International Symposium on ICT for Sustainable Development (ICTSD 2016)
http://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/13967
2024-03-29T15:27:14ZICT for Sustainable Development
http://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/14001
ICT for Sustainable Development
Wijeyarathne, P.G.
Socio-economic developments will not be sustainable without proper monitoring and controlling. Such development will lead to economic losses and waste of natural resources. Monitoring and controlling requires accurate information on time. Collection of timely information, processing them and distributing among various organizations are essential. Therefore Information and Communication technology (ICT) has a significant role to play in sustainable development. However, the limitation to access to information or “digital divide” is one of the problems to be solved. Collecting required information for decision making should be highly efficient. Data should be collected from people at grass root level and information should reach them quickly too. Data collection through government organizations only will not be sufficient enough. Crowd sourcing is emerging as a promising data collection method. However, accuracy of data collected through crowd sourcing will be a problem. According to the statistics provided by the Telephone Regulatory Commission (TRC) Sri Lanka, there were 718,168 fixed Internet subscribers in Sri Lanka while Mobile Broadband subscribers reached 3,484,079 by March 2016. It is nearly 5 times than the Fixed Internet subscribers. Therefore, mobile computing should be used to reach people in remote areas where fixed communication lines are not available. Internet of Things (IOT) is becoming popular as “the infrastructure of the information society”. IOT allows devices to communicate each other. According to International Telecommunications Union, IOT is a network of physical devices, vehicles and buildings embedded with electronics, software, sensors and actuators that allows them to collect and exchange data. These sensor networks can be used for monitoring and controlling purposes as well as for data collection. Complexity of these technologies should be removed before using them in real world applications where non technical people are engaged in. These technologies help us to collect massive amounts of data within a short period of time. Analyzing and mining these data is essential for decision making where conventional techniques may fail. Big data analysis is an emerging area of study where these issues are addressed. Accordingly, ICT with other necessary analytical tools is becoming a catalyst for sustainable development.
2016-01-01T00:00:00ZWhat we are facing in the Mekong River Delta: Dual or multiple threats and opportunities to overcome
http://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/14000
What we are facing in the Mekong River Delta: Dual or multiple threats and opportunities to overcome
Thuyen, Le Xuan
The Mekong River Delta is well known as big rice bowl and fish stock for more than 20 million of people. However, there occurred serious problems during the last few decades such as deadly floods (2000 and 2011), bank collapses along the rivers, land loss and encroachment on the coastline, intense intrusion of saline water, extreme drought and water shortage (2015-2016). This paper concerns multiple threats in the Mekong River Delta - what are going on now, what will be in the future. Especially on the widespread consequences of irreversible and long-term process are discussed in the context of current global warming. As all modern deltas - relatively young and unstable landforms, the Mekong River delta is formed by the accumulation of sediments derived from its catchment area. Unfortunately, its fate is exposed to the risk of sediment starvation caused by the dams constructed in Mekong catchment area and also to the risk of sea level rising. Moreover, land sinking due to self-compaction occurring inside of substrate and underground water extraction makes the situation become worse.
Based on the research results of Mekong delta subsidence monitoring network (since 2010), it is demonstrated that shallow subsidence is a main factor that conducting a high effective sea level rise, which is few times greater than the mean rate of normal geostatic sea level rise. In reality, the greatest values 3-4 cm/year of shallow subsidence are observed particularly under mangrove forest at some parts of coastal zone, which is in contrast to the landward value of around 1 cm/year. In consequence the low-lying land could be submerged completely and faster than the rate estimated in National Report “Scenarios of climate change and sea level rise for Vietnam”. Our results of pairwise monitoring demonstrate also a positive role of mangrove roots to weaken the land sinking rate. On the other side, the human activities impose locally a lot of serious impacts to the nature. The constructions of polder embankment for rice cultivation induce a series of consequence. Soil contamination by pesticide under intensive rice cultivation (7crops/2 years) in flood free land is clearly higher than that in regions of new alluvium entering and renewing soil fertility during annual flood. Coming back to the question of land subsidence in the Mekong River Delta, although we did much research efforts, however there still remain a lot of problems to investigate such as shallow gas emission, reduction of new alluvium entering inside the polder embankment to compensate land sinking, occurrence of mega-drought and corresponding underground water extraction. These are all slowly-varying processes and it is needed to do a long-term monitoring. Although some approaches of integrated management of the rivers is suggested in order to slow down these processes, land sinking is an unstoppable process occurring globally in all modern deltas. Hence, we may learn something from individual efforts in diverse local practices and share the lessons between people who are suffering the same problem. That is one of reasons the subsidence monitoring network is extending progressively in the big deltas in South East Asia region, i.e., Red River delta and Mekong delta (Vietnam), Chaophraya delta (Thailand), and Irrawaddy delta (Myanmar).
