Philippines Plans for Disasters

10/31/2013

Earthquake damages the Philippines.

Hello. It is nice to be with you again. I’m Jim Tedder in Washington. Today we travel to the Philippines to hear how officials are using technology to plan for natural disasters. In the second part of the show, we turn our attention to health news, and the fight against the disease malaria. Listen carefully, and use what you hear to learn or improve your English. As It Is … is coming your way.

The Philippines often suffers more natural disasters than other countries. Philippine disaster risk planners have begun using a new tool to make maps of at risk areas in Manila. This technology will help identify weak structures, measure population density and predict financial losses should disaster strike.

The Philippines lies on tectonic plates at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The movement of tectonic plates can cause earthquakes and volcanic activity. Other natural disasters have resulted from tropical storms and heavy rain.

Over the years, different maps have shown active fault lines and places where flooding could happen. Recently, the national government in the Philippines gave maps to officials in Metropolitan Manila. The maps show the effects of earthquakes, wind damage from storms and flooding from heavy rain.

The scenarios – or possible situations -- were made with LiDAR, a sensing technology that lights up buildings and other objects with lasers.