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An Evaluation on level of publicness of urban public spaces by using core dimensions; specific reference to Galle fort (sea bath area), forest (beach) park area, Mahamodara marine walk and ocean pathway in Galle
No full textIn 1990s, the decrement of non-built-up areas due to urbanization directly cause a reduction in the quality of life of the people & the occurrence of social issues in Sri Lanka due to monotonous lifestyles. Therefore, to overcome these issues with a sustainable Sri Lankan vision by 2030 urban beautification projects like urban public spaces, parks concept was introduced to Sri Lanka especially in suburban areas. Recently, the urban recreational spaces concept came to urban fabric with common characteristics that were developed as social spaces for community gathering and interactions with a variety of physical activities. Although with the emerging public space concept, there is no such consideration on research regarding an evaluation on publicness of urban public spaces by using physical dimensions; Specific Reference to Galle Fort (sea bath area), Forest Park area, Mahamodara Marine walk and Ocean Pathway in Galle. Further, there is no proper regulatory framework in public space monitoring & evaluation to improve the infrastructure of public space. The research aim is to evaluate the level of publicness of urban public spaces based on physical dimensions which are owned by public administration in Sri Lanka. Also, it focused to identify what parameters, need to evaluate the level of publicness and understand satisfaction levels of urban public spaces and key indicators, to assess how contributing indicators, influence to achieve the effectiveness of public spaces among users and to provide recommendations based on the experts’ and users’ views for future improvements of urban public spaces to enhance the publicness level in Sri Lanka. This study was focused on four urban public spaces with the dissimilarity of the availability of design characteristics in Galle. The methodology of the research was comprised of onsite observations, questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, and photographic documentation. The data were quantitatively analysed by using the VIKOR model which is a democratic model to evaluate the publicness level, AHP analysis, and descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS and EXCEL. Qualitative analysis was based on content analysis and photographic documentation. According to the findings of the research, it proved that based on key physical dimensions, criteria, and indicators publicness level, effectiveness, and truly public or not in four case studies. The highest publicness level and satisfaction level occurred in Forest Park which proved the hypothesis of the study. Additionally, by providing more shady areas, proper waste management, proper sitting opportunities, provide proper security system and monitoring system for control spaces, provide diverse activities for all age categories are some of the comments based on respondents which need to be considered in planning & designing urban spaces for increase attraction levels which are benefited for urban planners and designer
Appraising indoor thermal perception of elderly in hot climates: An experimental investigation of free-running residential aged care homes in Colombo
No full textRapid demographic transition with higher growth in ageing population demonstrate a major societal challenge in South Asia and Sri Lankans will age faster than other developing economies in the region. Climate shocks of people living in economically deprived countries will increase in future and elders are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of temperature extremes. The study experimentally investigated free-running residential care homes in hot climate of Colombo performing simultaneous personal monitoring and questionnaire surveys. Results explicitly prove overheated indoors with less air flow. Majority of elders confirmed thermally unacceptable interiors with warm thermal sensations and low air velocities of 0.1 to 0.29 m/s with predominant preference of more air movement proves inadequate passive airflow. A significant relationship between wind preference and presence of openings of their place of stay were evident. Staying away from a window or door instigated to practice a behavioural adaptation of moving towards transitional areas such as corridors, verandas, and outdoor spaces for more wind sensation. Since ageing is associated with physical inabilities and elders spend their life mostly in indoors, findings emphasize the importance of enhancing passive airflow and application of appropriate design strategies to ensure optimum air velocities and dispersion of airflow within interiors
Countering the economic crippler; analysis on prevention of money laundering law in Sri Lanka
