Societal Issues

Our science and technology contribution needs to be sensitive to the environmental, technological, historical and socio-economic setting. We are preparing manuscripts on environmental hazards and policy, on science and technology history, on energy conservation and renewable energy and on climate and climate adaptation in Sri Lanka. Here, we report on some aspects of these works.

Traditional Agriculture and Sustainability:

We have argued in a paper that appeared in Science, Techology and Society, that the indigenous irrigation systems in Sri Lanka offer a useful counterpoint of an irrigation system that has many favourable attributes.

Environment Impact Analysis in Sri Lanka:

Our work on EIA has lead to an understanding of environmental history, law and protection. A summary was reported in the Journal of the Institution of Engineers in Sri Lanka and in Environmental Impact Analysis.

Technology and Communication:

There are often failures of communication between metropolitan climate forecasts centers and peripheral users. We have analyzed the reasons for miscommunication during the El Niño of 1997 and the successful communication during the El Niño of 2002 in Sri Lanka.