JBA Consulting
The Philippines is among the most at-risk
countries in the world with respect to
natural disasters. The risk associated with
typhoon-induced coastal flooding was
devastatingly illustrated by Tropical
Cyclone Haiyan in 2013, which generated
a storm surge of over 6m, and killed more
than 6,000 people in Leyte and
neighboring provinces. Despite this high
level of risk posed by storm-surge, people
were unaware of the severity of the
potential impacts of Haiyan and thus were
not prepared to take appropriate actions.
Hence there is a need to design
appropriate flood risk management
measures to effectively protect people
against coastal flooding.
Challenge
Assessing extreme typhoon-induced coastal flood risk in the Philippines
Location: Philippines Client: Asian Development Bank Partner: Landell Mills
Solution
Working closely with Landell Mills and the Philippine
Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA), this project developed new
Good Practice methodologies for the derivation of
extreme sea-level estimates in the Philippines. The
methodology was used initially to produce extreme sea
level estimates for the mouth of Jalaur River and the
nearby coastal city of Iloilo, with the immediate goal of
informing on-going flood risk management schemes.
However, the method was also developed in such a
way that PAGASA and others can now use it to derive
extreme sea-level estimates for other parts of the
country.