Abstract
This paper investigates hydro-meteorological hazards faced by Sri Lanka, a lower-middle-income island country in Asia. It provides a case study of a major hydro-meteorological disaster incident that resulted in one of the largest landslides in the history of the country, the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) process, and the national disaster response. Rainfall and flood inundation data are provided for the whole country. The fact that data are held by several government agencies (namely Department of Meteorology, Department of Irrigation, and NBRO), somewhat coordinated by the Disaster Management Center (DMC) is shown. The need for more streamlined coordination of hydro-met data with online access of data for researchers is emphasized. The flood disaster situation and disaster declaration of the Western Province (which contributes nearly 40% of the GDP) is looked at, and evidence is presented to recommend a smaller governance unit for future disaster declarations, in order to bring aid to the places where it is needed and leaving other areas of the province to carry on with the normal economic activity. An example of the use of climate change scenarios in rainfall prediction is provided from a developed island nation (New Zealand). The need for Sri Lanka to increase its spending for hydro-met services (both infrastructure and skills) is highlighted (the global norm being 0.02 of GDP), as the return on such investment is tenfold.
Highlights
Hydro-meteorology combines meteorology and hydrology to analyze the transfer of water and energy between the earth’s land surface and the lower atmosphere [1]
Few studies have discussed the usefulness of the rainfall threshold, which is defined as the minimum or maximum level of a quantity needed for a process to take place or a state to change [5], as a first step to initiating flood warnings where hydrological simulations have not yet been performed or where hydrological simulations are unavailable [2,5]
This paper looks at the types of hydro-meteorological hazards faced by an island country in Asia (Sri Lanka)
Summary
Hydro-meteorology combines meteorology and hydrology to analyze the transfer of water and energy between the earth’s land surface and the lower atmosphere [1]. Few studies have discussed the usefulness of the rainfall threshold, which is defined as the minimum or maximum level of a quantity needed for a process to take place or a state to change [5], as a first step to initiating flood warnings where hydrological simulations have not yet been performed or where hydrological simulations are unavailable [2,5]. For both simulation modeling and threshold-based warnings, the availability of quality data is important
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