAP Media and Public Relations Committee in holding a series of seminars, the first one entitled “Rising from the Ruins: The Role of Architects in Rebuilding" held on Nov. 30, 2013 and the second is the "Design Forum: Solutions for Safer Communities" held on Dec. 7, 2013. This seminar series is part of the capacity building intended for architects. There will be succeeding seminars to be conducted in the future, with a possible collaboration with the Architects for Humanity group of the AIA.
A call was also made for architects to submit designs for temporary shelter as well as designs for permanent shelter, an evacuation center and a school. Several architects have responded by submitting designs in the prescribed format. These designs will be exhibited during the UAP Foundation day celebrations on March 26, 2014. The group is still accepting submissions as it intends to build a compilation of ready-designs for reference by interested NGOs and humanitarian groups. The UAP-EA together with UAP Manila-Atelier Chapter has likewise undertaken a design charette to come up with a multi-functional center to be constructed in Carles, Iloilo to be funded by a group of Forbes Park residents. The design is being finalized at the moment. Negotiations are also underway for a collaboration with a multi-national company for the design of a community evacuation center cum school wherein one hundred of this will be constructed in Visayas.
The group is also finalizing the design for a school/evacuation center to be built in Leyte. It will be a whole undertaking of the UAP-EA. The group will spearhead a donation drive for the construction of said facilities to augment the remaining funds from the initial donations. We encourage more UAP chapters to participate in the fund drive to come up with more than one structure. If this program will be successful, the UAP-EA will eye the development of a model community for disaster-resiliency with a possible collaboration with the National Housing Authority for the provision of a site for the project.
With so much workload to accomplish, the UAP Emergency Architects will need more volunteers. A volunteer application form is available for those who will commit time and effort to the attainment of the groups objectives. The form is available at the UAP Emergency Architects facebook fanpage or you can also email uap_emergencyarchitects@yahoo.com for more details.
UAP EA logo
The above logo was submitted by a volunteer who I forgot to note as the source of the logo.
This is the current letterhead logo being used by the group in its activities.