Geography of Santa Maria, Bulacan
Santa Maria is a landlocked municipality in the province of Bulacan, Philippines comprising 24 barangays with a total land area of 90.925 square kilometers (35.106 sq mi).
The geographic location of Santa Maria may be regarded favorable with respect to its relative distance from the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Provincial Capitol.
In terms of location relative to its neighboring towns, Santa Maria is bounded on the north by the municipalities of Angat and Pandi; portion of San Jose del Monte City on the south; Norzagaray and other portions of San Jose del Monte City on the east;[1] and municipalities of Marilao and Bocaue on the western side.
This area covers the barangays of Silangan, Mag-asawang Sapa, Pulong Buhangin and some parts of Balasing with landscape ranging from 8 to 18 percent slope.
This river plays a vital role in the physical configuration of Santa Maria and adjacent towns of Norzagaray and San Jose del Monte City as it drains water from these areas.
Santa Maria has a climate “first type” which is defined as having two pronounced seasons: Dry from November to April and wet during the rest of the year.
During these most months, thunderstorms and rain showers causes precipitation in May and June while the rest is primarily due to the southeast monsoon that prevails on this particular part of the year.
On the contrary, this finite resource has been badly contaminated by infiltration of sewage in some shallow wells at barangays San Jose Patag, Catmon, Pulong Buhangin, Santa Clara and Bagbaguin.
However, Batia Series can be found on a relative steeper slopes covering the barangays of Lalakhan, Bagbaguin and Santa Clara.
Tagulod Series on the other hand, covers the barangays of Manggahan, Caysio, Caypombo, Camangyanan, Tumana and Parada which is regarded to be generally utilized under rice production during wet season.
It consists of gently undulating to rolling tuffaceous and sedimentary foot slopes slightly above and adjacent to the plain and free from local flooding hazard.
These areas can be found at barangays Pulong Buhangin, Mag-asawang Sapa, Balasing, Bulac, San Vicente and Guyong.
Using the Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment System (REDAS), the planning team was able to simulate the effect of ground shaking at Santa Maria if the nearest fault line located at San Jose del Monte City would move at magnitude 7 and 5 meter depth earthquake.
