In its bid to better coordinate relief efforts of the government, international and local humanitarian agencies in times of disasters, the Department of Social Welfare and Development-Information Communications Technology Management Service (DSWD-ICTMS) developed an Online Geographic Information System or WebGIS, a map which visualizes reports on disaster-affected population and the location of evacuation centers.

“This map may be used to guide relief efforts and visualize the locations of evacuation centers set-up during disasters,” explains DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman.

The site manned by DSWD-ICTMS’s Disaster Augmentation Response Teams (DARTs) visualizes the reports generated by the DSWD-Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Office (DROMIC) showing the population and location of provinces/municipalities/cities and how many are affected by the disaster.

In addition, the map also shows the number of current occupants of evacuation centers and how many can be accommodated.

The map will be activated everytime there is a disaster and will be on-line until there are existing evacuation centers.

Currently online on the DSWD website is the GIS on existing evacuation centers providing temporary shelter to families affected by Habagat that occurred on August 17.

WebGIS can be accessed through http://mangomap.com/maps/11930 or the DROMIC Map Portal @ http://disaster.dswd.gov.ph/maps.php. ###