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with special reference to the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka
No full textPublic spaces are the places where all people can come together and spend their time without any restriction and it can be defined as the “City Living Room”. Therefore, these spaces can foster social cohesion, reduce psychological stress and provide physical activities. Public spaces have unique historic and architectural values and such places can be used to enhance the place making character of the area. Planning agencies often use revitalization, restoration, regeneration, refurbishment or redevelopment as Placemaking tools which can improve the quality of such public spaces in a city. It is often acknowledged that “revitalization” can be identified as one of the viable alternatives instead of demolition of historical buildings. “Revitalization” and “Adaptive re-use” can be identified as the tools for creating public spaces which are livable, accessible and convivial places for all. The previous studies have researched on the aspects an essential method to make places functional, attractive and convivial spaces. Although researchers studied the general functional aspects of revitalized public spaces, a few studies have focused on the quality and the barriers for such revitalized public spaces. This study attempts to fill this research knowledge gap and investigates what are the barriers and areas that need to be improved in the revitalization process within the Sri Lankan context by using three case studies in Colombo. As our framework of this study, we used access & linkages, comfort & image, uses & activities to assess the quality of revitalized places. This study further found that barriers associated with the process of revitalization are regulatory, social barriers, and technical barriers
A Hybrid solar-wind energy generation approach for Sri Lanka
No full textThe escalation of global energy demand has enhanced the interest on renewable energy technologies worldwide. The reliance of a single energy source has become problematic, and hybrid renewable energy technology has been identified as a feasible solution. Producing energy to limitless increasing demand is a challenging issue faced by Sri Lanka nowadays. Although, there are some studies carried out for renewable energy systems, solar-wind based hybrid renewable systems is an understudied area in Sri Lankan context. Hence, this paper aims to explore the applicability of hybrid solar-wind renewable energy generation approach for Sri Lanka. The study follows a qualitative approach with semi structured interviews from eight industrial experts, and manual content analysis technique was used for data analysis. The paper discussed the current installation practices of solar and wind technologies, applicability of hybrid solar and wind renewable energy systems and national level contribution for hybrid systems. Finally, a validated model was proposed to implement hybrid renewable energy generation systems for Sri Lanka
The Factors influencing on students’ choice of undergraduate research project
No full textThe purpose of the current study is to investigate the factors influencing on Students’ choice of the undergraduate research project in Sri Lanka. The main objective of the present study is to identify the factors influencing on Students’ choice of the undergraduate research project in Sri Lanka. This study has adopted a qualitative research strategy and convenience sampling method is used to select students from each university. Accordingly, 34 students contributed to this study. Primary data were collected using focus group discussions followed by a structured questionnaire. The first phase of this study was conducted in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka (USJ), a sample representing USJ. After that, the same research was expanded island wide covering all the state sector universities in Sri Lanka to fill the research gap which was realized in the same study. To ensure reliability, the current study has followed a different research methodology than the previous study. The findings of this study show that influencing on Students’ choice of the undergraduate research project in Sri Lanka self-efficacy, future ambition on career, consciousness, proficiency in English, ability to manage the time and the availability of resources and issues with mentoring. The results were almost the same as what the researchers derived previously attached to the case study conducted at USJ. Some implications for the decision-making bodies to improve the research choice among undergraduate students have also been proposed by the current study
Motivation of lecturers at state universities in Sri Lanka a case study with reference to university of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka
No full textThere are number of researches have been conducted related to motivation in different countries with reference to various professions. Here, the researcher was interested to conduct this study with reference to the motivation of lecturers at state universities in Sri Lanka. By conducting this research, it will be able to identify the factors affecting to motivation of the academics and it will be beneficial for increasing the motivation on career of academics. In this study both male and female academics has considered. Motivated staff will contribute more to the university. Then it is expected that, with the recommendations that are expected to be provided based on the findings of this study, would be more beneficial for improving their performance and productivity. The current study has been conducted as a case study with reference to the University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJP) Sri Lanka. Study population of this study is all the academics in USJP. The size of the sample was 20 and the sample has been selected randomly. The sample represented four focus groups. Each focus group consists five academic members. By using In-depth focus group discussions, primary data were collected. Duration of each discussion was 30 minutes to 45 minutes for each focus group. The questions asked at the focus group discussions followed a semi-structured questionnaire. Secondary data were collected using journals, documents and records of internet and previous researches. Gathered data has been analyzed qualitatively using content analysis technique. According to this study, the factors drive academic members at University of Sri Jayewardenepura towards the motivation were identified as remuneration, freedom, advancements and recognition
