The National Resilience Council, Coastal Cities at Risk in the Philippines: Investing in Climate & Disaster Resilience project, Xavier University, and EpiMetrics Inc. culminated the Web-based Geospatial Risk Database (GRiD) System for COVID-19 three-month capacity-building training program on September 17, 2020. Present in the event were the partner-city local government units and respective academic partners, namely: Naga City (with academic partner Ateneo de Naga University), Muntinlupa City (with the Pamantasang Lungsod ng Muntinlupa), Iloilo City (with the University of the Philippines – Visayas), Cagayan de Oro City (with Xavier University), Zamboanga City (with Ateneo de Zamboanga University), and Ormoc City (with the Visayas State University).
The courses from the training included COVID-19 Epidemiology, and online/web-based GIS application, integrating these in an epidemiological GIS layer, adding up to a GRiD-based Decision Support System for COVID-19 response of LGUs.
“The first phase of the project involved a technical training program which allowed participating LGUs to develop their preliminary dashboards and proposed work plan for the full development of their own Web-GRiD for COVID-19 Pandemic Response and Recovery. The second phase consists of coaching and mentoring between LGUs of six localities [and] their respective academic partners.”
(Read more at: Xavier Ateneo joins the resource team for coaching and mentoring of LGUs on Web-GRiD for COVID-19)
In the program, Dr. Manuel Dayrit (Adjunct Professor and Former Dean of the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, and Secretary of Health from 2001-2005) shared his thoughts on the importance of this initiative: “The chain of decision-making really begins with good data, but good data begins with very good tools. [The] effort to produce a geospatial tool that can be used by local governments is excellent.”
The Web-based GRiD Training program was also featured in the Philippine News Agency (Read more: Private school develops Covid-19 tracker to help LGUs). For more information, visit the CCARPH website.
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