Jeewanthi Sirisena

Climate Service Center Germany · Regional and Local Climate Change

This study assessed the meteorological and hydrological droughts and their relationship over 30 years from 1985 to 2015 in the largest river basin (Mahaweli River Basin (MRB)) in Sri Lanka. Data from 14 rainfall, 5 temperature, and 5 streamflow stations in and near the MRB were used in the present study. Universal drought indices including Standard...

Fluvial sediment supply (FSS) is one of the primary sources of sediment received by coasts. Any significant change in sediment supply to the coast will disturb its equilibrium state. Therefore, a robust assessment of future changes in FSS is required to understand the coastal system’s status under plausible climatic variations and human activities....

Abstract: Droughts exert severe impacts on the environment, economy, and society. The south Asian region is vulnerable to droughts and the Indian sub-continent is one of the most vulnerable in the region to frequent drought disasters. This study assesses the agricultural droughts in the Narmada River Basin (NRB), India, where more than 50% of the a...

Understanding the changes in climate and land use/land cover (LULC) over time is important for developing policies for minimizing the socio-economic impacts of riverine floods. The present study evaluates the influence of hydro-climatic factors and anthropogenic practices related to LULC on floods in the Kelani River Basin (KRB) in Sri Lanka. The g...

Water rationing contributes to inequalities in the water supply. Household storage tanks complicate the performance and the hydraulic modelling of these systems. Rationing is often not based on insights into system performance and fails to achieve equity and the operators struggle to explain the rationing tactics to the stakeholders. Understanding...

The availability of accurate spatiotemporal rainfall data is of utmost importance for reliable predictions from hydro climatological studies. Challenges and limitations faced due to the absence of dense rain gauges (RGs) networks are seen especially in the developing countries. Therefore, alternative rainfall measurements such as Satellite Rainfall...

Sandy coastlines adjacent to tidal inlets are highly dynamic and widespread landforms, where large changes are expected due to climatic and anthropogenic influences. To adequately assess these important changes, both oceanic (e.g., sea-level rise) and terrestrial (e.g., fluvial sediment supply) processes that govern the local sediment budget must b...

Climate change has threatened the water resources of the African and Asian continents, emphasising the importance of climate resilient water resources management. In this context, hydrological studies are prerequisite components of water resource management plans, including water conservation and mitigation of disasters related risks due to floods...

Reservoirs play a vital role in water resource management, while also contributing to alterations in downstream flow regimes and sediment load in the river. On the other hand, variations on streamflow and fluvial sediment loads can also result from climate change effects. Here, we assess future changes in streamflow and sediment load due to climate...

Inlet-interrupted sandy coasts are dynamic and complex coastal systems with continuously evolving geomorphological behaviors under the influences of both climate change and human activities. These coastal systems are of great importance to society (e.g., providing habitats, navigation, and recreational activities) and are affected by both oceanic a...

Conventional calibration methods adopted in hydrological modelling are based on streamflow data measured at certain river sections. However, streamflow measurements are usually sparse and, in such instances, remote-sensing-based products may be used as an additional dataset(s) in hydrological model calibration. This study compares two main calibrat...

Approximately one-quarter of the World’s sandy beaches, most of which are interrupted by tidal inlets, are eroding. Understanding the long-term (50–100 year) evolution of inlet-interrupted coasts in a changing climate is, therefore of great importance for coastal zone planners and managers. This study, therefore, focuses on the development and pilo...

Study region: The Irrawaddy River Basin, Myanmar. Study focus: Precipitation is the most important input variable to numerically simulate the hydrological responses of a river basin. Nowadays, a number of precipitation data products with different spatial and temporal resolutions are available. However, the accuracy of these products may vary great...

The sediment study in a basin is a prerequisite for any dam construction. In the context of field measurements inadequacy, the estimation of soil erosion in a given catchment is a tedious and complex process. Generally, all the eroded material neither enters the stream system nor deposits in the reservoir. Hence, to estimate the soil loss from the...

Climate change has threatened the African and Asian continent’s water resources, emphasising the importance of climate resilient water resources management. In this context, hydrological studies are prerequisite component of water resource management plans, including water conservation and mitigation of disasters related risks due to floods and dro...

A dam construction generally follows various stages like planning and designing with associated detailed studies. Hydrological investigations are the preliminary studies which shall be carried out and they are highly important during the design process. This study focused carrying out of necessary hydrological investigations, such as estimation of...

Understanding long-term seasonal or annual or inter-annual rainfall variability and its relationship with large-scale atmospheric variables (LSAVs) is important for water resource planning and management. In this study, rainfall forecasting models using the artificial neural network technique were developed to forecast seasonal rainfall in May–June...