The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) congratulated the Cauayan City government for bagging second place in the “Best in LGU Empowerment” award category of the 2021 Digital Governance Awards (DGA) on Oct. 29.
DOST Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña hailed the city government for receiving the award for its Project ODeSSEE or Optimization of Decision Support System for Effective E-governance, noting that Cauayan City is the first smarter city in Cagayan Valley.
“Congratulations, Cauayan City Local Government and to Mayor Bernard Faustino Dy for bagging second place for Best in LGU Empowerment in the Digital Governance Awards 2021 featuring its Project ODeSSEE (Optimization of Decision Support System for Effective E-governance)!,” he said in a Facebook post.
He said Project ODeSSEE is a web-based system which aims to develop automated preemptive evacuation plans for flood disaster using the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) profile of Cauayan City to manage disaster preparedness.
“It is an integration of the database of HealthGuard Ph, an application containing the city’s COVID-19 cases information, risk assessment and flood zoning map from the Office of Civil Defense, and historical environmental data from DOST- PAGASA to provide decision support in identifying safe, unsafe, and alternative evacuation centers through data science and data analytics that will not only benefit Cauayan but the whole Region II."
Involved in the project ODeSSEE were the city government of Cauayan City, Isabela State University (ISU), DOST-II and Office of Civil Defense (OCD).
De la Peña said the DOST will continue collaborating with the city government and ISU for the implementation of the project.
The DGA is an annual search that seeks to recognize the best practices of local government units (LGUs) in utilizing information and communications technology (ICT) for governance.
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and National ICT Confederation of the Philippines held the event.