Last July 24 to August 10, Asst. Prof. Luisito Abueg and Asst. Prof. Veronica Castillo attended a training in Japan hosted by the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM). This was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Project for Development of a Hybrid Water-Related Disaster Risk Assessment Technology for Sustainable Local Economic Development Policy under Climate Change in the Republic of the Philippines (HyDEPP-SATREPS).

Dr. Tomohiro Tanaka of the Graduate School of Engineering of the Kyoto University supervised this training on Local Economic Growth Modelling. As part of the scope of the study of Group 4 under the HyDEPP-SATREPS, Ms. Castillo and Mr. Abueg worked on the agent-based model (ABM) of Dr. Tanaka. Dr. Maria Angeles O. Catelo joined remotely in some sessions to discuss the case of the study sites in Laguna Lake. The model is assessed, improved, and revised to cater to the characteristics of the target local study site. The model interface worked on Linux-based programming and R-codes.

Preliminary outputs from the agent-based model were presented by Ms. Castillo and Mr. Abueg during the closing ceremonies of the training at ICHARM, Tsukuba City on August 9. Co-participants from other groups under the HyDEPP-SATREPS also presented their respective outputs.