The seriousness of the flooding situation has prompted various sectors of society to collaborate in developing effective flood prevention and risk mitigation strategies. In recent years, the Philippine government has tried numerous schemes to mitigate the adverse consequences of flooding. Such approaches are classified as structural or non-structural.
Structural measures are direct countermeasures against flooding while non-structural approaches are preventive and remedial in nature. Preventive approaches include flood plain management, watershed management, and public awareness programs. Remedial approaches are flood forecasting and warning systems, flood fighting and relief operation. Here, the basic tool is ‘information’ and ‘how’ it can be disseminated effectively and promptly to the affected residents and the disaster management teams. The information about flood-prone areas includes the depths and other information that are useful in predicting the seriousness of the flooding. It is solely based on the assumption that the provision of advanced information to the people will enable them to plan for the appropriate course of action before the crisis begins.
This study assessed the Flood Hazard Mapping Project undertaken at Quezon City consisting of 11 barangays contiguously located at the San Juan River Basin in terms of (1) identified flood-prone areas, (2) designated evacuation centers, and (3) dissemination of information.
The assessment of the identified flood-prone areas was done by determining the relevance of the designation of those areas as vulnerable to inundation. The impact of the project was assessed in terms of determining the significant impact of the project to the beneficiaries. Assessing the effectiveness of the project was done by determining whether the objectives of the project were achieved and the factors influencing the achievement and non-achievement.