Talk:Environmental issues in Sri Lanka

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Annotated Bibliography

1) Zubair, Lareef (2001-09-01). "Challenges for environmental impact assessment in Sri Lanka". Environmental Impact Assessment Review. 21 (5): 469 - 478. doi:10.1016/S0195-9255(01)00081-6

This article lists some environmental problems that Sri Lanka is facing. The article mentions fresh and sea water pollution, air pollution, waste management, soil erosion, coastal degradation, wildlife habitat loss and the impact of climate change. It does not offer any details, but it helps me finding keywords for my research. Moreover, I might use some of the information on the environmental legislations and institutions for my Wikipedia article.

2) Vidanaarachchi, Chandana K.; Yuen, Samuel T. S.; Pilapitiya, Sumith (2006-01-01). "Municipal solid waste management in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka: Problems, issues and challenges". Waste Management. 26(8): 920– 930. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2005.09.013.

The article will be very helpful for the waste management part of the Wikipedia article. This research article includes a study on municipal solid waste management that has been conducted in Southern Sri Lanka. It shows that not even a quarter of urban households and only 2% of rural households have waste management. The article also mentions causes for that which are too little governmental regulations, a lack of financial resources and a shortage of people willing to recycle waste. The lack of waste management can be seen by waste laying in the streets and rivers and it has a negative influence on Sri Lanka’s biodiversity and on public health.

3) Maheshi, D. (2015). Environmental and economic assessment of ‘open waste dump’mining in Sri Lanka. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 102, 67-79. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344915300379

This article also focuses on waste management. Maheshi says that a lot of garbage is collected in open waste dumps which is not treated in Sri Lanka. Moreover, same garbage is burned. Another waste related problem is that most of the waste is not separated. This way of dealing with waste leads to high greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and CH4) and to public health problems for people living close to the dump sites.

4) Ileperuma, O. A. (2010). Environmental pollution in Sri Lanka: a review. Journal of the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka, 28(4).

Pollution is the topic of this article. Ileperuma starts his article by giving background information about Sri Lanka’s development (i.e. fast industrialization since the 1980’s). The next paragraph deals with air pollution which is one of Sri Lanka’s serious environmental problems in big cities and it mostly caused by vehicles. The author also mentions indoor pollution which is caused by burning firewood among other things. Other air pollution is a result of asbestos, radioactivity and pesticides. The article also focuses on water pollution which is another big environmental problem in Sri Lanka which is caused by household, industrial and agricultural activities.

5) Mattsson, E., Persson, U. M., Ostwald, M., & Nissanka, S. P. (2012). REDD+ readiness implications for Sri Lanka in terms of reducing deforestation. Journal of Environmental Management, 100, 29-40. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479712000266

This article focuses on the REDD+ program in Sri Lanka and therefore also includes information about deforestation which is another environmental issue in Sri Lanka. In 1883 probably 84% of Sri Lanka was covered by forests which was reduced to 19 % until 2005. The size of riverine dry forests, moist monsoon forests and lowland rainforests has decreased. There are efforts to preserve rainforests through the REDD+ program of the UNFCCC.

6) Gunawardena, M., & Rowan, J. S. (2005). Economic valuation of a mangrove ecosystem threatened by shrimp aquaculture in Sri Lanka. Environmental Management, 36(4), 535-550. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00267-003-0286-9

Gunawardena and Rowan show that another environmental problem in Sri Lanka is mangrove degradation. Mangrove forests are especially threatened by the development of aquaculture and fisheries. For example, shrimp farms which are a very important export commodity are being established in mangroves. Mangroves are very important for the ecosystem, for people’s livelihood and protect the land against floods and hurricanes.

7) Udayakumara, E. P. N., Shrestha, R. P., Samarakoon, L., & Schmidt-Vogt, D. (2010). People's perception and socioeconomic determinants of soil erosion: A case study of Samanalawewa watershed, Sri Lanka. International Journal of Sediment Research, 25(4), 323-339. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1001627911600012

Sri Lanka also faces the problem of soil erosion which has a big impact on Sri Lanka’s agriculture and on people’s livelihood. This will be even worse the bigger the population gets. The Author states that inappropriate soil and crop practices are a major reason for human activity based soil erosion in Sri Lanka. Soil erosion in watershed areas is a big problem because a lot of energy is generated from hydropower plants.

8) Berg, Håkan, et al. "Environmental economics of coral reef destruction in Sri Lanka." Ambio (1998): 627-634. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4314808.pdf

This article focuses on coral reef degradation in Sri Lanka. The author states that a lot of people depend on coral reefs for income and for food in Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, there is coral reef degradation. Degradation is mostly caused by human activities such as coral poaching, boating, destructive fishing methods and pollution. Moreover, most people in Sri Lanka live along the coast and the population is growing which has negative consequences for coral reefs.