Engr. Jojene R. Santillan and Engr. Meriam Makinano-Santillan participated in the PhilGEOS x GeoAdvances 2019 held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Manila, Philippines on November 14-15, 2019. This symposium/conference consist of two (2) co-located major events, namely the Philippine Geomatics Symposium (PhilGEOS) 2019 and the 2019 edition of the International Workshop on Geoinformation Science (GeoAdvances).
PhilGEOS is one of the Philippines’ premier gatherings of geomatics technology developers, researchers, professionals, users, and students. On other hand, GeoAdvances is an annual international workshop about latest developments of new methodologies, algorithms, and applications of geographic information. The symposium/conference was formally opened in the morning of November 14, right after the conduct of the Nationwide Earthquake Drill which happened to be scheduled on the same date. Keynote speeches were given by Hon. Secretarary Fortunato T. dela Peña of the Department of Science and Technology, and by the representative of DENR Undersecretary and National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) Administrator Peter N. Tiangco.
The Day 1 morning plenary session featured talks by Dr. Enrico C. Paringit and Dr. Joel Joseph Marciano. Dr. Paringit, who is the Executive Director of the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) gave a talk on “Innovation Works for the People: Geomatics for Governance” wherein he highlighted the support of DOST and PCIEERD for research and innovation programs and projects that utilized/applied Geomatics technology. Among the programs presented by Dr. Paringit was the Geo-SAFER Mindanao Program, and DOST PCIEERD-funded R&D Program on detailed flood hazard mapping and assessment using LiDAR that was implemented by Caraga State University through the Caraga Center for Geo-Informatics (CCGeo) in collaboration with Ateneo de Zamboanga University, Central Mindanao University, MSU-IIT and UP Mindanao.
Dr. Marciano, Acting Director of the DOST Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) talked about “Value Creation from Data and Computing through Small Satellites”. He highlighted the programs and projects of DOST ASTI such as the development and launching into space of the Diwata-1 and Diwata-2 microsatellites, including the innovations and outputs of the DOST-funded Stamina4Space Program which he led. He also discussed how DOST ASTI has put-up ground receiving stations which enables the country to receive a multitude of satellite imageries from various remote sensing satellite systems for various applications such as resource mapping and management, disaster management, and national security, among others.
The ‘Geomatics Industry Session’ followed the morning plenary session. Engr. Ray Neil Lorca of SITECH PHL presented “Trimble eCognition and UAS Master”, which are two popular software for processing of airborne and satellite imageries to extract geospatial information.
The afternoon plenary session featured talks from international researchers. Prof. Dr. Alias Abdul Rahman of University Teknologi Malaysia discussed “3D Database for 3D city Model”. Dr. Wataru Ohira of the Center for Spatial Information Science, University of Tokyo, Japan talked about “Geographic Transmission Monitoring for Vector-borne Disease Control Using ICT, GIS and Remote Sensing”.
After the Day 1 plenary sessions, oral and poster presentations followed. There were six (6) oral parallel technical sessions held, with presentations covering various topics that included Environmental Remote Sensing, Disaster Risk Reduction Application, Renewal Energy Applications, UAVs, AI and Machine Learning Techniques, Geomatics Applications to Environment, and Special Session of Project GUHeat.
Day 2 of PhilGEOSxGeoAdvances 2019 also featured two additional plenary sessions. The first plenary session for this day was all about “Remote Sensing for Resource and Heritage Management”. In this session, Dr. Michael Armand P. Canilao, Associate Professor, UP Diliman, talked about “Geomatics Technology in Archaelogy” wherein he highlighted the role of Remote Sensing for detecting archaeological features for heritage management applications. He was followed by Dr. Maricor N. Soriano, Professor, UP Diliman, who presented the “Automated Rapid Reef Assessment System” or ARRAS.
The 2nd plenary session of Day 2 (and the last plenary session) was all about “User Driven Geomatics and Smart Cities”. In this session, Dr. Sytze De Bruin of Wageningen University, The Netherlands, talked about “Matching Technological Advances to User Needs”. It was followed by Prof. Dr. Ismail Rakip Karas of Karabuk University, Turkey who presented a “User-Centric Geo-Spatial Evacuation System for Smart Cities”. Finally, Prof. Dr. Hassan Rhinane of University of Hassan II of Morocco, gave a talk on “Thiniking and Shaping a Smart City in Developing Country – Case Study: Casablanca, Morocco”.
The Day 2 afternoon was all devoted to oral parallel technical sessions where researchers presented papers covering topics on Urban Application, GIS Modelling and Simulations, GeoStatistics, Radar Remote Sensing, Hydrographic Applications, and Other Geomatic Applications.
Engr. Jojene R. Santillan was one of the presenters in the “Hydrographic Applications” technical session. He presented one of the research papers of the Geo-SAFER Agusan Project, entitled “Accuracy Assessment of Flood Maps Generated Using INSAR DTM: A A Comparative Analysis with LIDAR DTM Through 2D Flood Modeling”.
The symposium/conference was officially closed by a closing and awarding ceremony.
PhilGEOS x GeoAdvances 2019 attracted more than 200 participants coming from the Philippines and abroad. It was co-organized by the University of the Philippines Department of Geodetic Engineering (UPDGE), University of the Philippines Training Center for Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry (UPTCAGP), and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Working Group II (ISPRS WG II).
The participation of Engr. Jojene Santillan and Engr. Meriam Makinano-Santillan gained them new knowledge and learned state-of-the-art methodologies, particularly on Remote Sensing and GIS, which they can utilize for the implementation of the NICER ITPS Center – Project 1 (Development of a Geodatabase of Industrial Tree Plantations in Caraga Region using Remote Sensing and GIS).
Both faculty-researchers acknowledge the ITPS Research and Innovation Center NICER Program – Project 1 and DOST for the financial support which enabled them to participate in PhilGEOS x GeoAdvances 2019.