Browsing by Author "Gunawardhana, L.M.A.P."

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Comparison and review of Environmental Management Systems among the government institutions in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2015) Gunawardhana, L.M.A.P.; Jayawickrama, K.G.G.K.
The organizations in the world have been suffering from various types of environmental problems in the recent past due to their activities, products and services. Environmental Management System (EMS) is a comprehensive tool to assess and ensure the mitigation of environmental issues. EMS is a part of the overall management system that includes organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing, and maintaining the environmental policies. EMS follows Stewart and Deming‟s quality management approach. EMS ensures positive environmental impacts, improves product quality, competitiveness and production process, reduce expenses, liabilities, insurance premiums, and waste management cost and enhance market responsiveness. The objective of this research is to compare the performance of EMS among the government institutions in Sri Lanka. Ten Divisional Secretariat offices in Kurunegala district in the North Western Province in Sri Lanka have been selected for the purpose. Interviews of key informants were the main source of primary data under six EMS criteria, namely, commitment and environmental policy, planning, implementation, measurements and evaluation, audit and review. SPSS and MS Excel were used for data analysis. There was a considerable variation among the institutions. The researcher found that the success level of the implementation of EMS is positively correlated with leadership qualities. Generally, the implementation of EMS in government institutions is weak and performance rank order illustrated that the major weaknesses were lack of awareness of the EMS among the employees, poor auditing, lack of EMS training, and lack of condign attitudes. EMS should be launched to improve the EMS training in order to minimize negative environmental impacts and to provide effective service to the public.
Living with drought: a study in the north central province of Sri Lanka from 1955 to 2014
(2016) Gunawardhana, L.M.A.P.
Drought is one of the environmental hazards occurred due to both natural and human activities. Drought can be identified as the socio-natural hazard and it can be transferred into a disaster. Millions of people throughout the world are affected by droughts. North Central Province (NCP) of Sri Lanka more vulnerable to drought because it was found that once every 2-3 years, there is a high potential for occurring severe drought in the NCP. Lack of rainfall within the expected period of time is the major reason for drought in the NCP. According to past 60-year monthly rainfall data from 1955 to 2014 covering nine meteorological stations, it was found that rainfall is not equally distributed in the NCP. Rainfall is decreasing towards the North West parts while rainfall is increasing towards the South East parts of the NCP. There are 1.2 millions of population in the NCP among them 73% of the household heads practice agriculture as the major livelihood. People in the NCP are suffering from impacts of drought frequently but they are living with drought using both on-farm and off-farm adaptation strategies. These adaptation strategies of the people have been changed with the passage of time. Farmers without agricultural assets are most vulnerable to drought. Animal husbandry of the NCP has been reduced drastically due to various reasons. Even at present, traditional knowledge system is being practiced by the old farmers to identify and forecast drought in the NCP. Village tank cascade system in the NCP has been playing a vast role to mitigate impacts of drought in the past and present to minimize negative impacts of drought. However, drought cannot be avoided but impacts can be minimized through the proactive approach than a reactive approach where national drought policy and Drought Mitigation Centre with responsible parties are essential components to reduce the impacts of drought in the NCP in the long term. Further, both on-farm and off-farm adaptation strategies should be promoted among the people particularly among farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture to cope with drought impacts and achieve resilience.
Spatial and Temporal Variation of Drought Hazard in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Gunawardhana, L.M.A.P.; Dharmasiri, L.M.
Drought is the deficiency of water for various purposes or shortage of rainfall within the expected period of time. There is no universal accepted definition for drought because it is vary from region to region. But impacts of drought are higher than other natural hazards because drought can be extended large geographical area. Sri Lanka is one of the countries which is highly prone to drought hazard. Especially, North Central Province (NCP) is wholly situated in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka which receives less than 1750mm annual average rainfall therefore more vulnerable for drought. More than 95% of people in the NCP are depend on agriculture. Due to the frequent drought events they losses their agricultural production causing many socio-economic and environmental issues. The study was aimed at to identify spatial and temporal variation of drought in the NCP using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Geographical Information System (GIS). Both primary and secondary data were used for this research. Primary data were collected using questionnaire, group discussion, interviews. Secondary data were collected from the Department of Meteorology. Nine meteorological stations covering last 60 years and the NCP selected for the study. GIS interpolation technique used to identify spatial distribution of rainfall over NCP. Time series analysis and calculating SPI were used to identify temporal distribution of drought in the NCP. Results highlighted there is a significant variation of spatial distribution of rainfall in the area. Negative SPI values clearly indicate drought events is frequent and increasing during the past six decades. It was evident that the farmers have been adopting different techniques to face the challengers of drought hazards.