Project NOAH

Also known as: Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards · NOAH · UP NOAH Center · NOAH Center · DOST-NOAH (the 2012–2017 government phase)

The bolo-punch champion, the hazard-mapping program restored, the Padcal miner, and the boxing awards that merged with Pacquiao

Definition

Project NOAH — the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards — is the Philippines’ flagship disaster science program, launched by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Marikina on July 6, 2012 in response to President Benigno Aquino III’s call for a stronger disaster prevention system after Tropical Storm Sendong (December 2011). Conceived to give disaster-prevention agencies a six-hour lead-time warning on hazards, it built the automated rain and water-level sensor networks, LiDAR-based three-dimensional flood inundation maps, and hazard models that became the government’s working risk picture, with geologist Mahar Lagmay as executive director and a consortium that grew to twenty-one institutions. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))

In January 2017 the government announced NOAH would exit DOST when its scheduled term ended on February 28, 2017, effective March 1 — a completion officials described and critics received as defunding — and the University of the Philippines adopted the program on February 23, 2017, relaunching it that June 20 as the NOAH Center, flagship of the UP Resilience Institute, where it continues hazard mapping, flood forecasting, and climate risk research. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines), NOAH — UP official site)

Identities

Source	Identity	URL
Wikipedia	Project NOAH (Philippines)	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_NOAH_(Philippines)
Wikidata	Project NOAH (Q22080512) — “Disaster risk reduction agency of the University of the Philippines” (verified this session)	https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22080512
DBpedia	N/A — dbpedia.org endpoint timed out this session	N/A
ProductOntology	N/A	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	N/A	N/A
MeSH	N/A	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A	N/A
Google Scholar	Project NOAH Philippines disaster risk reduction flood forecasting hazard mapping UP Resilience Institute Lagmay	N/A
ConceptNet	N/A	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A	N/A

Also Known As

Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards
NOAH
UP NOAH Center
NOAH Center
DOST-NOAH (the 2012–2017 government phase)

Examples and Analogies

Mapping as forecasting’s prerequisite: NOAH’s doctrine treated the risk map as the first instrument, not the last — automated rain gauges and water-level sensors to observe, LiDAR terrain surveys to model, three-dimensional flood inundation maps to warn, all aimed at the six-hour lead-time target — the doctrine this wiki’s Flood forecasting entry carries and the UP successor maintains. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
A program with eight limbs: the DOST-era program ran as eight components — Hydromet sensor networks, DREAM LiDAR flood mapping, geohazard mapping through LiDAR, coastal hazards and storm surge modeling (CHASSAM), FloodNET forecasting, local Doppler radar development (LaDDeRS), landslide sensor development, and the weather information portal (WHIP). (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
A national program kept alive by a university: when government funding ended in 2017, the program survived by moving into the UP system — the state university absorbing what the budget cycle discards. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Verified program data:
Launch: July 6, 2012, Marikina, by President Benigno Aquino III, in response to Tropical Storm Sendong of December 2011 (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Lead: executive director Mahar Lagmay; developed with UP’s National Institute of Geological Sciences and College of Engineering, PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, ASTI, and STII, growing to 21 institutions (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
DOST exit: announced January 2017; term scheduled to end February 28, 2017, effective March 1, 2017 (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
UP adoption: February 23, 2017; relaunched June 20, 2017 as the NOAH Center under the UP Resilience Institute (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Last DOST-era component: ISAIAH (Integrated Scenario-based Assessment of Impacts and Hazards), municipal risk assessments mapped over OpenStreetMap — 16 provinces and 2.2 million structures in the database (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
2026 funding: over ₱1 billion — ₱935 million for research services and ₱65 million for general management and supervision — under the UP System’s 2026 appropriation, ordered released by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. through the Department of Budget and Management (Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding, PCO — Bigger Project NOAH funding)

Usage Scenarios

1. Flood Forecasting and Early Warning

The program’s core use: sensor-fed models producing flood forecasts and hazard maps meant to reach disaster agencies six hours ahead of inundation — the doctrine this wiki’s Flood forecasting entry documents. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))

2. Storm Surge and Landslide Hazard Mapping

NOAH’s CHASSAM component modeled coastal hazards and storm surge — the probabilistic surge inundation mapping this wiki’s Storm surge entry records for Metro Manila — while its LiDAR and landslide-sensor components mapped landslide-prone areas and tested low-cost early-warning instruments. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))

3. Municipal Risk Assessment

The ISAIAH component delivered municipal scenario-based risk assessments, a structure-level database across sixteen provinces for planning and evacuation. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))

4. Public Hazard Information

From the October 17, 2012 mobile application launched with Smart Communications to the present UP web portal, the program has packaged hazard data for households — the dissemination layer the disaster statutes mandate. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines), NOAH — UP official site)

