6 research outputs found
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International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Although many natural disasters have hydro-meteorological antecedents, little advantage has been taken of the availability of weather and climate data, advanced diagnostics and seasonal predictions for disaster risk management. In this study, methodologies for use of hydro-meteorological data in hazard risk assessment are presented laying the ground work for future dynamic hazard predictions.
A high-resolution assessment of natural hazards, vulnerability to hazards and of multi- hazard disaster risk has been carried out for Sri Lanka. Drought, flood, cyclone and landslide hazards, and vulnerability were identified using data from Sri Lankan government agencies. Drought and flood prone areas were mapped using rainfall data that was gridded at a resolution of 10-km. Cyclone and landslide hazardousness were mapped based on long-term historical incidence data. Indices for regional industrial development, infrastructure development and agricultural production were estimated based on proxies. An assessment of regional food insecurity from the World Food Programme was used in the analysis. Records of emergency relief were used in estimating a spatial proxy for disaster risk. A multi-hazardousness map was developed for Sri Lanka. The hazardousness estimates for drought, floods, cyclones, landslides were weighted for their associated disaster risk with proxies for economic losses to provide a risk map or a hotspots map. Our principal findings are summarized below.
Useful hazard and vulnerability analysis can be carried out with the type of data that is available in-country. The hazardousness estimates for droughts, floods, cyclones and landslides show marked spatial variability. Vulnerability shows marked spatial variability as well. Thus, the resolution of analysis needs to match the resolution of spatial variations in relief, climate and other features. The higher resolution information is needed in planning and action for disaster management.
Multi-hazard analysis brought out regions of high risk in Sri Lanka such as the Kegalle and Ratnapura Districts in the South West and Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Mullaitivu and Killinochchi districts in the North-East and the districts of Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Ampara and Matale that contain some of the sharpest hill slopes of the central mountain massifs.
There is a distinct seasonality to risks posed by drought, floods, landslides and cyclones. Whereas the Eastern slopes regions have hotspots during the boreal fall and early winter, the Western slopes regions is risk prone in the summer and the early fall. Thus attention is warranted not only on Hot-Spots but also on “Hot-Seasons”.
Climate data was useful in estimating hazardousness in the case of droughts, floods and cyclones and for estimating flood and landslide risk. The methodologies presented here for hazard analysis of floods and droughts present an explicit link between climate and hazard. The results from this study coupled with the high-resolution seasonal climate prediction techniques developed in a related study point the way to using historical,
current and predictive climate information to inform disaster management policy, and early warning systems.
Climate, environmental and social change such as deforestation, urbanization and war affect the hazardousness and vulnerability. It is more difficult to quantify such changes rather than the baseline conditions.
Our analysis was carried out for a period since 1960 that included a period of civil war after 1983. This war affected the North-East of the island in particular. To put things in context, while natural disasters accounted for 1,483 fatalities in this period, the civil wars accounted for over 65,000. Wars and conflict poses complications for hazard and vulnerability analysis. Yet, the vulnerabilities created by the war make such efforts to reduce disaster risks all the more important.
Technical details of our work have been included in a case study published by the World Bank and in journals listed in the outputs
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Analysis of impacts of climate variability on malaria transmission in Sri Lanka and the development of an early warning system
This project set goals of bringing together a multi-disciplinary, multi-national and multi-institutional team to address the relationship between climate and malaria in aggregate terms for Sri Lanka, and in detail for the Uva Province to help develop early warning systems. The project was undertaken in partnership with Sri Lanka’s Anti-Malaria Campaign (AMC) and the Foundation for Environment, Climate and Technology, Sri Lanka (FECT). Overall, we have accomplished the projected outcomes in spite of several setbacks
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International Research Institute for Climate and Society
Contemporary ecological research supports focus on the preservation of habitats and the preservation of keystone species that are critical to the ecological character of the habitats. Conservation of endangered species works best with attention not only to the species but also to the needs of the people who may be adjacent to or bordering habitats.
Southern Sri Lanka fall into the category of globally important biodiversity hotspots. The biggest land animal, the elephant is the keystone species in Sri Lanka outside the highlands. The population of elephants in Sri Lanka is estimated to be between 3000 and 4,000; yet there has been an alarming loss of 1000 elephants during from 1990-2003. Given its island setting and rich hydro-climatic data, Sri Lanka provides a unique opportunity to study the dynamics leading to species loss.
Our work in this project was initially motivated by the practical concerns of our project partners in the Mahaweli River Basin in Sri Lanka where the human-elephant conflict was a major problem. The question that arose was: “Are the climate, water availability and river basin management practices contributing to conflict between elephants and people?” If this was indeed the case, then, could one adaptively manage the river basin, organize agricultural practices, and prioritize conflict mitigation options such as separate habitat enrichment programs? Moreover, could we propose various adaptive measures in changes if one could monitor the climate and environmental conditions and take advantage of seasonal climate predictions
Epochal changes in the association between malaria epidemics and El Niño in Sri Lanka
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens