GeographyThe Palawan Island is the largest island in the province of Palawan, Philippines. Located in the western Philippines, the island is bounded by the South China Sea (locally referred to as the West Philippine Sea) and the Sulu Sea (Figure 1).
The Palawan Province is an archipelago consisting of 1,700 islands and is the largest province in the Philippines with a land area of about 1.5 million hectares. The province and its largest island, the Palawan Island, are considered to be remote in that some of the southern islands are, for spatial description, closer to Malaysia than to the other provinces in the Philippines. The province's coastline is about 2,000 km long and consists of coves and bays along the coast. The terrestrial topography consists of highlands and rolling terrains. Palawan is a narrow archipelago having 45% of its terrestrial surface covered in mountains with slopes greater than 30%. The local vegetation types include beach forests, tropical lowland evergreen dipterocarp rain forests, lowland semi-deciduous forests, montane forests, and ultramafic and limestone forests.
Proximity to major cities
|
ClimateThere are two types of seasons in the region: summer and rainy. In the western half of the island (West Philippine Sea on its west), the summer (dry) months are from November to April while the wet months are from May to October. The eastern half of the island, located in a rain shadow, has seasons that are less pronounced but are relatively dry from November to April and is wet during the rest of the year (Figure 2). The island experiences a short, one to three month dry season; the east coast becomes progressively drier than the west coast from north to south (WWF).
There is a less frequency of typhoon occurrences in Palawan except in the northern towns. Warm weather is from March to May and the cool months are from December to February. During the west months, July to August, there is heavy precipitation which is often accompanied by the southwest monsoon (Palawan local government).
|
Written by Rodell Zorilla
Works Cited
Works Cited