PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION

1.1 Laoac, The newest town of Pangasinan is located 16°00’ to 16°51’ north latitude and 120°27’ to 120° 35 east longitudes.

1.2 The municipality is bounded by the following:

North : Municipality of Pozorrubio

East : Municipality of Binalonan

West : Municipality of Manaoag

South : City of Urdaneta

1.3 The nearest city to Laoac is Dagupan about 23 kilometers west of the town where some of the Regional offices are located. It is almost 50 kilometers east of Lingayen, the capital town; 61 kilometers south of San Fernando, Launion, the seat of Regional Offices for Region 1; around 70 kilometers south of Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines; about 234 kilometer north of Manila. To all the urban centers, Laoac is accessible by all types of land transportation.

2. LAND AREA

2.1 MUNICIPAL LAND AREA

The total land area of Laoac is 4,060.721 hectares. This is about 0.76% of the Provincial land area of 536,813 hectares.

2.2 URBAN LAND AREA

The urban area of the town composed of Barangays Poblacion, Balligi, Banuar, and Casampagaan has combined land area of 729.0959 hectares which is about 17.95% of the total municipal land area of 4,060.721.

2.3 RURAL LAND AREA

The rural area of the town composed of 18 barangays has a land area of 3331.6248 hectares which is about 82.05% of the total municipal land area of 4,060.721 hectares.

3. TOPOGRAPHY

3.1 ELEVATION/TERRAIN/SLOPES

Laoac is traversed by two rivers – the ALORAGAT and the TAGAMUSING Rivers. The Aloragat River eneters the municipality from northeast at Panaga and flows southwestern ward passing through Cabulaanan, Turko, Maraboc, Talogtog, Inmanduyan, and Calmay. The Tagamusing River enters the municipality from the southeast at Yatyat and Casantiagoan. These two rivers have their own tributaries and creeks which are potential sources of irrigation water. At the Aloragat River in Botigue for example, the existing MINI-WATER IMPOUNDING project may be further developed for irrigation purposes in bigger volume. Once properly tapped, its irrigation, water will benefits the farm lands downstream at Cabulalaan, Talogtog, Inmanduyan and Calmay. The coverage area could easily reach 600 to 750 hectares.

The municipality has several small dams and mini-water impounding projects, but all of them are almost out of operation. They all need repairs, improvement and expansion. The TUKOPAMA dam at Panaga, like the one in Botigue needs rehabilitation. The same is true with the Casenestebanan-Calmay Communal Dam and the one at Lebueg. The Tabayoyong Dam at Banuar also needs repair and improvements. The deep well pumps installed by the CLGIP-NIA before are no longer in operation. They were all rejected by the farmers because of exorbitant rentals.

The town is crisscrossed by several streams and creeks, but all of them are summer-drying. All of them serves as drainage of the municipality.

3.3 VEGETATION COVER

There are no forest lands, swamps, or marches in Laoac. The agricultural area of 3,714.9852 hectares or 91.48% of the total land area is devoted to seasonal crops, principally rice, corn, tobacco, sugarcane, vegetables, rootcrops and other cereals. Permanent crops like fruits occupy an agreement area of 11 hectares or 0.27% of the total.

4. CLIMATE

4.1 CLIMATE TYPE

Laoac has a climate that belongs to type 1, i,e with two distinct seasons, the wet and the dry. The dry season lasts for six months. It begins in November and last until April. The rest of the months constitute the wet or rainy season. However, with the loss of ecological balance brought by indiscriminate feeling of trees, the dry seasons Is getting longer than the rainy season. This is becoming noticeable every year.

4.2 TEMPERATURE

The average maximum temperature of the municipality of Laoac is 32.96°C which is considered moderately hot and average minimum temperature is 24.12°C. The lowest minimum temperature was recorded during the month of January which 22.1°C, and the highest was recoreded during the month of April which was 34.5°C.

4.3 RAINFALL

The average monthly rainfall of the municipality of Laoac is 171.87 millimeters. July was recorded to have the highest rainfall drops of 908.08, while March registered the lowest rainfall of with 010.00 rainfall. It is the driest month.

4.4 HUMIDITY

The municipality has an average relative humidity of 83.12%. the highest relative humidity of 91.54% was recorded during the month of July while the months of August and September had a record of 88.70 and 87.13 respectively.

4.5 PREVAILING WIND DIRECTIONS

The prevailing winds which most effect the municipality come from the southwest and have the common behavior of going northwest, then finally westward to the China Sea. These winds are most prevalent during the months of June, August, September, July, and October.

4.6 TYPOONS AND FLOOD OCCURENCES

For the past five years (1990-1994), the municipality was visited by 67 typhoons, tropical storms and tropical depression.

4.7 TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE

The topography of Laoac has much to do with its climate. Its generally hot temperature is mainly due to its low elevation and predominantly.