No abstract

The Philippines is among the most threatened biodiversity hotspots. Developing effective conservation requires science-based evidence from field data and observations. Yet, many important biodiversity information remain unpublished, particularly from academic institutions and NGOs. Here, we synthesized 34-year data from biodiversity studies from Bicol University in Luzon Island, Philippines. We found a large number of studies that increased in the post-2000 period with the majority of the studies focused on community surveys and animal and wildlife studies. While there is a massive number of studies, we found clear disproportionate distribution in terms of geographic and thematic areas. Our results may be based on a regional level, but if taken carefully, it has important implications and applications to other higher education institutions in the Philippines in promoting biodiversity studies and conservation in the country.

This study proposes how a hexagon object (rather than a perfect circle) is a better representation of a data bin to visualize weighted spatial information, in analysing location (space center), and sorted local knowledge on 'topophilia-exposure'. This approach which depicts the topographic features sorted in a tessellated bin, correlated with the origin (space center), and geographic knowledge on love of a place (tessellated space), was sought to understand the relationships of 'topo'(topography), 'philia' (love of), and exposure data, sorted in a hexagonal lattice shaped cell or bin as spatial objects, where each hexagon has an area of 100 hectares (tessellated bin mapping unit) at a 1 kilometer continuous interval between centroids (central space of hexagon). The 'topophilia-exposure' central space concept model is designed to look at the 'Phila' factors influencing selected exposed residents situated in spaces at risk. This paper shows the effect of 'Philia' elements in the exposed sample Barangays (villages) in Daraga, and Guinobatan towns, Albay, Philippines. These factors dissuade residents from permanently relocating to safer areas, despite the obvious risks involved with staying. Undesired development and sprawling in vulnerable landscapes and danger zones make reducing disaster risk difficult to accomplish; and relocation is often the required option for some areas. Undoubtedly, the factors of Topophilia complicate even the most logical and scientific options for disaster risk reduction and mitigation. This paper finally concludes that the topophiliaexposure model is a model that reflects the phenomena of disaster risk, Exposure complicated by the "love of land" will prevail, and may increase; surely causing complexities in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.

Abstract. The paper presents a Land Use Policy Area (LUPA) Concept Model adding the three basic elements: (i) ecosystem-based land use regarded as the intersection of the ecosystem and land use elements, (ii) subwatershed-based land use as the intersection of the subwatershed and land use elements, and (iii) integrated environmental management is the intersection of the subwatershed and ecosystem elements regarded as the Integrated Ecosystem Development Planning Unit (IE-DPU). The basic (spatial) elements are mathematically expressed as the paired sets of the three main variables, namely: ecosystem (dependent), watershed (dependent) and land use (independent) variables. The challenging work in this study was the development of a geospatial information model for use in policy areas LUPA applying these variables. There are four steps applied to answer the research objective, these are: ecological zone assessment, ridge-to-reef watershed delineation, land and water use heads-up mapping, ecosystem-based land use overlay analysis, watershed-based land use overlay analysis, integrated environmental management overlay analysis, and LUPA overlay analysis. The concept model analysis steers the geospatial information modeling for LUPA which carried the intersections of the paired variables: ecosystem-based land use, subwatershed-based land use and integrated environmental management as variating inputs to process by extracting the science-based information (overlay output) which practically highlighted the LUPA classification: (i) Protection with 49.1% or 3858.2 Ha of mangrove forest reserve and water use, (ii) Production areas with 46.5% or 3631.7 Ha mostly agricultural and aquacultural areas, (iii) Settlement with 2.7% or 209.2 Ha of urban and urban uses, and (iv) Infrastructure with 1.5% or 116.7 Ha of development. The authors concluded that land use policy areas will relatively change as land use changes which is also seen reliant on the impacts of climate change.