AWCI Session
Prior toth
14 AOGEO Symposium
Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka•

Country in South Asia•

Population: 22 million•

Topography: 0 to 2525 m•

103 river basins•

4 climatic seasons•

3 climatic zones•

2 main agricultural seasonsPlatform on Water Resilience and Disasters in Sri Lanka
IFI promotes an integrated approach to flood management to take advantageof the benefits of floods and use of flood plains while minimizing the social,environmental and economic risks through collaboration among internationalorganizations.

Under IFI scheme, for strengthening Water-related Disasters Resilience and Enabling Sustainable Development in SriLanka, the Platform on Water Resilience and Disasters was established with the support of ICHARM in 2017.

MASL
NBRO

DMCDOMID

Targeted Actions

Contingency
Planning
Climate Change& Adaptation

Capacity
Building
Economic
Impacts ofDisasters
Flood EarlyWarning

Progress: Climate Change & Adaptation
Understanding of risk through climate change impact assessment inMahaweli River Basin• Catchment Area = 10,300 sq.km• Length of the river = 335 km• Annual yield= 11,000 MCM
Reference:
Selvarajah, H., Koike, T., Rasmy, M., Tamakawa, K., Yamamoto,A., Kitsuregawa, M., Zhou, L. Development of an Integrated Approach for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the Hydro-Meteorological
Characteristics of the Mahaweli River Basin, Sri Lanka. Water 2021, 13, 1218. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13091218

Progress: Climate Change & Adaptation
Understanding of risk through climate change impact assessment inMahaweli River Basin
Meteorological impact assessment

Hydrological impact assessment

Decision Making

Reference:
Selvarajah, H., Koike, T., Rasmy, M., Tamakawa, K., Yamamoto,A., Kitsuregawa, M., Zhou, L. Development of an Integrated Approach for the Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the Hydro-Meteorological
Characteristics of the Mahaweli River Basin, Sri Lanka. Water 2021, 13, 1218. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13091218

Requirement of Early warning• Climate change impact assessment, depicts a 20 years average information.
• But the onset and withdrawal of extreme events are still uncertain based on the available
information

Therefore:
 Use seasonal forecasting and short term weather prediction for flood and droughtmanagement as;Forecasting uses the latest observation

Weather prediction is more accurate up to a maximum of 2 weeksSeasonal forecast prediction horizon is in months

Both are very useful in flood and drought management

7

Progress: Flood Early Warning
Early Warning System for Kalu River Basin (Test operation in DIAS)

One week ahead ensemble rainfall forecasting us Rainfall monitoring and integration (use of automatedrain gauges for bias correction of GsMap data withground data) Flood monitoring and forecasting Visualization and online dissemination

Future Plan: Flood Early Warning
Early Warning System for Vulnerable River Basin (Upgrading thesystem to operational level)

Progress : Capacity Building
Training & Capacity Building Programs in Sri Lanka

PhD in Disaster Management• 1 candidate has completed• 1 candidate has enrolled
Masters in Disaster Management• 3 candidates have enrolled

OSS-CCRA

Online Synthesis System for Climate Change Resilience & Adaptation

Flood Early Warning &Risk mapping
Basin
ScaleRainfall forecasting

Flood monitoring &forecastingHot-spot
ScaleHigh-resolution floodinundation mapping (2-D, 3-D)

Climate Change Impacts
Assessments

Rainfall monitoring and integration

Visualization & Online
dissemination

Basin
Scale
GCM projected rainfall downscaling and impact assessments on rainfall

Qualitative and quantitative Changes in river discharges and floods

Support planning of evacuation,
prevention, rescue, and recovery

Hot-spotScale
High-resolution flood hazard
mapping (2-D, 3-D)

DisasterEvidence-based long-ternplanning policy making
 Hazard & Risk Information
 Optimized dam andirrigation practices(hydropower vs irrigation)

 Hazard & Risk Information
 Crisis management & resource
allocation tools

Contingency planning withnational and local agencies

Capacity Building for
Facilitators-Flood Early Warningo Ensemble rainfall
forecastingo Rainfall monitoringand integrationo Flood modelingo Flood mapping (2-D,3-D)
o Contingency
planning
oDisaster impact
assessment- Climate Change
Impact Assessments
ooDisaster

Economic Impacts ofdisasters

E-Learning
Materials(Lectures &tutorials)

Adaptation
planningoo

GCM downscaling
Flood modeling &hazard mapping
contingency planning
Dam optimization

Capacity Building Requirements
 Capacity Building on
 Hydrological modelling, forecasting and early warning Climate change impact assesment
 Drought monitoring and prediction
 Flood hazard mapping and visualization

 Sediment disaster risk identification
 Evacuation and contingency planning under COVID-19
 Ensemble rainfall forecasting Forecast informed reservoir operation for flood control and power generation
 Cultural and historical approaches for disaster resilience and sustainability

 E-learning under Online Synthesis System of Japan Facilitator training (30 ~ 40 participants will join)
 Expert training (100 ~200 participants will be trained by facilitators)

E-learning under OSS: Plan and Schedule
Totally 40 facilitators from stakeholder agencies willbe trained.

•••••

Irrigation Department
Disaster Management Centre
Department of Meteorology
National Building Research Organization
Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka

DMC(8)ID (8)DOM(8)

NBRO(8)MASL(8)Course 1: Science bases for climate change adaptation and disaster resilience
CC-1 Climate resilience and sustainability by all
Prof. Toshio Koike
Introduction to atmospheric modeling for climate change impact
CC-2
Prof. Tomoki Ushiyama
assessment and hydrologic early warning
Introduction to hydrological modeling for climate change impact
CC-3
Prof. Mohamed Rasmy
assessment and flood early warning
CC-4 Climate change impact assessment in the Mahaweli river basin
Dr. Hemakanth Selvarajah
DM-1 Introduction to agricultural drought monitoring and prediction
Dr. Hiroyuki Tsutsui
Cultural and historical approaches for disaster resilience andCH-1
Prof. Kenzo Hiroki
sustainability
Course 2: Actions to be taken for climate change adaptation and disaster resilience
Let’s use an online synthesis system for sustainability andOSS-1
resilience (OSS-SR)
Dr. Katsunori Tamakawa
DRR-1 Flood hazard mapping and visualization
Dr. Naoko Nagumo
Flood disaster evacuation and contingency planning underDRR-2
Prof. Miho Ohara
COVID-19DRR-3 Sediment disaster risk identification
Dr. Daisuke Harada
Hydroelectric dam operation support to improve flood control
DRR-4
and power generation
Prof. Toshio Koike
New strategies for reservoir operation using seasonal forecast
DRR-5
streamflow in Mahaweli River Basin, Sri Lanka
Dr. Hemakanth Selvarajah

Thank you very much