Geography
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Item Cause and Effect Analysis of Impacts of Land Cover Changes on Belihuloya Mini-Catchment Area(Postgraduate Institute of Science Research Congress, Sri Lanka., 2024) Gunathilake, K.L.W.I.; Jayawardhana, D.T.; Chandrasekara, C.M.K.N.K.The rapid expansion of human activities has significantly transformed landscapes, leading to major impacts on water resources and ecosystem health. This study comprehensively assessed the transformations within the Belihuloya mini catchment, focusing on the effects of land use and land cover changes. The primary objectives included identifying changes, analyzing trends, and evaluating human perceptions of the impacts on the mini catchment. The study utilised remotely sensed data from 1959, 1988, 2000, and 2020 to assess land use and cover changes over time. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 60 randomly selected households across six Grama Niladhari Divisions within the catchment area. Correlation-based pair-wise analysis, paired t-test analysis, vulnerability value calculation, and interpolation mapping were employed to interpret the data. A cause-and-effect analysis was conducted using the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) framework. The results revealed significant changes in land cover and use over the study period. Forest cover decreased dramatically, from 80% in 1959 to 33% in 1988, primarily due to the expansion of paddy fields and home gardens. Nine major driving forces were identified, highlighting the pressures on the natural environment and wildlife from land and forest clearance for construction. High-altitude areas surrounding the young Belihuloya river faces significant risk due to rapid land use changes, threatening the river's energy flow. The southern region, including Sabaragamuwa University and the Samanalawewa reservoir, is equally vulnerable, potentially compromising the mini-catchment's health. The findings underscore the urgent need for conservation efforts and informed land management practices to mitigate adverse impacts on the mini-catchment ecosystem and ensure sustainable development for future generations.Item Built environment stakeholders and climate change adaptation: the case of Sri Lanka(Emerald group publishing ltd, 2024) Jayathilake, Pasindu; Gunathilake, WathsalaPurpose This study aims to identify key built environment stakeholders in Sri Lanka and to understand their roles and responsibilities in tackling climate change. It also seeks to identify key challenges experienced by stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach Secondary data was systematically reviewed to identify key-built environment stakeholders in Sri Lanka. Thereafter, primary data was collected from a purposively selected sample of 40 built environment experts using a semi-structured interview schedule. The collected data was analyzed using the thematic analysis method. Findings The study identified built environment stakeholders in five sectors, namely, the state sector, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, academia and the general public. It was revealed that the state sector is responsible for policy formation and implementation, while the private sector acts as a financial facilitator. Academia generates and disseminates knowledge on climate change and community-based organizations provide inputs. Key skills and knowledge gaps of stakeholders include a lack of comprehension of the climate change theory and its concepts, lack of awareness on policies and legislation, lack of communication skills, language skills, digital proficiency and lack of integrated working skills. Unified action and equitable representation of all stakeholders is necessary to tackle climate change. Originality/value The original contribution of the paper is its emphasis on the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to the built environment in relation to climate change adaptations alongside its identification of key knowledge gaps among stakeholders.Item Transformational Adaptation in Agriculture under Climate Change: A Case Study in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka.(Indonesian Journal of Geography, 2022) Dharmasiri, L. M.; Jayarathne, M.Transformational adaptation defines as 'changes the fundamental attributes of a system in response to climate and its effects.' Farmers deal with the natural environment and its components such as rainfall, temperature, humidity, and soil condition, which have a high range of variability and uncertainty for their cultivation. The present study focused on the impacts of climate change on the settler community who engage in agriculture as their mainstay and respond to the scenario. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been applied. Twenty samples from a village in the NCP have been selected. Primary outcomes of this study are (a) total awareness of perceptions on climate change; (b) the ambient temperature has been increasing and resulting in more heat stress; (c) frequent and severe occurrence of extreme rainfall anomalies and increasing trend of natural calamities. The area farmers have been adopting several strategies to overcome the negative impacts of climate change, such as transforming from intensification to more intensification that can be identified as Climate Smart Agriculture; crop diversification and adaptation of drought tolerance crops; transforming from agriculture to animal husbandry, and out-migration of unemployed or evicted youth from agriculture to non-agriculture. Institutional involvement is essential to strengthening the adaptative strategies of the people by providing an appropriate crop calendar and suitable crop combination and aware of the way of improving the use of the efficiency of available water for improving the living standard of the people.Item Exploring the Impact of Planned Relocation on Agricultural Income Generation in Sri Lanka: A Case of Landslide Induced Resettlement in Y District(Journal of Regional and City Planning, 2022) Jayasinghe, Naduni; Fernando, Nishara; Amaratunga, Dilanthi; Haigh, Richard; Gunathilake, Kithugasmulle