Departmental Conferences

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Browsing Departmental Conferences by Author "Abenayake, C"

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    Conflicting interactions between elephant habitats and human settlements; a case of Hambanthota
    (Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2019-11-14) Herat, HMM; Abenayake, C; Wattege, P; Fernando, KD; Dayaratne, R
    Conflicts between human and elephants are one of the most widespread regional issues in Sri Lanka, particularly in the dry zone. Moreover, human-elephant conflict is increasing, predominantly in areas where expansion of human settlements cultivation, water sources and other developments. Human-elephant conflicts in these regions are increasing despite the management interventions of the government authorities. The impact of human-elephant conflict may take several forms including human death, agricultural crop losses, infrastructural damages and disturbances to the daily routine of the community such as travel to work and school. Habitat fragmentation and habitat loss can be considered as the main reasons for increasing human-elephant conflicts. Habitat fragmentation can be defined as a landscape ecological process involving both habitat shrinking and the dissection of habitat. There is a strong relationship between the habitat fragmentation and the habitat loss. This research work analyses how habitat fragmentation as a process affects on habitat loss of elephants and human-elephant conflicts in Hambanthota region. Therefore, this research questions the causative factors for increasing elephant human conflicts in Hambanthota region based on the information collected through secondary sources, key informant interviews and field observations. Further this research discusses how to manage the human settlements development coherent with the biodiversity particularly elephants’ habitats. The paper recommends how to adopt the concept of co-management in order to achieve the twin objectives of biodiversity conservation and safeguarding human security in the process of spatial strategy making.
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    Evaluating the age-friendliness of transport system in Sri Lankan cities
    (Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2023-08-26) Ranasinghe, R; Hewawasam, C; Abenayake, C; Gunaruwan, TL
    Nowadays as one of the key areas of urban planning and design, health concerns of the community, with high vulnerability on older population have re-appear. Over the time, the elderly population around the world are predicted to increase and Sri Lanka follows the same trend. In this context, the concept of ‘Age-friendly Cities’ introduced by WHO comes to play. WHO has identified, ‘Transport and Mobility’ as one of the eight priority domains for policy action in order to build age-friendly cities. Since without transportation, other facilities and services are inaccessible, transportation plays a major role in a city design. How to effectively understand the age-friendliness of a city’s transport system and diagnose the underlying problems of urban development have therefore become critical in managing this demographic change. Previous studies have not yet provided a proper methodology for quantification of age-friendliness of transport system in Sri Lankan cities. This study aims to evaluate the age-friendliness of transport system in Sri Lankan cities by incorporating quantitative indicator-based examination. Three case study areas; Negombo, Kurunegala and Kandy, were employed and the results show that the age-friendliness of transport system in each city is 59.29%, 68.25% and 66.98% respectively.
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    Thermal comfort modeling on urban streets
    (Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics, 2023-08-26) Mendis, L; Jayasinghe, A; Abenayake, C; Gunaruwan, TL
    “Walkability” is a vital constituent on Urban Streets and is a sustainable transportation mode for pedestrians in highly urbanized cities. Psychological comfort of pedestrians is predominantly defined by enhancing walkability on urban streets. Thermal comfort is one of the key attributes for pedestrian comfort and wellbeing. This study considers thermal comfort on urban streets in assessing, walkability by considering the Thermal Heat Indexes (THI) and investigating the Predicted Mean Volt (PMV) values. Empirical data were analyzed and discussed the behavior of measured Air Temperature and Thermal Heat Index (THI) values of selected urban streets. To explore the thermal comfort levels on streets, ENVI-met 4.1 computer simulation and analyzed data on Air temperature, Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT) and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) values were used. According to the empirical Data, the THI value is higher on Location 01-Main Street than other urban streets. As per the results of the ENVI-met computer simulation, the changing Building Height scenario indicates a significant effect on the thermal comfort as opposed to the tree lines along both sides of the street. Findings from this research express that increasing building height and increasing tree density by proposing a large expanse of vegetation along streets is significantly associated with the thermal comfort conditions on urban streets and enhance the level of walkability as an effective green transport mode.