Coastal zone management in Sri Lanka: A lesson after recent naval accidents

Ratnayake, Amila Sandaruwan; Perera, U.L.H.P.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113994

Cited by 23 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…One of the most alarming marine disasters ever [59][60][61] occurred in 2021, in the Indian Ocean, when the cargo vessel MV X-Press Pearl burned for almost two weeks following an explosion on 25 May. The incident was called a "new kind of oil spill" [62] as a toxic mix of plastics and chemicals spread into the water.…”

Section: Release Of Substances After Fires/explosions: Lessons From T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Accidents in the Brazilian Amazon: Potential Risks to the Aquatic Environment

et al. 2023

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Although the Brazilian Amazon is still one of the most well-conserved environments in the world, it contains an extensive network of waterways that are used by a wide range of vessels that transport both people and cargo, as well as undertaking other activities. To plan environmental risk disaster strategies here, the potential effects of technological disasters, including marine accidents, must be taken into consideration. This paper seeks to redress this by providing a review of the possible risks to the Amazon aquatic environment that could result from various types of marine accidents. While the Amazon region has been researched worldwide, both extensively and intensively, regarding land use, climate, and environmental characterization, work in this field is scarce. A review of the main environmental characteristics of the Amazon is provided, including a description of common marine accidents that have occurred in this region. The environmental impacts experienced by the aquatic environment due to marine accidents worldwide were reviewed from the scientific literature to examine potential risks to the Amazon waterways. It was found that marine accidents, such as fire/explosions and the sinking of ships with different types of cargo, can cause the spillage of oil and other hazardous materials, causing catastrophic damage to the aquatic environment. Changes in the hydrological characteristics of rivers, including unexpected changes in the weather, such as heavy rain and winds, may also influence pollutant dispersion. Initiatives to deal with these technological hazards in the Amazon basin should also consider the potential social and environmental impacts in the protected areas of this region. It is hoped that this paper can serve as a starting point toward the governance and planning of risk disaster management actions, which are aimed at reducing the negative environmental impacts caused by marine accidents in the region.

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Section: Release Of Substances After Fires/explosions: Lessons From T...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Accidents in the Brazilian Amazon: Potential Risks to the Aquatic Environment

et al. 2023

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“…The shape of Sri Lanka like a droplet promotes a dynamic beach environment with active longshore currents (Amalan et al 2018). Accordingly, beach erosion is one of the main issues in coastal zone management (Palamakumbure et al 2020;Ratnayake and Perera 2022), and a few researchers focus continuous attention to study coastal erosion in Sri Lanka (Lin and Pussella 2017;Senevirathna et al 2018;Weerasingha and Ratnayake 2022). However, the impacts of grain sizes on coastal erosion are poorly investigated yet in Sri Lanka.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grain size distribution of modern beach sediments in Sri Lanka

Perera

Ratnayake

Weerasingha

et al. 2023

Anthropocene Coasts

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Grain size distributions are widely used to describe sedimentary geochemistry, depositional environment, and sediment transportation. The objective of this study is to analyze grain size distributions of modern sandy beach sediments in Sri Lanka. Sediment samples (n = 90) were collected from beach berm, representing the entire coastline of Sri Lanka. Grain sizes were determined by the dry-sieving method. Statistical parameters such as mean size, sorting, skewness, and kurtosis were calculated using GRADISTATV9.1 software for all the sieved sediment samples. Grain size variations (108.2 – 609.8 µm) show that Sri Lanka mainly consists of medium sand, whereas the northeast part of the country mixes with fine sand due to the influence of Bengal fan sediments. The variations of skewness (-0.229 – 0.446) and sorting (1.305 – 2.436) indicate symmetrical distributed moderately sorted samples. These variations specify a moderate energy depositional environment/wave action around the coastline of Sri Lanka. In addition, grain size analysis confirmed relatively high and low energy deposition environments on the west and east coasts, respectively. Accordingly, the west coast is more vulnerable to coastal erosion compared to the east coast of Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study provides the baseline grain size distribution data that can be used in decision-making for coastal zone management by mitigating beach erosion.

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“…The management of MSW is a severe problem in Sri Lanka as well; it was estimated that 7000 tons of solid waste were produced daily, with 60% coming from the heavily populated western area (CEJ, 2021). Meanwhile, sudden catastrophic activities such as the MV X‐Press Pearl accident have added more waste to Sri Lanka (Perera et al., 2022; Ratnayake & Perera, 2022). According to estimates, 4.8 billion of waste is collected annually from the country, and dumping waste in open lands is the most prevalent technique (Bandara, 2011; Dharmasiri, 2020; Iqbal et al., 2022; Rupasinghe & Pieris, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annual fluctuation of gas concentration within the landfill surface layer in a tropical climate: A case study of a municipal wasteyard

Herath,

Buddhima,

Gunathilake

et al. 2023

Environmental Quality Mgmt

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This study looks at the annual variations in landfill gas concentrations within the surface layer of the dump as well as the effect of climatic factors on these variations under the tropical climate. The experiment was carried out at part of the Karadiyana landfill, Sri Lanka, containing old mixed municipal solid waste covered by vegetation. The gas concentrations of the landfill surface layer were measured from three gas wells established on the dump surface layer, which contains 2.5 m depth, throughout the year with the measuring of climatic factors. The results show the annual fluctuation of temperature, cumulative rainfall, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure were 27–42°C, 66.7–357.7 mm, 24.7%–78.2%, and 999.5–1014 mbar around the studied landfill area, and the average concentration value of the CH4, NH3, H2S, and VOCs gases were 18.94 ± 11.49%, 15.48 ± 15.17 mg m−3, 15.06 ± 19.02 mg m−3, and 0.83 ± 0.99 mg m−3, respectively. The rainfall and atmospheric temperature were significant metrological factors influencing the surface layer gas concentrations and showed a significant positive correlation with cumulative rainfall and a negative correlation with atmospheric temperature. The relative humidity shows a moderate positive correlation, and there was no evidence of a considerable impact of atmospheric pressure on the surface layer concentrations. Annual fluctuation is a critical factor for landfill gas emission quantification, and surface layer concentration variation can be used to study the emission fluctuation by considering their relationship.

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Coastal zone management in Sri Lanka: A lesson after recent naval accidents

Cited by 23 publications

References 15 publications

Marine Accidents in the Brazilian Amazon: Potential Risks to the Aquatic Environment

Marine Accidents in the Brazilian Amazon: Potential Risks to the Aquatic Environment

Grain size distribution of modern beach sediments in Sri Lanka

Annual fluctuation of gas concentration within the landfill surface layer in a tropical climate: A case study of a municipal wasteyard

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