Abstract
Colombo is the economic hub of Sri Lanka. Over the last two (2) decades, the physical dynamics have continually been altered to find space for urban development. Many argued that that rapid development would lead to a lot of environmental issues in Colombo. Hence, aim of this paper is to an analysis and extracts the relationship of the rapid Land Use and Land Covers (LULC) changes in six Divisional Secretariat Divisions (DS Division) in Colombo District and some of the environmental factors associated with these rapid changes: Land Surface Temperature (LST), Surface Water Quality and Soil characteristics. Primarily remote Sensing (RS) data, water quality and soil characteristic data were used. 1990 to 2015 LULC changes were an analysis based on Geographical Information System (GIS) tools (Arc GIS 10.3). Additionally, United States Geological Society (USGS) and NASA Landsat 7 and 8 data were used to investigate LST. Results show significant and accelerated land cover changes have taken place since 2010, where nearly 30% of new build-up has generated from 1990 to 2015 with large changes in wetlands and cultivated areas. Surface Water and Soil quality have degraded over the last few decades. From 2010 to 2015, the maximum LST area has increased by 30%. These results should provide the basis for the development of urban planning and regulations, holistic approaches to restore, conserve and manage the LULC, a balance of land covers demand and a sustainable human-environment and environmental and land use policies in Sri Lanka and, in particular, Colombo.
Highlights
South Asia is one of the fastest and leading urbanizing zones in the world with an area of about 4.5 million km2
The negative impacts of urban land use on wetland including paddy land are a key concern for stream restoration, stream management, land planning, and land management
To establish effective water and soil quality management policies, it is essential to understand the true nature of the relationship between water and soil characteristics and urban land use
Summary
South Asia is one of the fastest and leading urbanizing zones in the world with an area of about 4.5 million km. According to the World Bank statistics, the South Asian population has increased from 1.13 billion to 1.76 billion from 1990 to 2016.Such increase in population has led to rapid urbanization and a pressure to convert natural and agricultural areas to residential and industrial land. This land use conversion has had a significant impact on the environment because of increased waste discharge, concentrated industrialization and intensive use of energy sources [1,2,3,4]. The suburbs areas increased with a low-density pattern and excessive land use leading to the displacement of many native species and disruption of the existing ecosystem
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