The NEDA Regional Office in Western Visayas will soon use Geographic Information System (GIS) as an integral tool in the decision-making process of the agency and the Regional Development Council (RDC). Decision makers, particularly the members of the RDC 6 Council and other stakeholders, respond more to visual representation of data. Because of this, the need for maps as bases for planning, project identification and monitoring and evaluation has become more prominent. For a start, the office created regional maps which will be displayed in its lobby for easy access. Data from these maps were generated from the regional offices of DENR, DOH, PSA and MGB, among others.
The maps will also be made available in the NEDA 6 website (www.nro6.neda.gov.ph). These include:
- population density, growth rate
- transport assets (existing and proposed national roads, bridges with indications of seaports and airports);
- land classification
- land cover
- social infrastructure (government hospitals and state universities and colleges)
- geologic hazards
- hydrometeorological hazards
- minerals
The region hopes to increase the coverage of these maps and make them interactive. Towards this end, there are challenges to hurdle, one of which is the need for a GIS expert or unit that would integrate information from various sectors and divisions to make them more functional. The technical staff in NEDA 6 already trained on GIS must also be upskilled to expand the use of maps from just identifying locations to analyzing them. This involves location and proximity analysis, buffering, and clustering, among others, which are in the pipeline for future development. (Ma. Leah Letrero/PMED-NRO6)
