KlaroFlowReport E · Cebu Flood Watch · Free preview
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Historical models · Not a live warning
Data source: Project NOAH hazard maps (UP, DOST and PAGASA), with PSA boundaries. KlaroFlow does not collect these figures. We organise, chart and explain what the agencies publish.
Explore flood hazards in your area
Choose a place and compare historical river-flood and storm-surge scenarios.
Full report
In the full report
This free preview shows the key findings and the sources. The full report opens these views:
- Explore a place
Pick a place on the map or by name. The result shows how much of its land sits in mapped hazard zones for the selected scenario, and whether that scenario covers it. - Compare scenarios
Choose a place above to compare how much of its land sits in mapped hazard zones under each scenario. - Local checks
Short checks you can take to the barangay or city DRRMO. They are based on the mapped scenarios, not on current conditions.
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Sources & limits
What these maps can and cannot show
The hazard maps show modelled inundation under set rainfall and storm-surge scenarios, built by Project NOAH from laser-scanned land heights between 2014 and 2017. They do not show where water went in any real storm, and they cannot know about drains, walls or buildings changed since.
River-flood layers carry three classes from the source: Low (about 0 to 0.5 m), Medium (0.5 to 1.5 m) and High (over 1.5 m). The source notes that shallow but fast-flowing water may be given a higher class than its depth alone suggests. Storm-surge layers use the same three classes, judged on depth and on depth times speed.
Storm-surge scenarios 1 to 4 model peak storm-tide heights of up to 2 m, up to 3 m, up to 4 m and more than 4 m, per the loaded dataset’s metadata. PAGASA’s public advisories use a different height scale, so the scenario number here is not an advisory number.
For each barangay, city and municipality: the share of its land inside each hazard class, calculated from the published hazard layers and the PSA boundary files. Results inherit the coverage and limits of those sources. 137 barangays are listed for the three cities; have no outline in the boundary file and are not drawn, so 135 are. Shares are of land area only.
This page is for understanding mapped risk ahead of time, not a live warning. For a warning today, use PAGASA, NDRRMC and your city or municipal DRRMO.
How the models were made
Project NOAH, a programme of the University of the Philippines and PAGASA under DOST, flew laser scanners (LiDAR) over Cebu between 2014 and 2017 to measure land heights to within a few centimetres. From the shape of the land, hydrologists modelled where rain-swollen rivers would spread for three rainfall scenarios, and where the sea would reach for four storm-surge scenarios. The published shapefiles were measured against every barangay and municipal boundary to produce the shares on this page.
Historical storms in Cebu (event accounts, not modelled maps)
Yolanda (Haiyan)
The typhoon crossed Daanbantayan and Bantayan Island hours after a storm surge of 5 to 7 metres struck Tacloban, Leyte. On Bantayan more than 11,000 houses were reported destroyed. Source: AHA Centre repository, Bantayan inundation study.
Odette (Rai)
Field surveys later measured the sea at 2.5 to 4.2 metres above normal along the coasts of Cebu and Bohol. Source: Field Survey of 2021 Typhoon Rai, Journal of Coastal and Riverine Flood Risk.
Tino (Kalmaegi)
Against a November average of about 131 mm for the Cebu City area, rivers including the Butuanon, Mananga, Cansaga and Cotcot overflowed into Mandaue, Talisay, south Cebu City, Consolacion, Liloan and Compostela. More than 100 deaths were reported nationally, most in Cebu. Sources: Al Jazeera, 4 Nov 2025; NDRRMC reporting.
These accounts describe what was observed. The hazard maps on this page were drawn years earlier and are models of scenarios, not of these events.
| Dataset | Period | Geography | Reuse | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| River-flood hazard maps: Project NOAH / Phil-LiDAR 1 (UP, DOST) | Historical models from land heights surveyed 2014–2017 | Central Cebu, roughly Carcar to Danao, for the 5- and 25-year scenarios; all 50 cities and municipalities for the 100-year | ODbL 1.0 | BetterGov.ph mirror and metadata (hazard classes) |
| Storm-surge hazard maps: Project NOAH (PAGASA, DOST), SSA 1 to 4 | Historical models; scenario heights from the dataset metadata | Whole coast of Cebu Province and the three cities | ODbL 1.0 | BetterGov.ph mirror and metadata (scenario heights) |
| Boundaries: PSA PSGC, via faeldon/philippines-json-maps | As of 31 Dec 2023 | Cebu Province and the barangays of Cebu City, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu | MIT | GitHub repository |
| Land shares in each hazard class: calculated by KlaroFlow | Same as the models above | 135 drawn barangays and 50 cities and municipalities | ODbL 1.0 (derived figures) | This page’s data file |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Licences and credit. River-flood and storm-surge hazard maps: Project NOAH (UP, DOST, PAGASA), made available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0). Boundaries: derived from the PSA PSGC via faeldon/philippines-json-maps (MIT). Changes made by KlaroFlow: the land shares in each hazard class were measured from the maps for every place. Under the ODbL, those derived figures, in the page’s data file, are offered under the same ODbL licence. The sources do not endorse KlaroFlow or this page.
Sources, scope and corrections
These figures come from the sources listed here. KlaroFlow selects, checks and presents them; the source organisations do not endorse this report. Reference periods and limitations are shown beside each view. If you find a discrepancy, send the report name, view and figure to [email protected] so we can review it.
Built on public data by KlaroFlow · Business Analytics & Consultancy, Cebu.