Abstract
Quality characteristics of the water can be influenced by many factors including environment, climate, management and manmade activities. These factors are responsible for the alteration of quality as well as quantity of water in every reservoir. Among those, climatic change is the key determinant of the sustainability of the ecosystems. Therefore, understanding the climatic change and its impact on Batticaloa Lagoon environment is important for its management in the future. In this view, the present study was conducted during the period from 2012 to 2014 with the aim of assessing the extent of community awareness and perception on climate change and its impacts on Batticaloa Lagoon environment, Sri Lanka. A survey was conducted with 406 respondents who are residing in nearby areas of the Lagoon. Data were analysed using SPSS software and MS Excel. Results revealed that, 81.4% of them heard about or clearly known about the climatic changes. In most cases, the awareness was gained through their own experience (74%) and via the media. Nearly 84% of the respondents mentioned that the lagoon water quality degradation linked with the climate changes. However, few of them (8%) reported that the human impacts are greater than the climatic impacts on water quality degradation in lagoon environment. Around 55.6% of the respondents expressed that the amount of rainfall for the last few years has been increased and finally it led to the flooding conditions. Continuous flooding (77%) in those areas was recognised as the problematic nature which led to the pollution of lagoon water as well as groundwater. Community response and expectations on the changing pattern of rainfall and impacts of climate change on economic activities were further evaluated in this study. The collected data and results therefore will be used to develop adaptation measures against climate change and for the formulation of the Batticaloa Lagoon management plan.
Highlights
Coastal lagoons are shallow brackish or marine bodies separated from the ocean by a barrier island, spit, reef, or sand bank and connected at least intermittently to the open ocean by one or more restricted tidal inlets (Phleger 1981; Colombo 1977; Kjerfve 1994; Gonenc and Wolflin 2004)
According to the results obtained from the study, about 88% of Sri Lankan Tamil and 12% of Muslim were involved in this survey and the majority of the respondents were female (55%)
About 55% of the household are with family size of less than 4 and about 43% are with family size between 5 and 8 in the study area
Summary
Twenty six (26) villages at 9 Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions in Batticaloa were identified by personal interview, past experiences and direct observation in order to conduct questionnaire survey. These locations are connected with the lagoon environment and represent the flood vulnerable areas in Batticaloa districts. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select four hundred and six (406) samples for the questionnaire survey to represent households from different communities and the geographic areas. Data on socioeconomic condition of the people residing in the study area, beneficial uses of the lagoon, problems of fishing community and public near the lagoon, awareness on climate change and other public opinions relevant to climate change were collected through questionnaire survey. The data collected in the field were entered into an Excel sheet and analysed using descriptive statistics
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
