On 25 November 2025, UPRI’s Dr. Alfredo Mahar Lagmay, together with UPRI-NOAH Center’s researcher, Ms. Patricia Anne Delmendo served as resource and keynote speakers for the City of San Juan’s Drainage Master Planning 2026 Workshop held in Barangay Greenhills in San Juan City.
This important activity, aimed at updating the City’s drainage masterplan, was attended by San Juan’s key local officials from the City Engineering Office and barangay representatives, MMDA flood control engineer, Engineer Rosalita Barde, and DHSUD’s Engineer Christian Angelo Manuel.
In the discussions, UPRI presented ways of building climate-resilient urban drainage systems and explained that our existing flood control structures cannot withstand extreme rainfall events. Hence, flood control measures should not rely solely on concrete engineering structures, and rather, must adopt approaches that are more holistic and aligned with nature.
Dr. Lagmay emphasized the importance of planning based on multi-scenario, probabilistic risk assessment that should look into flooding as well as landslides, storm urges, among other hazards, whereas Ms. Delmendo provided valuable insights into UP RI’s Drainage Master Plan formulation process, presenting Quezon City’s DMP as a relevant case study. She discussed the analytical methods and recommendations developed for QC, emphasizing that each city requires a customized DMP that must be thoroughly studied and analyzed to ensure that flood control investments are meaningful and not wasted.