Muditha Prasannajith Perera

• B.A.(Hons), M.Phil, Ph.D.
• Professor in Geography at University of Peradeniya

With the inadequacy of rainfall and irrigated water in small tank systems in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka to maintain the agricultural activities throughout the year, farmers as well as researchers explore the possibility of extracting groundwater. Consequently, the construction of " Agro-wells " in low lying areas especially in tank cascades to tap t...

Agro-well development in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka has been accelerated recently. Accordingly a significant land proportion has been converted to Agro-well based lands. This matter has been attracting the attention of policy makers as well as researchers because the understanding of the real situation has been a national level requirement. Therefor...

The dry zone farmers of Sri Lanka have no choice but to sustain the perennial crops in the long dry period (common to the dry zone) without a use of supplementary irrigation or groundwater resources. The emergence of Agro-well based agricultural systems has been common to the North Central dry zone since the 1980s decade. There is a common believe...

From the 1950s, a number of scientists have investigated the possibility of introducing Agro-wells to use the shallow ground water, of the dry zone of Sri Lanka during the dry season. However, the rate of construction of Agro-wells has been accelerated with the intervention of the Agricultural Development Authority and the Provincial Councils since...

Some of the British agents have wondered due to view of thousands of tanks in low country dry zone of Sri Lanka. The first topographical survey conducted in 1897 and the first systematic study on small tanks within a limited area in 1923 marked the turning point of studying the unique tank system in the country. After this a lot of researchers and...

Conservation and maintenance of irrigation traditions has been a unique event of Sri Lanka.

MORAGAHAKANDA RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM WITH SMALL TANK SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON REGIONAL LAND USE: A GIS BASED GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS. R.M Fernando1* and M.P Perera1 1Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya *a18gis010@arts.pdn.ac.lk (corresponding author) Resettlement programs have a significant impact on land use changes in an area. The Mora...

The ancient civilization of Sri Lanka is known as a “hydraulic civilization”, due to the great advanced water management practices associated with the tank irrigation heritages of ancient Sri Lankans. Ancient people selected the dry zone for their settlement by considering the availability of suitable natural and physical resources for agriculture....

Drainage basin characteristics, various land usage patterns with human interventions and seasonal differences in rainfall pattern, directly affect the water quality changes. Human interventions leading to land use changes may affect groundwater quality specially in agricultural areas. The objective of this study was examining the spatial variation...

Anicut construction was a key irrigation related activity in historical Sri Lanka and there are about 12,300 Anicuts at the present.

Cultural traditions are inherently interlinked with the rural agri-cultural community in Sri Lanka. These kinds of irrigation-related cultural practices may have significantly combined with societal relationships as well as irrigation water management.

The earliest irrigation system in Sri Lanka dates back to the sixth century BC. It had reached its peak of development around the twelfth century AD. With the migration of civilization to the southwest, the arid zone was overgrown and destroyed by the abandonment of ancient irrigation industries. But many of the old irrigation industries are still...

Ancient tank cascade systems in Sri Lanka have been exemplified as the historical vestige of ancient tank irrigation technology. These systems have been operating as surface water bodies in connection with ecological features and social interactions since the BC Period. With the increasing demand for more food and more income in recent decades, the...

This study focuses on the irrigation and agricultural consequences of the Freedom Struggles against the British rule in Sri Lanka that took place two centuries ago. The Uva irrigation civilization, was apparent from the period of King Saddathissa (137-119 BC), and it was a flourishing irrigation based agriculture in harmony with the environment. Du...

Tank Irrigation Systems of Sri Lanka and Recent Challenges

The Human–Elephant Conflict (HEC) is one of the longest unresolved problems in Sri Lanka.According to the current study, it was recorded that, incidents of croplands destruction and housedamages has been increased while continuing the people deaths by elephant attacks even after constructing the elephant fence. Further, elephant’s deaths and injuri...

A considerable soil salinity differences could be identified in different parts in the cascade.High salinity conditionhas shown in the lower middle areas of the cascade. Kattakaduwa areas have shown the highest E/C values, being the Kattakaduwa area act as a real salinity interceptor belt. Further, there is an increasing pattern of soil salinity fr...

The hydro-ecological characteristics including water resources have been organized within the tank cascades as separate resource units, in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. This hydrological behavior was an advantage to use the shallow groundwater through Agro-wells. With the expansion of Agro-wells throughout the dry zone of Sri Lanka, it was a controver...

The Tank Cascade System is one of the unique and socially accepted land-use practices in the dry zone of Sri Lanka which is evolved from 600 B.C. The small tank builders of the historical period had a profound and unified understanding of the natural resources, regional landscape, landforms, and hydrology. Tanks and irrigation canal systems, enviro...

The rate of construction of Agro-wells to use shallow groundwater has accelerated with the interventions of the Agricultural Development Authority (ADA) and the Provincial Councils since 1989. Considering all the background, when examining the diffusion of Agro-wells, we can identify four key areas for Agro-well (large diameter wells) development i...

These Agro-well based agricultural systems are stratified into four layers based on the ‘height of individual tree species’ . Generally, small crops / trees and understory crops are available around the well. Then the medium height trees and the tallest trees are in the corner of the land The generalized tree profile of these lands can be identifie...

