MANILA – The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) will use spaceborne data in order to see a bigger picture of the country's natural resources and help policymakers restore and manage these, its top official said Thursday.
By accessing satellites and ground facilities, PhilSA will obtain data and process them into maps. These will then be used to build and understand a bigger picture of the country's natural resources, environmental trends and characteristics to enable data-based and science-based policymaking and implementation, PhilSA Director General Joel Marciano Jr. told the Philippine News Agency.
He cited mangroves as an example of an environmental resource of interest. Mangroves are important in protecting coastal habitats from flooding, sea level rise and erosion.
PhilSA recently inked an agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and among their activities is to develop and analyze mangrove extent maps on a regular basis.
"Using remote sensing technologies and ground validation techniques, trends such as air quality patterns and environmental characteristics such as climate change vulnerabilities will be properly accounted for, better described, analyzed in order to inform decisions on climate change mitigation and adaptation programs and in disaster risk response and management efforts," said Marciano.
He added that the public will benefit from these since climate change adaptation and environmental protection ensure food security and save lives.
Agricultural produce and fisheries products are impacted by the quality of the natural environment and resources. Understanding environmental trends therefore, would help the policymakers come up with programs and projects to better manage environmental resources, Marciano continued.
Meanwhile, PhilSA's partnership with the DENR started last February 6, and they will initially collaborate for one year.
Their project, “Use of Satellite Imagery in the Creation of the National ENR Geospatial Database and other related Programs of the DENR” seeks to assess the effectiveness of current efforts, such as the National Greening Program, to help them determine the best practices and areas of improvement in restoring the environmental resources.
"The partnership between PhilSA and DENR brings to fore the socioeconomic benefits and value of the emergent space capabilities of the country by leveraging space data for the conservation, protection, management, and restoration of environment and natural resources, Marciano said. (PNA)
By accessing satellites and ground facilities, PhilSA will obtain data and process them into maps. These will then be used to build and understand a bigger picture of the country's natural resources, environmental trends and characteristics to enable data-based and science-based policymaking and implementation, PhilSA Director General Joel Marciano Jr. told the Philippine News Agency.
He cited mangroves as an example of an environmental resource of interest. Mangroves are important in protecting coastal habitats from flooding, sea level rise and erosion.
PhilSA recently inked an agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and among their activities is to develop and analyze mangrove extent maps on a regular basis.
"Using remote sensing technologies and ground validation techniques, trends such as air quality patterns and environmental characteristics such as climate change vulnerabilities will be properly accounted for, better described, analyzed in order to inform decisions on climate change mitigation and adaptation programs and in disaster risk response and management efforts," said Marciano.
He added that the public will benefit from these since climate change adaptation and environmental protection ensure food security and save lives.
Agricultural produce and fisheries products are impacted by the quality of the natural environment and resources. Understanding environmental trends therefore, would help the policymakers come up with programs and projects to better manage environmental resources, Marciano continued.
Meanwhile, PhilSA's partnership with the DENR started last February 6, and they will initially collaborate for one year.
Their project, “Use of Satellite Imagery in the Creation of the National ENR Geospatial Database and other related Programs of the DENR” seeks to assess the effectiveness of current efforts, such as the National Greening Program, to help them determine the best practices and areas of improvement in restoring the environmental resources.
"The partnership between PhilSA and DENR brings to fore the socioeconomic benefits and value of the emergent space capabilities of the country by leveraging space data for the conservation, protection, management, and restoration of environment and natural resources, Marciano said. (PNA)
