Browsing by Author "Nianthi, K.W.G.R."

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Climate Change Research in Sri Lanka
(University of Kelaniya, 2005) Nianthi, K.W.G.R.
Climate is a dynamic component of the environment, which has a direct and an indirect influence on man and his activities. Most commonly, climate is known as the long-term average weather condition prevailing over an area. Climate is dynamic in many respects; for example, it varies in time and space, and changes occur over sufficiently long period of time. This paper summarises past and present research of the climatic changes of Sri Lanka. A few climates related scientists have started descriptive level studies since late 18th century. A number of studies have been carried out on the climate change in Sri Lanka since later part of the last century. Statistical analyses have been started in the 1950s. After this period the scope and the depth of climate change studies have increased. Climate change in Sri Lanka is mainly characterised by the temporal and spatial variations of temperature as well as rainfall conditions. In general, all the climate change studies reveal that the annual average surface air temperature has been rising in all parts of Sri Lanka. The positive temperature trends are noticeable during the Northeast Monsoon and the First Inter-Monsoon period. On the contrary, rainfall has been decreasing in most of the stations during recent period. Precipitation in the Southwest Monsoon decreased in the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka since the last century. Some of the studies have found that the negative anomalies of rainfall are evident on the western slopes of the Central Highlands in Sri Lanka. All annual temperature series in Sri Lanka is correlated with the global temperature anomalies and the agreement during the last decades is very striking. As far as the rainfall is concerned the observations of a decreasing trend in Sri Lanka corresponds to the global trends. Future predictions on climate change will be briefly focused in this paper.
Importance of ICT in building landslide resilient community: Contemporary status and future needs
(Department of Zoology and Environmental Management, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2016) Vasanthakumary, S.; Nianthi, K.W.G.R.
Information and communication technology have now become an essential tool to build the community resilience towards landslide hazard. To face the landslide hazard with minimal impacts, community people should have better access to information and communication system. However, lack of accessibility of information and the inefficient communication system was found as important challenges in making the community resilience. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to assess the accessibility of communication facilities and information during the pre and post disaster phases of landslide hazard. This study was conducted in 8 Grama Niladari Divisions which are considered as a landslide prone areas of the Rattota Divisional Secretariat Division of Matale District. Questionnaire survey and interviews were accommodated to collect the necessary data and information. A sample of 270 households was selected based on the stratified random sampling method for the questionnaire survey. Since the study area consists of both estate and rural community, diverse patterns were identified. The study reveals that poor communication facilities in the study area have caused a number of problems to community people as well as officials during the emergency situation. Landslide relevant information and early warning messages were not reaching the entire community due to the inefficient communication system. In terms of mode of communication, telephone and direct instructions were found important methods with effective progress. Subsequently, both television and radio play quite an important role. It was found that only 2% of the respondents have the accessibility of internet facility. Though social media can play a crucial role in spreading out the information, it plays an unimportant in the study area as usage of social media was found to be low in the order. Apart from this “Word of mouth” was identified as a well-known method and it worked well in the past during an emergency situation to share the information with adjoining community people. It was found that, in terms of contact with the relevant officials, 53% of households possess the contact number of Grama Niladari for reporting purposes while only about 2% had the contact number of National Building Research Organization which is considered as most relevant institution in the landslide risk reduction process. Even though, institutional interventions seem to be quite good with a gradual increase of involvements, availability of information was found low in the order and still exists as a major challenge in making the better accessibility of information. Similarly, community people had a lack of knowledge of existing network associated with the landslide risk management in the study area. Therefore, this study suggests that better communication system and access to the right information should be ensured to the entire community to achieve better progress in the landslide risk reduction and making the landslide resilient community.