Abstract:
The Kelani river bank catchment area is a rich area with biodiversity and
natural resources. Currently, many environmental problems have emerged in
Sri Lanka. Among them, many adverse effects and problems have been
occurred to the biodiversity and the natural resources related to the catchment
area of the Kelani river bank due to the change of land use. The objective of
this research study is to investigate the environmental problems that emerged
due to inappropriate land use of the Kelani river bank. The selected area for
this research study is the Kelani riverbank area of Mattakkuliya Grama
Niladhari Division of Colombo Divisional Secretariat. The mixed method is
used in conducting this study as questionnaires and observations are utilized
as the research equipment. Data were collected through questionnaires from
30 randomly selected individuals from the related research area. Google Earth
Pro was utilized to indicate temporary land-use change. The collected data
were analysed using MS Excel and GIS. According to the data analysis, it was
identified that many environmental problems have been occurred due to the
inappropriate land use of the Kelani river catchment area. They are flood
hazards due to the erosion of the river banks, damages to biodiversity due to
the strong winds due to the loss of mangroves, unauthorized sand miming,
garbage disposal, growth of aquatic plants, rowing boats, estuary pollution.
Therefore, the main reasons for these problems are the area being a highlypopulated
area, the increase of developed areas, irregular constructions and
disposal of waste to water by factories. Even though, many implementations
have been suggested to minimize these problems they are not activated
properly. Therefore, implementing new rules and regulations, conducting
programmes to inform the general public and strengthening the conservation
scheme can be regarded as the recommendations for the research problem of
this study.
