PHIVOLCS, UPD to perfect technology developed to monitor landslides

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(PNA), JMC/PGLENA/CBF

ILOILO CITY, Nov. 19 (PNA) -- A pilot testing is now being done to perfect a pioneering technology that was developed to monitor landslides.

The equipment, known as senslope, was developed by the University of the Philippines-Diliman and the Philippine Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), according to Engr. Rowen Gelonga, regional director of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Western Visayas.

The automated equipment is being buried on the ground situated in landslide prone areas. Any changes on the ground is being recorded and sent to the receiving station for the concerned community to be warned.

“We are trying to perfect the technology and we are hoping that by next year it will become almost stable for us to start promoting to the community,” he said.

For the past two years, the equipment has been buried in a landslide prone area in Iloilo and has actually released landslide warning occurring in previous years.

“We can deploy this equipment in landslide prone areas of Western Visayas, which we have lots,” he said citing areas in Iloilo and Antique among others.

Gelonga said that senslope can help lessen damages that maybe incurred due to landslide because affected communities can evacuate to safer places once they are warned.

Meanwhile, the regional director said that the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) was involved at the national level by helping identify places that have potentials for landslide.

“Definitely once the technology gets matured MGB will be our partner because their area is really into hazard assessment,” he added.

Once it is perfected, Gelonga hoped that it will become a national project just like Project NOAH. Perhaps, the first sets of the equipment will be subsidized by the DOST.

The developer is now addressing the issue on corrosion that affects the sensor of the senslope because the equipment is being buried on the ground.

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