Climate change challenges facing Sri Lanka : a literature review
No full textThe earth’s climate has changed throughout history and climate change can be identified as an inevitable phenomenon which is being experienced by the whole world. When considering the Sri Lankan context, it is no different to the global context in that the country’s climate has already changed. Sri Lanka, being an island state, is vulnerable to many climate change impacts including high-temperature levels, adverse weather events, sea level rising, and changes in precipitation patterns. The many challenges that arise from these climate-related issues are projected to continue through this century and beyond. Thus, climate change mitigation and adaptation have become the most appropriate ways to restrain these climate change challenges in Sri Lanka. It is paramount to get a broad understanding of how disastrous these climate change challenges are, prior to implementing appropriate responses to overcome them. This urges the need for conducting an in-depth investigation of prevailing climate change challenges in Sri Lanka. Thus, this study presents the prevailing climate change challenges facing Sri Lanka through a conceptual framework, that has been developed based on the existing literature. The developed framework reveals how these prevailing climate changes can lead to a number of challenges. These challenges were identified under three main categories as economic, social, and environmental challenges. The knowledge generated through this literature review will be the focus of future research
Enhancing the integration of smart features in commercial buildings to conserve energy : a framework
No full textThe commercial building sector is classified as a highly energy-intensive category in Sri Lanka. Building practitioners adopt energy-saving mechanisms to minimise energy consumption. However, the integration of smart features plays a vital role in conserving energy in commercial buildings. However, Sri Lanka lags behind in the adoption of smart features when compared to other countries. To address this problem, this study aimed to develop a framework for the better integration of smart features to minimise the energy consumption of Sri Lankan commercial buildings. This research is carried out initially by literature review, and then research has been followed by case study. Data collected is analysed through manual content analysis and computer software with the aid of NVivo 12 software. Findings revealed that smart features are the new technologies evolved in commercial buildings to conserve energy. However, building practitioners faced several issues in integrating these features within the existing buildings. Limited knowledge of management, building owners and operators, high initial cost, and lack of workforce skill were identified as main barriers to integrating smart features in Sri Lankan commercial buildings. Moreover, this research identified the possible mechanisms for the better integration of smart features in commercial buildings. For better integration, it is required to plan it at the initial design stage of buildings, select reliable contractors, and raise awareness of management and client about smart features. Finally, a framework was developed for the better integration of smart features to minimise the energy consumption of Sri Lankan commercial buildings
Automating incident categorization in a support request system
No full textWith the expansion of the role of IT, organizations tend to maintain a support request system/ Issue Tracking System (ITS) to handle issues. ITSs are designed to streamline the process of customer support and keep a track of all the reported issues. Incident Management (IM) makes efforts to re-establish standard business operations reducing the impact and maintaining the quality and availability [1]. An incident also refers to a ticket. The manual categorization of raised issues infers an improper assignment of incident tickets, cause delays in the entire procedure of dispatch.
The focus of this research is to automate the incident categorization (IC) and transfer to the appropriate support group forecasting the resolution for frequent issues based on the pas
Second-Hand fashion consumption
No full textThe 2019 Pulse of the fashion industry report discovers that the series of sustainability progress in the industry of fashion has slowed by third in the previous year and not moving fast to counter balance the misdeed impact of rapid growth in the fashion industry. Fashion industry will be the net contributor for the climate change, increasing the obstacles which that promising of keeping global warming below one and half degrees Celsius during the reminding years will be not achieved if this circumstance of the fashion industry continue in the future, as long as fashion industry ranks the first place out of environment polluting industries
Wood splitting machine for tea and bakery industries
No full textIn Sri Lanka, firewood is regarded as a common conventional fuel, mainly in food preparation purposes. Essentially due to economically availability, firewood has still been using as the main source to lit fire in rural areas. Other than for household food preparation, firewood is still the main source of generating heat in food related rural industries, such as tea factories, bakeries, hotels etc