Programs
Programs are centred around Climate, Environmental and Information Technology Research and its use around the tropical Indian Ocean. Working substantially in Sri Lanka, Maldives, Comoros and Botswana, with contributions in Southern India and emerging work in Thailand and Seychelles through multi-country or pan-Indian Ocean projects.
PROGRAM LINKS Sri Lanka | Maldives | Comoros | Botswana and Indian Ocean
Projects
He has led projects to use climate information for rice, tea and coconut agriculture, managing water resources in river basins, malaria early warning systems, disaster hazard assessment from weather and climate information, anticipating the risk of human-elephant-conflict and the potential impacts of climate change on the coastal zone. Projects include the PEER Project SL, The Agricultural Model Intercomparison & Improvement Project Sri Lanka Project (AgMIP SL), The University of Peredeniya, Masters in Development Practice (MDP) and the RAWI project.
PROGRAM LINKS Mahaweli | PEER | AgMIP | MDP
Detailed summary of all projects
River Basin management in the Mahaweli Basin.
We collaborate with the Mahweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) to explore the use of climate information for river basin management. We have studied climatic teleconnections to the river basin rainfall and stream flow, investigated drought and flood indices, and the applicability of climate information for agricultural, water resources, environmental and disaster management in the basin.
Climate Variability and Rice Production in Sri Lanka
Our research has indicated a significant relationship between rice production in Sri Lanka and ENSO. These findings are useful to underpin the use of seasonal climate predictions for agricultural management and policy-making in Sri Lanka and the Mahaweli River basin.
Climate Change and Variability; Tea and Coconut Plantations
This project was a three-year collaborative undertaking between IRI and five Sri Lankan organizations, funded by the global change system for Training, Analysis and Research (START). We engaged in climatic analysis, impact assessment, development of adaptation strategies and capacity building. We have developed climate change assessments and contributed to a prediction scheme for Coconut production.
Climate and Human-Elephant Conflict
This project was in collaboration with the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, Environment and Forest Conservation Division of the MASL and the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka. We established precipitation and NDVI climatologies, undertook downscaling of climate prediction and identified a link between drought in the first half of the year and elephant deaths.
| Climate & Human-Elephant Conflict
Climate and Natural Disaster Hotspots
We identified disaster hazard risk spatially and seasonally for Sri Lanka at the fine scales along with the impacts of combination of these risks. We also studied the vulnerability to disaster. This work resulted in a proposal for disaster risk management. This work was funded by The Earth Institute at Columbia University with a grant from the World Bank.
| Climate & Disaster Management
Climate Variability; Malaria and Dengue
We are studying the interaction of dengue and malaria and climate in Sri Lanka in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute , the Anti-Malaria Campaign and the Foundation for Environment, Climate and Technology in Kandy, Sri Lanka in a project funded by the Climate Variability and Human program of the Office of Global Programs of NOAA.