Environmental issues associated with inappropriate land usepattern: The case on Bahirava Kanda Grama Niladhari Division in Kandy District

Abstract

Inappropriate land use patterns in Sri Lanka has created many environmental problems. Population growth, urbanization, rising land prices, and intensive agricultural activities are the main reasons that cause inappropriate land use patterns. The Bahirava Kanda Grama Niladhari Division which belongs to the Gangawata Korale Divisional Secretariat of the Kandy District is a hilly area close to the Kandy municipality. As the study area close to Kandy city, for the land. As such, the land is severely misused. The main objective of this study is to study the environmental problems associated with the inappropriate land use pattern in the Bahirakanda GND area. To achieve the target, 35 households were selected through the simple random sampling method from the total number of families in the study area. Both primary data and secondary data were used in this study. Questionnaire methods, interviews, and observations are used to collect primary data. In the secondary data review, information was collected under books, journals, reports, maps, and office data. Quantitative data analysis and descriptive data analysis were used in data analysis and Geographic Information System was used to create maps. MS Excel is also used to create tables, charts, etc. for data analysis. This analysis revealed that the slopes of the study area are mostly used for the informal house constructions. In Bahirava kanda, the number of informal house constructions with risk is 38%. As a result, problems of landslide risk, maximum soil erosion, forest degradation, groundwater pollution, and sedimentation of waterways were identified within the area. In order to mitigate these problems, proposals for mapping of landslide hazard areas and public awareness, Prevention of fragmentation of lands, growing vegetation on the surface of the land, controlling of drainage systems parallel to the slope gradient, recommendations of NBRO for construction can be proposed.