DOST-PHIVOLCS in partnership with local government units of Pangasinan conducted the REDAS Module 1-3 Training last March 10-14, 2025 at Puerto de San Juan Beach Resort Hotel, San Juan La Union. The training titled “Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction into the Local Development, Contingency and Emergency Preparedness Planning Process through the Use of REDAS Software for the Province of Pangasinan” was headed by PHIVOLCS Director Dr. Teresito C. Bacolcol, Associate Scientist and REDAS Program Coordinator Dr. Maria Leonila P. Bautista, and REDAS Course Advisers Dr. Bartolome C. Bautista, Ishmael C. Narag, Engr. Angelito G. Lanuza, and Dr. Winchelle Ian G. Sevilla. Speakers and facilitators from PHIVOLCS and guest speakers from PAGASA and MGB delivered lectures and hands-on exercises.
The training opened with the welcome remarks of OCD Region I Director Laurence E. Mina. The participants installed various REDAS tools including REDAS 4.2c, REDAS EDM 3.5, SRM 1.2b, MapDig 1, CropDat 1.5 and FLoAT 1.6. A total of 96 REDAS and SRM license keys were issued to the participants who represented LGUs in Pangasinan: Alaminos City, Bautista, Bayambang, Bolinao, Dagupan City, Dasol, Infanta, Labrador, Malasiqui, Santa Barbara, Urdaneta City, Villasis. Guest participants included representatives from the Office of Civil Defense – Region I and Mariano Marcos State University.
Day 2 of the training was dedicated to the development of exposure database using REDAS EDM 3.5. Participants were guided in answering the building attributes and surveyed a total of 63 buildings in Bolinao using Google Street View (GSV). Additionally, they developed an exposure database for crops during REDAS MapDig hands on exercise where they digitized and surveyed a total of 371 rice and corn land parcels in barangays of the municipalities of Bautista, Bayambang, and Villasis using the same imagery. On the third day, Director Teresito C. Bacolcol delivered his Inspirational Remarks via Zoom.
On the same day, other REDAS features such as Multi-Hazard Data Plotting, Earthquake Catalogue, Focal Mechanism Solutions, and Seismic Hazard Assessment (SHA) were taught. Photo 2 shows seismic hazard assessment of the 1892 March 16 (M6.6) Earthquake generated using REDAS by one of the Pangasinan batch participants.
The fourth day focused on hydrometeorological and flood hazards. Guest speakers from PAGASA lectured on Understanding Weather Hazards and REDAS SRM Data Acquisition. The MGB facilitator delivered a lecture on Flood and Rain-Induced Landslide Hazards. Participants utilized REDAS FLoAT, CropDAT and TsuSIM to compute flood and tsunami impacts in their province using the exposure data collected on Day 2.
The final day of training focused on consolidating all the week’s learnings. A teaser lecture on some of the Big One earthquake scenarios and the possible impacts to all municipalities of Pangasinan was also presented in order to provide initial impact results which can be used in crafting their various plans at the local level. Way forward discussions followed, during which LGUs committed to continuing the development of exposure databases and encouraging other municipalities to undergo future REDAS trainings. A total of 48 participants graduated from the training course.