No full textAs per the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), money laundering is the ‘processing of criminal proceeds to disguise their illegal origin to legitimize the ill-gotten gains of crime’. Money Laundering is a transnational crime and due to that fact, ascertaining the perpetrators is an arduous task. Consequently, convicting the perpetrators is hindered due to drawbacks in implementation of laws, scantiness in laws and ambiguities in the law. Money laundering is adverse to the economy as it promotes illegal trade such as drug smuggling and illegal firearms, it creates rapid economic growth but in the long run, the economy is distressed. Furthermore, the liberty and sovereignty of financial institutions are endangered and lead to tax evasion impinging government revenue. The research has attempted to identify money laundering as detrimental to the economy and the need for effective implementation of laws to counter money laundering. The objectives of the research are, to identify the impact of money laundering on the economy, to assess the legal framework relating to money laundering, to discuss the lacunae in the law relating to money laundering and to provide recommendations to rectify the lacunae relating to money laundering. The research seeks to answer the questions on what is the impact of money laundering on the economy, what the legal framework is relating to money laundering, what are the lacunae in the law relating to money laundering and what are the recommendations to rectify the lacunae relating to money laundering. The research is a doctrinal research which is also qualitative in nature. Research has given prominence to statutes and judicial precedents to arrive at results. Research has also been aided by secondary sources such as scholarly publications. In addition, research has shed light on the international legal context to enrich the research. In the end, research has proved that money laundering as detrimental to the economy and the need for effective implementation of laws to combat money laundering
Intelligent fall detection and notification system for IoT based smart home environments
No full textThroughout the history of technology, various mechanisms to support the elderly and the disabled have been introduced as a remedy for the inadequacy of caregivers to provide them with the required assistance in leading an independent and secure living. Among all those mechanisms, smart homes and social robotics appear to play a significant and effective role in assuring a comfortable and safe environment for the elderly and the disabled who prefer to live independently without causing an extra burden on their families
Towards a sustainable Agri-Food supply chain
No full textThe agri-food industry is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in many developed and developing countries. This industry requires large volumes of natural resources. This resource requirement has been a key barrier to increasing production proportionately to cater to the increasing global population
Modelling child mortality via discriminant analysis and logistic regression
No full textPrevalence of deaths of children has particularly become a global concern in strategic decision making in the field of health sector. In Sri Lanka, the risk of deaths at childhood period was higher during the past few decades. Many studies have concerned about the child mortality in various perspectives. The purpose of this study is to find the significant factors on under-five mortality and to recommend a most suitable statistical model to predict the child mortality, under aged 0-5 years of age. The secondary data was collected from the demographic and health survey (2016) conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS), Sri Lanka. Two types of statistical models: linear discriminant model and binary logistic model are statistically evaluated. Two models were evaluated with classification accuracy, ROC curve, sensitivity/ specificity and sample size variations. Both methods found that, gender of child, marital status, mother’s literacy, status of antenatal care, delivery type, pregnancy duration and decision-making ability are significantly influential variables (p < 0.05) on the status of child mortality. According to the classification results produced by models, discriminant model correctly classified the 89.6% of grouped cases and binary logistic regression model correctly classified the 94.6% of grouped cases irrespective of the status of child mortality. With respect to the all seven indicators, it was found that binary logistic regression model was more efficient and more effective than linear discriminant model. The inferences derived can be effectively used for strategic decision making in the health sector for reducing the child mortality in the future
Assessing the carbon emission reduction by grid-tied photovoltaic (pv) technology for buildings in Sri Lanka