2016-01-01T00:00:00ZCarbon sequestration in the sediments of a self-regenerating mangrove in Can Gio mangrove biosphere reserve, Ho Chi Minh City
http://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/13999
Carbon sequestration in the sediments of a self-regenerating mangrove in Can Gio mangrove biosphere reserve, Ho Chi Minh City
Hân, VũTrầnHoài; Sơn, PhạmThanh; Hương, Phạm Quỳnh
The surface sediments (0-15 cm) were collected from a self-regenerating mangrove in Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve to: 1/ assess the variation of the sedimentary Corg contents along with the regeneration (from 2008 to 2016) and 2/ assess the current potential of these sediments in carbon sequestration. The data was analyzed with STATGRAPHIC Centurion XVI as this is user-friendly software and a strong tool for statistical analysis in forestry. The Corg content tended to decrease with depth. Due to the presence of branches and trucks on the mangrove floor at the beginning of the self-regeneration, the average Corg content acquired in 2008 was higher than the other times of observation. The decomposition of these tough woody materials seemed to be facilitated by the exposure to heat. Moreover, the acidic pH and moderate salinity of the sediments probably ameliorated the activity of the sediment microbes in decomposing the organic matter, resulted in the lowest content of Corg in 2012. The Corg contents in the study area in 2014 and 2016 were comparable to other intact mangroves. The average amount of carbon sequestrated in the sediments in 2016 was 22.9 ton.m-2 and tended to increase with depth, probably related to the anoxic condition in the deep layers which might resulted from the deposition of fluvial sediments.
2016-01-01T00:00:00ZComparative evaluation of three environmental flow calculation methods at Ketawala anicut of Aththanagalu Oya, Sri Lanka
http://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/13998
Comparative evaluation of three environmental flow calculation methods at Ketawala anicut of Aththanagalu Oya, Sri Lanka
Udayanga, N.W.B.A.L.; Najim, M.M.M.
Calculation of Environmental Flows (EFs), which are required for the sustenance of aquatic ecosystems in their original pristine state, often emerge as a prominent challenge to the sustainable management of water resources due to their complicity and difficulty of estimation. Being a tropical country that is heavily depended on its agriculture based economy, Sri Lanka often face the challenge of EF estimation during diverse irrigational and drinking water extractions. Lack of technology and expertise, and limitations in the long-term data have directly contributed for the wide utilization of rapid EF estimation methods. Therefore, the current study intends to evaluate the performance of such three widely practiced EF estimation methods, namely Tennant, IUCN and CEA methods for the EF estimation at Ketawala irrigational scheme. The Hydrologic Engineering Centre - Hydrologic Modelling System (HEC-HMS) version 3.5 model was calibrated and validated for the Aththanagalu Oya catchment and the daily river flow values for the past thirty five years (1981-2015) were generated at the pre-weir of the Ketawala anicut. The flow duration curve at the pre-weir of the Ketawala anicut was constructed (via the Gumbel approach) using the above simulated flow regime and the EFs that are applicable for the anicut were estimated via Tennant, IUCN and CEA methods in accordance with the standard methodologies. The Tennant method recommended an EF regime of 4.08 m3/s to be maintained at the post weir of the Ketawala anicut, while IUCN and CEA methods recommended EFs of 11.11 and 11.91 m3/s, respectively. Yet, EFs recommended by all these methods mostly remained higher than the average monthly flows in the dry season while considerably lower than the average monthly flows in the wet season at Ketawala, limiting the practical applicability of the estimated EFs. Furthermore, all these methods remained subjective and less responsive to the variations in the hydrological regime, while neglecting other major ecological components (biota and physic-chemical factors etc.) in an aquatic ecosystem. Hence, regardless of their wide applicably for EF estimation in Sri Lanka, the Tennant, IUCN and CEA methods failed to yield practically and environmentally acceptable EFs for the Ketawala anicut.
2016-01-01T00:00:00Z