Evaluating the Environmental Impacts of Urbanization in Balangoda, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Urbanization in Sri Lanka has developed as a process associated with increasing urban population due to migration of people from rural to urban areas, achieving urban development and the expanding of urban boundaries. The environment is undergoing enormous changes due to the development process, and it is difficult to ensure environmental sustainability. The study is aimed at identifying the activities related to urbanization in the Balangoda area and analysing the environmental effects of urbanization. For primary data collection, twenty in depth interviews were conducted, and observations and field photographs were utilized to demonstrate the on-going urbanization activities and environmental consequences. Google Earth images were used for the identification of environmental changes. The collected primary data were analysed through qualitative techniques and maps for the study area were generated using Arc GIS. According to the study findings, it has been identified that urbanization has been occurring in the Balangoda urban area for the past 23 years. This is commonly attributed to the increase in population from 8653 to 40,000, the expansion of urban boundaries, city development, industrialization activities, modernization, and commercialization. The identified negative environmental effects in the study area were incidents of natural disasters such as floods, landslides, rockfalls, and droughts due to the excessive removal of vegetation cover. Further, a decline in biodiversity in the study area has been identified; species such as cranes, snakes, sparrows, deer, freshwater fish, herons, and ducks are estimated to have declined. In the research area it has been discovered that the durations of the summer and rainy seasons have drastically changed. Both the wetland ecosystem and the forest ecosystem in the study area had major reductions in provisioning and cultural services. However, urbanization in the study area has also been found to have positive effects on economic growth, urban development, infrastructural development and better living conditions. Public awareness, rural development, and place-based planning have been suggested as solutions to control negative ecological effects