Bago City in Negros Occidental is set to pioneer the use of the Automated Land Use and Zoning Compliance Assessment and Monitoring (AutoCAM) tool in the Visayas in 2026.
Implemented by the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), the AutoCAM project utilizes remote sensing, geographic information systems, and artificial intelligence to create an automated, efficient system for assessing and monitoring land use and zoning compliance.
“The City of Bago has achieved a significant milestone, having been selected as the only local government unit in the Visayas to serve as a pilot area for the AutoCAM project,” Mayor Marina Javellana-Yao said in a statement on Wednesday, Dec. 10.
The mayor met with the team from DHSUD led by Undersecretary Henry Yap during their courtesy visit at the City Hall on Tuesday.
In 2024, Bago City entered into a memorandum of understanding with DHSUD to become one of the three pilot areas of the AutoCAM project nationwide, and the only one in the Visayas.
“We hope that by next year, we will be able to roll it out. With the support of the local government, we will make Bago one of the major trainors of this system in this area,” Yap said.
DHSUD Environmental, Land Use, and Urban Planning and Development Director Ibani Padao said through the AutoCAM tool, the local government unit (LGU) can automatically detect non-compliant uses of land resources, like prime agricultural lands or forest lands being converted into quarry areas or build-up developments.
“The idea for this tool is to help our cities and municipalities come up with an automated tool to monitor their land use changes. We can ensure na maayos yung paggamit po ng lupa natin (that land use is proper) given that land is finite. We have limited resources, we need to use it properly,” he added.
Padao said once non-compliant use is detected, the LGU will be tagged or notified.
“We already had multiple validation activities in Bago City. We produced a paper and developed the initial concept of the tool. We will launch this around April next year,” he said.
In February, the DHSUD AutoCAM team worked with the City Planning and Development Office to conduct household surveys and drone mapping in various barangays.*
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