A project on the development of a smart and sustainable disaster risk management for Eastern Visayas led by VSU Graduate School Dean Dr. Anabella B. Tulin won two highest awards in the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) held in Bangkok, Thailand.

VSU bested the other competitors by securing 1st place in the paper presentation and 2nd place for the poster presentation, respectively.

This international conference which ran from May 29 to June 2, 2023, is organized by the International Organization on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Management Incorporated in partnership with the Isabela State University in the Philippines.

The goal of this international conference is to achieve sustainable development by collaborating with different climate actions and disaster risk reduction plans in the ASEAN Region.

Through the internationalization project, VSU sent the team of Dr. Tulin with her project proponents composed of the VSU Vice President for Administration and Finance and Head of Disaster Risk Reduction Management Dr. Daniel Leslie S. Tan, Institute of Strategic Research and Development Studies (ISRDS) faculty member Gina Delima, and Science Research Assistant of the project Analyn C. Regina.

The other component leaders of the project who did not go along with them in Thailand are College of Forestry and Environmental Science (CFES) Dean Dr. Dennis P. Peque, Department of Food Science and Technology (DFST) faculty members Dr. Ivy C. Emnace and Dr. Eileen B. Bandalan, and Institute of Tropical Ecology and Environmental Management (ITEEM) Director Dr. Eliza D. Espinosa.

The winning project of the VSU team has five different components with the general aim of strengthening the disaster resiliency of the vulnerable communities in Baybay City.

The main focus of the winning research paper and poster was on developing nutritious food packs for the people to be distributed during a disaster, improving the delivery of goods and services during a disaster, and establishing a disaster database that includes the utilization of big data in the development of a disaster risk reduction model while also establishing site-specific livelihood opportunities in disaster vulnerable communities that are very needed for immediate recovery of the affected individuals.

While the research site is still being piloted in Baybay City, this research intends to upscale the project to the entire Eastern Visayas region with the pioneering site to provide initial data for effective implementation. 

It should be noted that the region is highly susceptible to natural hazards such as typhoons, floods, and landslides. Two Super Typhoons have visited this area with Yolanda (Haiyan) causing a major catastrophe in 2013 and just recently Odette (Rai) bringing in so much damage in Southern Leyte.

VSU has been doing many relief assistance during disasters including Super Typhoon Yolanda, Super Typhoon Odette, Tropical Storm Agaton, and the COVID-19 pandemic. It can also be recalled that during the onset of the pandemic lockdown, stranded students were given weekly food assistance coming from VSU’s agricultural produce.

VSU team with delegates from Isabela State University.

Now that VSU has its own Department of Meteorology, it can help in providing a localized weather database that is very vital in the implementation of holistic disaster risk reduction and management approaches that are more location specific and participatory in terms of practice.

VSU President Edgardo E. Tulin congratulated the research team for bringing another honor to the university.

“I’m very happy about this new international award that we got in Bangkok, Thailand. Truly, the research outputs that we do here at VSU are world class and we just need to present the amazing works that we do at many international conferences so that they too will understand the very strength of our institution, especially in terms of developing relevant research that will address basic problems in our society,” Dr. Tulin expressed.

Through the VSU Internationalization program, many research projects of VSU have been recently presented at some international conferences here in Asia and in Europe.

Part of this research project on livelihood opportunities for women in disaster-prone areas was presented at the Agrinatura Conference last May 11 of this year at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic.

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