ABSTRACT

AN ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITY IN BATTICALOA DISTRICT, SRI LANKA USING GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY

Journal: Malaysian Journal of Geosciences (MJG)
Author: N Nithiyatharsana, K. Rajendramb, M.A.C Piyathilaka

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: 10.26480/mjg.02.2025.103.110

The main objectives of the study are to identify the environmentally sensitive areas in the Batticaloa district using diverse environmental elements and assessment indicators to generate environmentally sensitive area maps and assess the environmental sensitivity based on their functions using geospatial technology. The accessibility of geospatial data related to environmentally sensitive areas provides useful information for the decision-making process in environmental planning and sustainable land management. Geospatial technology is a very powerful tool for monitoring environmental sensitivity. The multi-criteria method and the analytic hierarchy process technique were used by scholars to assess environmental sensitivity. Under this method, assigned weights and pre-established rating criteria were adopted using the weighted sum overlay technique. The present study followed the same method adopting environmentally sensitive area functional indicators of disaster risk, life support system, and heritage value. The environmental sensitivity has been assessed using different criteria such as flood susceptibility, soil erosion, surface water bodies, Land Use/Land cover, agricultural land, forest, and biodiversity index. The integrated environmentally sensitive areas are categorized as four sensitivity classes which are high, moderate, low, and non-sensitivity. The results reveal that the high sensitivity areas include about 17.87% (441 km2), and moderate and low sensitivity areas were found as around 26.24% (648 km2), and 35.55% (878km2) respectively. The non sensitivity areas covered around 20.34%. The results indicate that importance should be given to environmental conservation in the planning process in sensitive areas. The information about environmentally sensitive areas is significant for decision-making such as land use/land cover planning and sustainable land management practices.