Soil erosion is one of the major factors that contributes to land degradation in the up and mid country of Sri Lanka. It is important to assess the rate of soil erosion under different environmental and socioeconomic contexts to identify and apply suitable management interventions. A number of parametric models have been developed to predict soil erosion at drainage basins. Yet Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) is the most widely used empirical equation for estimating annual soil loss from small agricultural lands. This study was carried out with the objective of developing a land degradation assessment model using a geospatial approach. The study area was Kandaketiya DS division in Badulla district. USLE together with some socioeconomic factors were used to develop the model for predicting land degradation. Slope length (L) and slope gradient (S) factors were derived from Digital Elevation Model. Rainfall erosivity (R) factor was determined using a correlation developed for Sri Lanka in a past research. Soil erodibility (K) factor was derived from the soil map. Crop management (C) factor and Erosion control practices (P) factor related to land cover derived from remotely sensed data taken from the literature. Annual soil erosion was computed using the above factors. The computed soil erosion map was coupled with the socioeconomic factors on population density, agricultural land to man ratio, land to man ratio and number of Samurdhi beneficiaries to assess the land degradation severity. The results showed that marginal tea lands are the highest contributor to soil loss in the study area. According to the study, soil erosion and population density contributed more to the land degradation. A strong negative relationship was found between land degradation and land to man ratio.
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is the largest terrestrial mega herbivore in Asia. Their distribution is highly fragmented and occurs only in thirteen countries
Human induced soil erosion continues to be a major issue in terms of crop production and river water quality of the Upper Mahaweli Catchment Area (UMCA). Although the direct causes of soil erosion are well known, the underlying root causes are embedded in socioeconomic conditions in the society. Many researchers have pointed out that the problem of low adoption is associated with incompatibility of the technology with the prevailing socioeconomic condition of the community. Therefore, an attempt was made to identify the constraints to adopt soil conservation measures in the study area. The study consisted of three steps including a questionnaire survey, in depth interviews and transects walks. According to the results of the study, the investment on soil conservation measures is likely to increase with the farm income, level of awareness and the ownership security of the land. It was identified that even the encroachers (people who encroached the state lands) can be mobilized towards soil conservation to a certain extent through awareness programs. The capacity of the extension service has to be strengthened in order to make the farming community aware of soil conservation. Land alienation programs could make effective changes in soil conservation by giving social values to the land owner through a more secure land tenure system.
The performance assessment is a strategy to diagnose the deficiencies in existing irrigation systems and to take appropriate management options to correct those. Socio-economic evaluation is a part of this assessment to get a better understanding of the performance of the farming society within the irrigation system. This study was carried out to analyze the performance within Mahaweli System C by means of spatially varying socioeconomic indicators considering the Medagama management block as the study area. The education attainment, quality of housing, access to household consumer durables, access to vehicles in households, and income level of household were the selected indicators to study the socio-economic variability within the study area. A hamlet was taken as the smallest spatial unit to collect data and for mapping purposes. The overall performance index was obtained by summing up the set of indicators by providing relative weights. All the indices were mapped to show the spatial distribution and variability. According to the derived results, the origin of the settlers, the literacy level of the children, their motivation to achieve a better living condition are the factors, which influence on the variability of the socio-economic performance. A medium socio-economic performance was observed in all hamlets except in Henanigala South, where the Adiwasi people are settled. It seems that they have not well adjusted to the system even after three decades of settling. The stakeholder analysis identified the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka and farmer organizations as key stakeholders who can influence on the success of the system performance. A socio-economic evaluation is important to get a feedback of the system performance. Irrigation system performance is highly influenced by other factors such as rainfall and climate conditions, cropping patterns and crop water requirement, soil type, management factors, marketing and other monetary factors. Therefore, an overall irrigation system evaluation is needed with an overall assessment, considering the technical and socio-economic indicators. Thus, this system should be further evaluated by using indices of water delivery performance, financial, productivity and environmental performances. It is important to assess the spatial variability as well as the temporal variability of the performance to identify the improvements of the system performance with time.
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