We stumbled upon a cool, free tool by the Philippine government called “HazardHunterPH” that helps us zone in on our localities anywhere in the country and check how safe we are when it comes to seismic, volcanic, and hydro-meteorological hazards. In addition, the tool shows what critical facilities are in the vicinity of your area — what and how far they are from your location.
While the online tool itemizes the susceptibility of your area to each hazard, it also conveniently allows you to download the map, or generate a professional, QR-coded, PDF report.
HazardHunterPH is a very helpful reference for practically any person be it property owners, prospective buyers, land developers, planners, and other stakeholders needing immediate hazard information and assessment. It’s also very easy to use!
The tool aims to increase people’s awareness to natural hazards and advocates the implementation of plans to prepare for and mitigate the effects of hazards.
Steps on Using HazardHunterPH
- Proceed to the HazardHunterPH website at https://hazardhunter.georisk.gov.ph/
- Enter your location — choose from the locations it provides as options, if not choose the closest location.
- If you are already in the process of using it, switching to another location can be done by either clicking on your “Current Location” or by inputting the “Long-Lat Coordinates”
- Locate your exact position on the map, and double-click on it.
- The system then calculates the hazards for the area, and prepares the results.
- Click on the button, “See Result” to view the prepared page.
Part of the GeoRisk Philippines Initiative
HazardHunterPH is just one of currently, 4 tools provided online by this multi-agency initiative. The other tools include:
- GeoMapperPH
- Collect Hazard and Exposure Information from the office or field to ensure accurate and efficient updates in the database system.
- GeoAnalyticsPH
- Generate summaries of hazards and risk assessment and perform analysis and visualization of exposure and elements at risk to natural hazards.
- Map & Feature Services
- Acquire up-to-date and accurate information from mandated agencies with efficiency and ease.
GeoRiskPH aims to provide protocols and platforms to share hazards, exposure and risk information to help people, communities, local governments, and national agencies prepare and plan how to reduce the risks for natural hazards.
Its vision is to be the Philippines’ central source of information for accurate and efficient hazards and risk assessment to help the government increase the nation’s resilience to natural hazards. Read more about the GeoRiskPH initiative here.
Other Hazard Resources
In addition to this GeoRiskPH initiative, there are other environmental hazard maps available by other Philippine government agencies:
PHIVOLCS FaultFinder – no, it won’t start scolding you, but this tool is provided by the country’s volcanology and seismology institute — volcanoes and earthquakes. Formally its described as ” application capable to do proximity searches to active faults. It may be used to determine the location of active faults in an area and to measure the shortest distance between an active fault and a user’s current location, which is determined by the gadget’s tracking device. It may also be used to measure the shortest distance between an active fault and a specific site, which is identified by a user.” Access the PHIVOLCS FaultFinder here
PHIVOLCS Earthquake and Volcano-Related Maps here
PAGASA Risk Analysis Maps here
NDRRMC Disaster and Risk Reports and Monitoring here
For More Information
To know more about other archived data or more detailed information about the hazards, please contact DOST-PHIVOLCS for seismic and volcanic hazards, DOST-PAGASA for storm surge and severe wind hazards, and DENR-MGB for flood and rain-induced landslide hazards.
For Official Hazard Assessment Reports, a request can be sent to DOST-PHIVOLCS, DOST-PAGASA or DENR-MGB. These may require payments to cover reproduction costs.
HazardHunterPH is a product of GeoRisk Philippines, a multi-agency initiative led by DOST-PHIVOLCS and participated by DOST-PAGASA, DOST-ASTI, DENR-MGB, DENR-NAMRIA, DND-OCD, and DepEd. GeoRiskPH acknowledges the valuable contribution of the Geological Survey of Japan for training the team in developing the application.