Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, June 2022 – More than a hundred officials and staff of the provincial government of Oriental Mindoro, its fourteen municipalities and capital city of Calapan attended training sessions from May 30 to June 1 to familiarize with the Climate Vulnerability and Risk Information System or CVRIS, a digital tool that can help enhance climate resilience and improve agricultural value chains in the province.
This cutting-edge web application consolidates the climate, social, economic and agricultural data of Oriental Mindoro to assess the climate vulnerability and risk of the province. It can determine the potential hazards that could affect the province, such as flooding, drought, dry spells and tropical cyclones, and how often and where exactly they could happen.
Developed by the Global Green Growth Institute Philippines in partnership with experts in data analytics of the De La Salle University and the artificial intelligence company Senti, funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), CVRIS aims to utilize geospatial analysis and mapping of different data sets.
“What’s unique about CVRIS is that it focuses on the agriculture sector and the different crops. There’s a lot of focus on data specific to farms,” said Briane Samson, Senior Data Analyst of the CVRIS project.
The training session demonstrated the different features of the beta version of CVRIS and the various datasets collected. The goal of the project is to make CVRIS fully embedded in the local government planning system and for officials and staff of local government units to maintain this information system in the long term.
“The CVRIS will provide easy-to-understand interactive visual analysis to the province which will support developing evidence-based policy planning in relation to the climate change risk adaptation,” Jaepyo Chun, Project Manager of the CVRIS project said.
A big part of the problem of not having concrete and immediate policy solutions in the province is the lack of high quality data and data strategies. The CVRIS tool provides a new and efficient online platform that will collect and digitize local-level information relevant to climate change and agricultural value chains.
“We want to empower policymakers with a tool that will allow them to sustainably collect, validate and utilize data to enable the province to be climate resilient,” Mr. Juhern Kim, Country Representative of the Global Green Growth Institute Philippines emphasized.
Participants likewise expressed their support for the CVRIS project and considered the training as an opportunity to develop their skills.
“Bilang isang civil servant, mahalaga ang CVRIS training upang malinang ang aking kaalaman sa paggamit ng mga makabagong paraan ng pagtatala at pag-imbentaryo ng mga datos na may kinalaman sa climate change,” said Virgilio King of the Planning Department at the Municipality of Pinamalayan.
[As a civil servant, the CVRIS training is essential in cultivating my knowledge and skills in using new technologies and ways of collecting and organizing data related to climate change.]
With the CVRIS digital tool, which is slated to be launched in the third quarter of this year, local government officials will be able to implement better policies to enhance their province’s adaptation and resilience to climate change.