Assess the Level of Vulnerability to Climate Induced Disasters in Sri Lankan Coastal Areas: An Application of Open Source Geographic Information System.

Abstract

Sri Lankan cities have faced severe impacts of climate change over past years. Past records of daily temperature and rainfall data reveal significant changes of temperature and rainfall patterns during last two decades. Identification of level of vulnerability plays an important role in decision making process. Local and national level institutions in Sri Lanka face difficulties due to unavailability of cost effective methods for identifying these vulnerable areas. This paper presents a cost effective method to assess the level of vulnerability for climate induced disasters applying open source GIS (Geographic Information System) and AHP (Analytical Hierarchical Process). Open source GIS is growing in its use as a viable alternative to commercial GIS. AHP, the technique used to calculate the weights based on the vulnerability of each climate induced disaster on key sector groupings considered critical for national development. Result showed that Negambo, Batticoloa, Mundalama, Kalpitiya, Tangalle and Ambalantota are the DSDs (Divisional Secretariat Divisions) with highest level of vulnerability.