No full textEnergy related carbon emission of buildings is a major cause of global warming. In order to mitigate energy related carbon emission, buildings tend to adopt renewable energy technologies. Amongst renewable energy technologies, grid-tied PV technology has gained the interest of building energy consumers as an alternative energy source. Nevertheless, there is considerably low implementation of grid-tied PV technology in Sri Lanka, especially as a carbon reduction strategy. A key reason for lack of implementation of grid-tied PV system is that majority of buildings still depend on traditional energy sources for their total energy needs. Hence, there is a need of highlighting the importance of grid-tied PV system to penetrate the existing traditional energy market. The aim of this study is therefore to assess the possible energy related carbon reduction of grid-tied PV system for buildings in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, total of four (4) buildings were selected as case studies, including two buildings with grid-tied PV technology and two other buildings that are totally dependent on traditional energy sources. Subsequently, carbon footprint assessment was conducted to four (4) buildings specifying to energy related carbon emitting activities. And research findings revealed that selected two buildings with grid-Tied PV technology achieve an average reduction of carbon by 3379.77kg and 3013.06kg respectively per month compared to traditional-energy buildings. Consequently, this work has successfully identified that buildings with grid-tied PV technology achieve a reduction in energy related carbon emission compared to buildings with traditional energy sources
Development of a framework for flood mitigation in Fiji
No full text244
DEVELOPMENT OF A FRAMEWORK FOR FLOOD MITIGATION IN FIJI
Mingyuan Guo1, Argaw Gurmu2 and Linda Tivendale3
ABSTRACT
A large portion of infrastructure was flooded by water running off pavements or overflowing from the drainage systems in Fiji. The main objectives of this study are to identify the most suitable drainage management solution to reduce the overflow of the drainage system in Fiji, and to develop a framework of drainage management systems. The literature review was conducted to identify various drainage systems used to mitigate flooding around the world. After the review, the characteristics of Fiji such as climate pattern, location and soil type were analysed in the case study section. Secondary data which was obtained from Australia, Norway, the Netherlands, the U.S., Korea, and China were used in the research. The characteristics of Fiji were then mapped to other countries and a scoring system was created to analyse the suitability of different flood mitigation techniques in Fiji. Finally, multiple flood management strategies were proposed, and a drainage management framework for flood mitigation was developed
Psychosocial hazards and risks in the construction industry in New South Wales, Australia
No full textThe construction industry faces many challenges, one of which is the difficult to define psychosocial influences. The construction sector has highly demanding employment conditions, long working hours and sometimes unfeasible terms of project execution. Psychosocial influences represent emotional as well as physiological characteristics which impact the immediate environment. Some construction personnel face psychosocial problems that can lead to depression or suicide. The research conducted in this paper focuses on the psychosocial status of personnel working in construction companies, in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the psychosocial hazards observed in the construction industry in NSW. Practitioners in two private construction companies and one government department having construction project management experience in NSW were involved in the survey. The data analysis indicates that most workers experienced being pressured to stay back and work long hours. This led to workers being ‘very frequently’ tired. Regarding bullying, Respondents reported that the frequency of they experienced ‘exclusion or isolation from workplace activities’ was ‘monthly’. Being ‘Subjects of gossip or false, malicious rumours’ was reported as happening ‘weekly’ and ‘Humiliation through gestures, sarcasm, criticism or insults’ was said to happen ‘almost daily’. This study's findings indicate that construction projects could have unaddressed psychosocial hazards and risks, each of which may be a potential factor for accidents and occupational and psychological injuries. The data displayed from this research could help understand psychosocial hazards. Spreading awareness on the issue can hopefully be a step towards improving the mental health of construction workers while decreasing the overall suicide rate
Developing a National Eco-System for sustainable vegatable supply chain in Sri Lanka
No full textFruits and vegetables supply chain in Sri Lanka has always been a contemporary topic due to its significant value to the economy of the country. The existing fruits and vegetables supply chain is already suffering from dilemmas such as high price fluctuations, excess supply and wastage, involvement of large number of intermediaries and lack of infrastructure. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has put a tremendous pressure on already trembling supply chains. Sudden lock downs have led to disruption of existing distribution channels resulting farmers throwing away millions of tons of fresh fruits and vegetables while consumers in urban areas paying extremely high prices for fresh produce. The current situations clearly demonstrate the need for a more responsive and integrated vegetables supply chain for Sri Lanka. This paper attempts to create a conceptual model for the vegetable supply chain ecosystem for Sri Lanka