Lekamalage Wathsala IndeevarieThe recent global acknowledgement of the importance of disaster risk reduction (DRR) in steering the world towards sustainable development can be discerned in the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Ironically, certain DRR strategies like planned relocation have often undermined agricultural production, which is paramount for achieving certain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as ‘Zero Poverty’ and ‘Zero Hunger’. This paper explores the impact of planned relocation on the agricultural income generating activities of rural communities relocated under a landslide induced relocation program executed in the Y district of Sri Lanka. Further, it discusses the extent to which the outcomes of said relocation program comply with the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda, thereby informing future policy directions towards planning, designing and executing DRR measures aimed at sustainable development. This study drew on a survey administered among 435 households who have been resettled under said project. The data was analyzed using the descriptive statistical method interactively with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and the MS Excel software. The findings of this study show that relocation has generated unfavorable outcomes for relocatees who depended on agriculture as primary or subsidiary source of income. This group of relocatees was also characterized by pre-existing vulnerabilities, rendering it difficult for them to adapt to the risks and stresses caused by relocation. Agricultural income generating activities are particularly threatened by relocation initiatives, as such activities are reliant on immovable assets like land. Therefore, special attention should be paid to rebuilding livelihoods of agricultural communities in planning, designing and implementing relocation programs. Given the significance of agriculture in achieving certain SDGs, failure to do so will lend to dissonance between DRR measures and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, subduing the efficacy of DRR in protecting development gains.Item Modelling the Learner’s Perspectives on Mobile Learning in Higher Education(University of Colombo School of Computing, 2018) Dolawattha, D.D.M.Mobile learning is a novel learning technique prevailing in the modern world. It has been identified that the important and balanced contribution from different stakeholders are required to create an environment for a better mobile learning experience. There are many reasons for learners to select mobile learning as an environment for their academic activities. The main objective of this study is modelling the learner influencing factors on mobile learning adoption for their learning activities in applicable and sustainable manner. The six main adoption factors are identified for the proposed model namely usefulness, interactivity, motivation, attitude, facilitating conditions, and ease of use. In the evaluation process, online pre-usage and post-usage questionnaires were used to introduce above six factors and 150 undergraduate students were obtained as a sample. Initially, the students were asked to fill the pre-usage questionnaire and secondly, they were obtained in the novel mobile learning system by using its features and facilities and finally, asked to fill the post-usage questionnaire. Results of the present study reveals that the most significant influencing factor is “Interactivity” on the learner’s mobile learning adoption. In conclusion, incorporating interactivity, usefulness, motivation, attitude, facilitating conditions and ease of use into the mobile learning adoption can better explain the learner perspectives in applicable and sustainable mobile learning frameworkItem The Influence on Mobile Learning: Mobile Learning Contents, Higher Education Institutes, and Communication Technology(IEEE, 2020) Dolawattha, D.D.M.In the present era, mobile learning has secured a better position in modern technology base learning paradigms. It surpasses other conventional learning methods because of ubiquity, mobility, attractive content, facilitated connectivity, and institutional engagements. The main objective of this study is to identify how mobile learning content, higher education institute, and communication technology factors influence learners and tcachers when using sustainable mobile learning in higher education. Through the literature reviewn we developed three separate impact models i,e. mobile learning content, higher education institute, and communication technology with separate impact factors. We used pre and post usage survey questionnaires of60 tea0hers and 60 learners to evaluate these models. Primarily, they were asked to fill the pre-usage questionnaire with their initial mobile learning experience. Then, they were allowed to use the modified Moodle mobile app and asked to fill the post-usage questionnaire. The results reveal that the most significant influencing factors are, ease of use in mobile learning content, and facilitating conditions for higher education institutes and communication technology models. Finally, we can conclude that users prefer to have easy to use mobile learning content with better service facilities in higher education institutes and communication technologies.Item Study on human ecological process affecting the spatial distribution of Dengue epidemic: a case study on Colombo district(Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2014) Rathnasekara, S.R.L.S.Item Role of Integrated Economic Circuit Systems in Rural Development: the Changing Trends of the Periodic Market System in Sri Lanka A Case Study of Gampaha District(University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom, 2007) Sakalasooriya, N.Item The Backwardness of Development in the rural peripheries of Rapidly Changing Areas in Sri Lanka: A Case Study of Gampaha District(University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom, 2007) Sakalasooriya, N.
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