The concept of Agro-wells arrived in the dry zone of Sri Lanka with the primary feasibility studies from the 1950s, as a solution for water deficit in the dry season. Further studies were carried out by several scientists to explain the shallow ground water behavior in the hard rock areas and the possibility of using it for agriculture. However, th...

The concept of Agro-wells arrived in the dry zone of Sri Lanka with the primary feasibility studies from the 1950s, as a solution for water deficit in the dry season. Further studies were carried out by several scientists to explain the shallow ground water behavior in the hard rock areas and the possibility of using it for agriculture. However, th...

Abstract: The emergence of Agro-well based agricultural systems has started in low line areas of the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka, due to the easy access of shallow groundwater. It became very rapid after 1989 and this has been discussed among the research community as well as among regional resources planners. Now, there is a common belief that the Agro-...

"Managing land resources, water resources, forest resources and social system of specifically identified geo-hydrologic area (watershed) can be identified as watershed management”

Recent Attention on Environmental Rights

Watershed is a "geo-hydro-ecological unit, identified according to a common drainage point. Managing watersheds is a comprehensive, integrated and holistic management process that seeks to balance in socioeconomic and natural resource base within watersheds. A number of watershed management programs are being practiced by national or international...

There is an unbelievable link with the irrigation Tank and the Village. Further, there is a strong cooperation of the villagers towards maintaining and protecting those tanks. (Sinhala Medium Book Chapter)

Irrigation tank is the "base" for entire human -environmental systems and activities in the dry zone. (Sinhala Medium Book Chapter)

This chapter is on the ancient irrigation canal technology of Sri Lanka. (Sinhala Medium Book Chapter)

This is a socio-environmental analysis on the operating level of contemporary environmental laws related to tank reservations in the dry zone of Sri Lanka: A case study (Sinhala medium article)

Since 1989, the expansion of Agro-wells was a recognized agenda for both Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations in the Dry Zone development in Sri Lanka. Currently, there is an increasing demand for the use of shallow ground water especially in the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Many farmers explore the possibilities of ground water irrigation. Fu...

International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Index Copernicus Value (2013): 6.14 | Impact Factor (2015): 6.391 Volume 5 Issue 6, June 2016 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY The Impact of Agro-well Development on Floral Diversity in Tank Cascades in the Dry Zone of Sri Lanka Muditha P...

To identify the "Tank Cascade", there should be a meaningful local term. Definitely it would be in the history, but it has been faded away due to many reasons. Although there are few local terms to refer the tank cascade made by recent researchers, this term "Wew Mandulla" will be a most recent term, identified considering three factors. (Sinhala M...

A number of strategies have been launched to grasp the farmers' perceptions including PRA, RRA, and PSS methods. Some of the techniques were difficult to analyze quantitatively. Further, some were not a rapid review or an overall assessment. Especially in tank cascade studies there should be an overall rapid impact assessment strategy covering hydr...

The small tank systems in the dry zone of Sri Lanka provides the lifeblood for human settlements and existence of irrigation agricultural activities in the area. However, the behavioral pattern of these tank systems as "cascades" is different, throughout the entire dry zone of the country. Understanding the basic elements of cascade characteristics...

In developing countries including Sri Lanka, there is an urgent need to meet the increasing demand of electricity. While decreasing trend from 90 % to 40 % of hydropower contribution through 15 major hydro power projects, the Government of Sri Lanka has encouraged the Mini Hydropower Plants in the central highlands, as an economical feasible and en...

Kivulekada tank was one of the examples for historical vestige of ancient tank irrigation technology in Sri Lanka. This was a medium scale tank built by king Mahasen's period (273-301 A.D), which contained many historical irrigation features, including " outside spill " , " sediment trapping tanks " and " sluice front ridge ". Previous Irrigation D...

Agro-well data on selected tank cascades of Yan Oya Basin and Malwathu Oya Basin of Sri Lanka.

The dry zone farmers use the irrigation Tank water (Surface water) for paddy cultivation in the rainy season. Then the same farmers going to start to use the Well water (Groundwater) for highland agricultural activities in the catchment. The overlapping both agricultural activities as well as water use creates a water issue in dry zone sub watershe...

The watershed management approach has been recognized as a holistic way to address comlex issues of land, water and forest resources, and its' management in a drainage basin. However some of the watershed management practices can be recognized in the north central part of Sri Lanka with historical evidence, with the origin of the tank irrigation en...

Ancient tank irrigation system is the most outstanding feature of the ancient heritages of Sri Lanka. Tank irrigation technology was initiated in 6 th century BC (Diksith) and it's expands up to 16,000 small tanks (Panabokke, 2002) today. A few of the secrets behind the long period of sustainability of tanks are 'tank reserves', named as " Gasgomma...

The major challenge for the dry-zone farmers in non-irrigated areas in Sri Lanka is water scarcity. This situation is a major barrier to the sustainable use of resources and maintaining income generation activities throughout the year. In this context, these farmers realized the need for another source of water. The strategy was the construction of...

The major challenge for the Dry Zone farmers at non irrigated areas in Sri Lanka is the water scarcity. This situation is a major barrier to the sustainable use of resources and maintaining income generation activities throughout the year. In this context these farmers realized the need for another source of water. The strategy was the construction...