Establishment of an Integrated IIMS Database for the Manila Bay Watershed

 

Quezon City, Philippines — A 2-stage integration workshop to establish an integrated IIMS database for the Manila Bay watershed was held on August 22-24 and September 25-27, 2012 at the PEMSEA Resource Facility (PRF) office building. Participants included personnel in-charge of maintaining and operating the Integrated Information Management System for Coastal and Marine Environment (IIMS) in two ICM sites (Bataan and Cavite) and three Site Management Offices (SMOs) of the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Regions 3, 4A and NCR within the Manila Bay watershed.

 

Each of the two ICM sites and three SMOs maintain separate databases. As such, access to all data requires significantly more time and effort. Redundancies or inconsistencies could also arise and be difficult to resolve. The establishment of an integrated database for the Manila Bay watershed will enable easier data access and utilization in support of the overall management of the bay.

 

The first stage of the integration workshop entailed renumbering existing records following the Standard Philippine Geocodes to address duplication in record numbers. This will facilitate not only integrating the database for the Manila Bay watershed but for all sites in the Philippines using the IIMS as the database platform. In the long-term, the use of the Philippine Geocodes will also facilitate linking the IIMS database to other existing databases in the Philippines using the standard.

 

Reclassification of data relating to industry and commercial establishments was also performed during the first stage of the integration workshop. The current IIMS software for application in the Philippines adopts the Philippines Standard Industry Classification, which previously used the International Standard Industry Classification.

 

The second stage of the integration workshop allowed the participants to import their data into the IIMS server, which is currently set up at the PEMSEA Office Building, resolving existing redundancies from the five separate databases.

 

The IIMS server for the Manila Bay watershed will be temporarily maintained and updated by the PRF until the final maintaining agency has been determined. The two ICM sites and the three SMOs will continue to maintain and update their existing databases, updates of which will be provided to the PRF.