Investigation of Issues in Structural Flood Management Measures in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Floods can be identified as one of the devastating natural phenomena, which resulted in a considerable amount of social, economic and environmental impacts. Sri Lanka is a country that is highly vulnerable to floods due to its unique geographical location and topography. Many flood management measures, which mainly include structural and nonstructural have implemented to reduce the impact of floods. Among them, structural measures play a vital role in flood management. However, the failures in achieving the expected performance of these existing structural measures urge the need to identify issues with them and overcome those issues to enhance the flood management process in Sri Lanka. Hence, this study focused to investigate the issues related to structural flood management measures in Sri Lanka to bridge this knowledge gap. Initially, a literature review was conducted to gain a theoretical understanding of the research area. The research approach was qualitative, which was followed by two in-depth case studies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 industry experts to gather data. Collected data were analysed via content analysis. Empirical research findings revealed that structural measures play a prominent role in flood management. However, significant issues such as ageing of structural measures, leakages, construction faults, inadequate capacity, blocking of water flow and possibility of collapsing were identified in these existing structural flood management measures, which negatively impact the effectiveness of the overall flood management process within the country. The findings of this study will lead to gain a proper understanding of gaps and weaknesses in structural flood management measures in Sri Lanka and would influence the policymakers and other respective practitioners in disaster management to enhance structural flood management by using their novel ideas and concepts.

Evidence of Climate Change Impacts in Sri Lanka - A Review of Literature

“…Sri Lanka comprises 103 river basins with five major rivers (Mahaweli, Kelani, Kalu, Gin, and Nilwala) flowing across the country and is responsible for yearly floods (Surasinghe, et al, 2019). According to Dasandara et al (2022), multiple types of flooding are prominent in Sri Lanka. River flooding, flash (or pluvial) flooding, and coastal flooding are the three main types of flood events.…”

“…Housing and human settlements are vulnerable to drought across the island; however, they are particularly concentrated in the north-central and southern areas The increased frequency of weather-related disasters such as floods, droughts, and landslides, is the second climate-related danger to human settlements (Edirisinghe, et al, 2021;Wickramasuriya, et al, 2020;Dasandara, et al, 2022). The erratic precipitation patterns and regular, intense rainfall incidents adversely affect drainage and sewage systems, leading to urban flash floods (Lo & Koralegedara, 2015).…”