DenR to push shift to digitalization
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will continue to digitize its data resources to improve public service delivery and environmental interventions.
DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga said the agency is pushing its boundaries by streamlining some of its processes from a traditional paper record management system to advanced digital platforms in order to fully connect its central office in Quezon City to all its field offices across the country.
“We are hoping that these types of platforms will speed up the design of our different interventions and solutions that will make it more collaborative so we can be more transparent in terms of sharing that data with partners whom we know can contribute to solutions,” she said.
Under her leadership, Loyzaga said the DENR– together with the National Economic and Development Authority and the Philippine Statistics Authority – would undertake the formulation of a tool that would help measure the full extent of the country’s natural resources and environmental assets.
The natural capital accounting, she said, would support the development of strategies for a science-based and risk-informed stewardship of the environment.
The DENR chief highlighted the importance of investing in Internet of Things, or IoT, which is a system of interrelated computing devices and digital machines that has the ability to transfer data over a series of networks, to be able to gather data used in observation, monitoring and analysis.
She said adopting this kind of system would improve and speed up the DENR’s “on-the-loop” process as these new technologies now relay data realtime.
“Without these technologies and technological platforms, we would not be able to cope with some of the rapid changes that are taking place because of climate change,” Loyzaga said.
According to the DENR chief, global warming has led to extreme uncertainty in the environment, therefore shifting to technological advances would help the DENR’s core business of managing risks and making decisions that are fast and relevant to the changing times.