5. Impact-Based Forecasting at National Scale

With the 2026 fund, the NOAH Center is scaling toward forecasts that, in Lagmay’s description, can predict one day in advance where flooding will occur and its impact on roads, homes, and buildings — feeding agencies from DPWH to the MMDA. (Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding)

Strategies

Instrument the country before the disaster: automated rain and water-level sensors across river basins and flood-prone areas came first, on the logic that no forecast outruns its observation network. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Map in three dimensions: DREAM’s LiDAR surveys produced the accurate 3D flood inundation and hazard maps that turned river models into street-level warnings. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Consortium-build across government and academia: twenty-one institutions from the UP colleges to PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, and ASTI shared the program, spreading capacity beyond any one agency. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Institutionalize in the university when the state steps back: UP’s 2017 adoption preserved the staff, data, and doctrine through the funding gap until the 2026 restoration. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Convert restoration into modernization: the 2026 release earmarks ₱935 million of the ₱1 billion for research services — forecasting, basin mapping, LiDAR drone surveys, analytics — rather than overhead. (Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding, PCO — Bigger Project NOAH funding)

Security and Safety Measures

Lead time as the safety product: the six-hour target for agency warning — and the 2026 program’s one-day-ahead impact forecasts — are the operative safety measures; everything else NOAH builds exists to widen the margin between forecast and flood. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines), Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding)
Redundant observation: rain gauges, water-level stations, Doppler radar development, and landslide sensors spread the sensing burden so that single instrument failures cannot blind the system. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Structure-level exposure data: the ISAIAH database of 2.2 million structures across sixteen provinces ties hazard maps to what stands in the water’s path. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))
Inter-agency deployment: the 2026 program pairs the center with DPWH, the MMDA, and local governments, including the Oplan Kontra Baha flood program — the chain that turns forecasts into action. (Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding)

Historical Context

Project NOAH was born of the December 2011 Sendong disaster, which killed over a thousand people in Mindanao and exposed the country’s warning deficit. President Aquino called for a stronger disaster prevention system, and on July 6, 2012 he launched the DOST program in Marikina — the city whose river would become its benchmark flood — under executive director Mahar Lagmay, with the six-hour mandate and an initial consortium of UP science units, PAGASA, PHIVOLCS, ASTI, and STII. Its eight components ranged from the Hydromet sensor networks to LiDAR flood mapping, storm surge modeling, Doppler radar development, and a public mobile application launched with Smart in October 2012. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))

The program ran through the era’s great storms, and then in January 2017 the government announced it would exit DOST when its term ended on February 28, 2017, effective March 1. The University of the Philippines adopted the program on February 23, 2017, and on June 20, 2017 relaunched it as the NOAH Center, flagship of the new UP Resilience Institute — the “UP successor” this wiki’s Flood forecasting entry carries. When Typhoon Ulysses (Vamco) drowned Marikina again on November 11–12, 2020, the online criticism that followed targeted the 2017 closure of Project NOAH, which the record notes was effected “citing the lack of funds,” alongside the NDRRMC budget cuts. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines), Wikipedia — Typhoon Vamco)

The restoration came nearly a decade later: in the 2026 national budget, more than ₱1 billion was appropriated to the UP System for NOAH — ₱935 million for research services and ₱65 million for management — and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered its release through the DBM for impact-based forecasting and emergency response, with Lagmay still at its head. (Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding, PCO — Bigger Project NOAH funding)

Challenges and Controversies

The 2017 Exit and the Defunding Charge

The government framed the 2017 exit as the scheduled end of NOAH’s DOST term; critics then and since have called it a defunding, and the Typhoon Ulysses record preserves the sharpest form of the charge — the closure of “a disaster prevention and mitigation tool” in 2017 “citing the lack of funds.” (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines), Wikipedia — Typhoon Vamco)

Ulysses and the Preparedness Reckoning

The November 2020 flooding of Marikina and the Cagayan Valley — the worst Metro Manila flooding since Ondoy — turned the 2017 closure into a public controversy, the online criticism aimed at the program lost while its own hazard maps had shown nearly all of Marikina at high risk. (Wikipedia — Typhoon Vamco)

Continuity Without a Statutory Home

Between 2017 and 2026 the program survived only as a university research center, dependent on the UP system’s budget rather than a standing national appropriation — the structural gap the 2026 release partially closes without a permanent statutory guarantee. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines), Philstar — Bigger NOAH funding)

Coordination with the Standing Agencies

PAGASA retains the official forecasting mandate, and in 2017 the government assured the public it would take over NOAH’s functions; the working division of labor between state weather service and university center remains the question every disaster re-opens. (Wikipedia — Project NOAH (Philippines))