Chapter 2

METHODOLOGY

This chapter deals with the methods and procedures that will be used in gathering

the necessary data. The research design, the research subjects, the research instruments,

data gathering procedures, and the statistical treatment of data will be used by the

researcher in the study.

Research Design

This is a quantitative study specifically descriptive in design. The quantitative

research is a technique that gathers numerical data to response to the problem of the

study. In this study, the quantitative research design is used to provide the design

expansion of the water distribution system in Sitio Pawas, Municipality of Braulio E.

Dujali by employing EPANET and GIS.

On the other hand, descriptive research is a kind of research which observes and

describe the problem that being studies. According to Penwarden (2014), descriptive

research gathers proven data that used for numerical presumptions on the object

consultations in the course of information analysis. In this study, the descriptive

research design is used because the researchers gathered data about the current water

distribution sys.tem in Braulio E. Dujali.

This study focused on designing and mapping the water distribution system

expansion in the Municipality of Braulio E. Dujali. The design will be determined

throughout the data that the researchers have gather in terms of the extent of the

availability. The researchers will use EPANET software to understand the movement and

fate of the water constituents within distribution systems. To map the design of the
expansion network, the researchers will be employing the use of GIS. GIS is a framework

for recording, storing, manipulating, analyzing, handling, and displaying all forms of

geographic data. Geography is the main word for this technology, indicating that some

portion of the data is spatial. In other words, data that is referred to as positions on the

planet in any way. This study was conducted from the month of July until on the month

of November, 2020. The respondents of this study are the local government and the

respective barangays officials and the officials in the office of the municipal engineer in

the Municipality of Braulio E. Duajli, Davao del Norte.

Research Locale

This study will be conducted at Sitio Pawas, Braulio E. Dujali Davao del Norte. In the

Census of Population 2015, there are 5,404 households in the municipality of Braulio E.

Dujali in which there are only 325 households whose faucets are connected to the

municipal water supply system. Braulio E. Dujali is politically subdivided into five (5)

barangays namely Cabay-Angan, Dujali, Magupising, New Casay, and Tanglaw. Sitio

Pawas is a district of Barangay Dujali which is also one of those districts who have not

acquired the water supply from the municipality.

Figure 2.1 Location Map of the Barangays of Braulio E. Dujali, Davao del Norte, Philippines
Research Instrument

The following are the instruments that used in this study:

Total Station. It is an electronic or optical instrument used for surveying. It is

an electronic transit theodolite integrated with electronic distance measurement (EDM)

for measuring both vertical and horizontal angles and the distance from the instrument

to a specific point, and an on-board computer for data collection and triangulation

calculations.

Data Collection Device. It is an electronic field books which record and

calculate field survey positions. Data collection devices operate not only with GPS

receivers, but also with robotic and manual total stations and digital levels.

Microsoft Excel. This Microsoft office software will help the researchers to

tabulate all the data that will be gather.

Environmental Protection Agency Network (EPANET). It is a public

domain, water management system modeling software package built by the Water

Supply and Water Resources Division of the United States Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA). This software will help the researchers in understanding the movement

and fate of drinking water constituents within distribution systems.

Geographic Information System (GIS). It is one of the Free and Open-

Source Software. This software will help the researchers in making their maps. For the

final output, the informative map or the interactive map were made by Geographic

Information System.

Data Gathering Procedure

These were the following steps or procedure that the researchers will follow

accordingly in gathering all the data:

 Seeking Approval to Ask About the Availability of Data. The researchers

will write a letter to ask permission in Local Government Unit of Municipality of Braulio

E. Dujali, Davao Del Norte. Through email, the researchers will also ask some guidelines

for the health protocol in the Municipality of Braulio E. Dujali. Then the researchers will

gather the data of the number of populations of Barangay Dujali and the locale map in

the Planning Office of Municipality of Braulio E. Dujali, Davao Del Norte.

Gathering Data. In this study, the researchers will gather all of the available

documents and files on the concerned barangay in the Municipality of Dujali, including

the Sitio’s and the Purok of the Barangay, and in the Municipal Engineer Office for the

secondary data. For the primary data, the researchers will gather the information by

surveying the area with the permission and guidance of the barangay officials and

residents.

Analyzing all the Gathered Data. After investigating the location and

gathering all the information and data by the researchers given by the local government

and residents, the researchers will now use the Excel Software to organize and tabulate

the data.

Compiling all the Analyzed Data. The researchers will compile all the data

and make the conclusion. The gathered data will be encoded to the Environmental

Protection Agency Network (EPANET) software to make a water distribution system

design. After analyzing and compiling the data gathered, the researchers will input it to

the Geographic Information System software (GIS) for mapping.

Making the Interactive Map. The researchers will make the informative map

of Barangay Dujali of Sitio Pawas in order to show the design of the water distribution

system expansion in Sitio Pawas, Municipality of Braulio E. Dujali.

Ethical Considerations

Berman et al. (2018) compiled in a discussion paper the ethics to be considered

when collecting or using geospatial data for research. They are under the Office of

Research – Innocenti, the dedicated research center of the United Nations International

Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), whose list of ethics are useful for studies

involving non-human subjects but geospatial data instead.

During the gathering and analysis of these data, researchers can ensure that these

ethical considerations are extended from the request to different sources, to the analysis

of the data and also to the presentation of the findings and conclusions. In addition, only

the data that is required to represent and prepare ahead of the data collection process

will be collected. The researchers will ensure this consideration by sending letters to the

various data sources containing the title, existence and intent of the report. In addition,

the unique datasets to be collected are often explicitly written in order to collect only the

required data.

Another ethical consideration is ensuring privacy and security. It involves

acquiring consent where it is necessary particularly as some geospatial data can capture

personal information. It also includes taking into account the expectations of data

providers about data privacy when receiving secondary data, updating visual data as

soon as it is obtained, applying privacy issues relevant to the software used, and taking

into account the privacy policies of third-party geospatial data providers. By providing an

initial view of all geospatial data agreed along with its features, ensuring that the privacy

issues of the applications to be used in the analysis are exercised, and evaluating the

issues of third-party geospatial data providers, the researchers can ensure that these are

applied.

The researchers will also observe the ethical principle of understanding the data

risks and limitations. The limitations of the data may include gaps, missing values,
incompatible formats that needs to be merged, inclusion of outdated data, and the

limitations when using third-party data providers as data source. Meanwhile, the risk

include the possibility that geospatial data could have discriminations, like exclusion,

against disadvantaged groups within particular geographical areas. The researchers will

ensure to practice this principle by including a mitigating procedure when dealing with

missing values, ensuring the qualification of the datasets to be used despite the

limitations in terms of content or recentness, and mentioning related studies that

ensured through its findings the qualifications of those datasets despite having some

limitations.

Related to the aforementioned ethics is the ethical consideration of assessing and

managing the risks. It includes an initial conduct of risk assessment framework, making

contingency plans, informing the people involved in crowd mapping exercise about

potential risks and protection strategies, and managing expectation. The researchers will

ensure to apply this principle with the initial assessment of the datasets needed including

its date and source and choosing only the qualified sets. In terms of the risk of potential

loss of data, the researchers will create a contingency plan which involves the storing

strategies and platforms to be used.

Lastly, the legal considerations will be applied by the researchers. The data

gathering procedure must abide to the local and international legislation and

regulations. In the case of this study, the researchers will review Brauli E. Dujali’s

regulations on what datasets are or are not available to public; regulations on who will

gather, where it will be gathered, and requirements for gathering data that are under the

authority of government agencies; and ensuring that the procedure will abide to health

and safety protocols that are in practice within the study area.