Distribution notes on the Endangered freshwater crab Ceylonthelphusa armata Ng (1995) (Crustacea: Brachyura: Gecarcinucidae) in Sri Lanka

There are 52 species of freshwater crabs in Sri Lanka and 51 of them are endemic. There are several species that are known only from a single locality. Ceylonthelphusa armata is such a species, and we have initiated a study to record the distribution of this species as its typical locality is heavily polluted at Kadugannawa. At present C. armata is known from six localities, and this information will be useful to facilitate the conservation of the species by assessing the Red List

A Review of Urban Water Body Challenges and Approaches: (1) Rehabilitation and Remediation

We review how urbanization alters aquatic ecosystems, as well as actions that managers can take to remediate urban waters. Urbanization affects streams by fundamentally altering longitudinal and lateral processes that in turn alter hydrology, habitat, and water chemistry; these effects create physical and chemical stressors that in turn affect the biota. Urban streams often suffer from multiple stressor effects that have collectively been termed an “urban stream syndrome,” in which no single factor dominates degraded conditions. Resource managers have multiple ways of combating the urban stream syndrome. These approaches range from whole-watershed protection to reach-scale habitat rehabilitation, but the prescription must be matched to the scale of the factors that are causing the problem, and results will likely not be immediate because of lengthy recovery times. Although pristine or reference conditions are far from attainable, urban stream rehabilitation is a worthy goal because appropriate actions can provide ecosystem improvements as well as increased ecosystem service benefits for human society

SUITABILITY OF PACKAGE DEAL CONTRACTS FOR RESIDENTIAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Residential construction is becoming an increasingly important subdivision of construction industry, necessitating advanced procurement methods in order to accommodate changing requirements. Commonly, residential construction demand is met by the informal sector of construction industry. With the changing environments, a novel trend of package deal contracts is spreading in the context bringing in formalities to the residential construction projects. Package deal is a developed procurement method with unique characteristics. However, in selecting an appropriate procurement method for a specific housing construction project, proper understanding of characteristics of available procurement options are utmost of importance. Therefore, this research aimed to elucidate the suitability of package deal contracts for residential building construction, against time, cost and quality benefits. Study identified 43 time, cost, and quality related expectations through a comprehensive literature survey, which residential construction clients would expect to be born of package deal contracts. The factors were ranked against industry experts' view and further, tested via a survey with a sample of clients with package deal and informal construction experience. Data were analysed for medians and standard deviations in to rank the factors considering the reliability. Consequently, experts appreciated time and cost benefits of package deal contracts over informal construction. Importantly, projects start quickly with known early commitments under package deal contracts. However, informal construction offers better quality with attractive finished products. Therefore, the package deal is suitable for the clients, who are concerned of time and cost benefits, while informal construction is suitable for the client’s with prime concern of quality benefits