Geographic Information Systems (GIS) meets marine biology in the latest project of the GIS Tech Center on a marine eco-park – the Tagbak Marine Park, an island in the municipality of Liloan.
A preliminary survey of the coral cover of Tagbak Marine Park. Photo courtesy of Jerome Jack Napala.
Planned activities on this uninhabited island and soon-to-be eco-tourism park cover snorkeling, diving and the development of mariculture, to be undertaken with help from SLSU’s experts on Marine Biology at SLSU’s Bontoc campus, now renamed as the College of Aquatic and Applied Life Sciences.
Vice President for RDE Francis Ann Sy, Liloan Municipal Councilor Manuel Uy-Oco Jr., GIS Tech Center Head Czarina Ancella Gabi and SLSU diver Jerome Napala check out some maps of Liloan Marine Reserve on August 11, 2016.
The GIS Tech Center is also involved in the project “Suitability Assessment and Mapping to Support Development of Resilient Communities and Livelihoods in Selected Vulnerable Communities in Southern Leyte”, a disaster risk assessment research project with over a million in financial support from the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture. SLSU’s GIS Tech Center is also the recipient of a substantial share in the 100 million infusion of funds for abaca rehabilitation in Sogod. The center’s mandate for abaca rehabilitation is to generate spatial data on abaca in Sogod.
In what is very likely a first in Southern Leyte, SLSU also trained its technical people to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in campus facilities management in May. The Tech Center management is also positive on the approval of the proposal “Developing a GIS-Based Climate and Disaster-Resilient Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Southern Leyte State University” which was submitted for funding to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
The subsequent developments of the GIS Tech Center is largely attributed to its consultant Dr. Alejandro Tongco, a longtime research specialist in the University of Oklahoma who is the consultant for GIS under the Balik-Scientist program of the Department of Science of Technology, and who subsequently gave up his career as research specialist in Oklahoma State University to serve as a consultant for SLSU.
“I am passionately dedicated – whatever you call it – to create such a center because I think it’s the only way for GIS to take off here in SLSU because the center acts as the vehicle on which the capacity building of SLSU on GIS can be sustained. Without a center there would be no continuity, no guidance and no entity that will implement cohesively the goals of SLSU in terms of promoting GIS technologies in the campus and in the province of Southern Leyte,” said Tongco in an interview in August 2015.
Along with rubber, SLSU seeks to establish GIS as a ‘niche’ of the university. It also seeks to institute the Center as the GIS hub for the entire province of Southern Leyte by acting as the centralized GIS database and portal of the province.
“When it comes to GIS research, the Center will be the first link in providing advice to the person or party,” said Tongco. And depending on the topic, every GIS study or activity will be subsumed by any of the three divisions of the Center – the GIS Database Development, Programming, Web GIS & Training; GIS/GPS and Research and Development; and Remote Sensing and Extension. All three divisions are headed by faculty members of SLSU’s Computer Studies and Information Technology Department.
Geographic Information Systems applications for the cacao industry also sparked curiosity and garnered support after presentation of SLSU’s “Spatial Distribution of Cacao Producing Sites and Processing Industry” at the Cacao Industry Regional Summit held at SLSU on August 3-4, 2016. In the presentation, the GIS Tech Center recommended GIS-based comprehensive assessment of cacao producing areas which would yield spatial data on disease, variety, tree density, volume, supplier-farmers, and finished products.
GIS Tech center consultant Alejandro Tongco, GIS Tech Center Head Czarina Ancella Gabi and Department of Education (DepEd) Superintendent Arturo Isip and his staff during a visit by the GIS Tech Center in July 11, 2016. A Memorandum of Agreement is in the making between the DepEd and the Tech Center.
“It was sometime in April this year that the proposal for the Tech Center was approved and funding from DOST-PCIEERD was granted,” said Czarina Ancella Gabi, who heads the Center. The Center received over 2.6 million from the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) of the DOST after approval of its proposal “Strengthening SLSU’s GIS Capacity in Support of Southern Leyte’s Competitiveness.
The GIS Tech Center offers trainings to various groups upon request. GIS Tech Center trainings can include basic or advanced methods on the generation of spatial data. It may be on watershed delineation, land use mapping, protected area delineation, cadastral mapping, 3-dimensional mapping or any topic requiring spatial analysis. GIS trainings will be tailored to specific client needs upon request.
Organizations interested in availing of GIS trainings may contact the Tech Center Head Czarina Ancella Gabi (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Inquiries on GIS can also be taken to Dr. Alejandro Tongco (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
Students of an undergraduate GIS course seek out Dr. Tongco at the RDE-Sogod office in February 2015 for a brief tutorial on navigating the PhilGIS website (philgis.org), which Tongco created to provide free GIS data on the Philippines for educational and non-profit use.
