ABSTRACT
A flood is a climatic hazard and disaster which causes socio-economic, environmental and property losses to a country. Every year, a flood disaster batters any country in the world, in particular the tropical regions where the monsoonal influence is severe. Sri Lanka, being a tropical country, goes through the monsoonal effect through which much of the rainfall is received. Albeit the rainfall reception occurs mostly in the wet zone including the central highlands, it drain through the coastal belts of Sri Lanka through the rivers and low-lands. Thus, it creates inundation in the neighborhoods of the rivers and low-lands. The same happens in the Mavadippalli area in the Ampara district of Sri Lanka. This study is to explore the causes of the floods and consequences and to create future anticipation. For this study, both primary and secondary data were gathered. As primary data, observations, field visits, interviews and questionnaire surveys were made as well as hand held GPS was used then, the DEM was generated from the randomly collected GPS points and, as secondary data, previously published articles, topographic maps and statistical reports were used. The gathered data was analyzed using Arc GIS 10.3 software. It was found that the Pallaru River, a tributary of Gal-Oya overflows when experiencing torrential rainfall. The long-term observation from Google Earth images have also shown the shrinkage of the respective river beds. It is evident that, according to the DEM, the Mavadippalli area is one of the low-land in the district which is overwhelmed during the high downpour in the nearby areas. Further, some kinds of aquatic macrophytes also hinder the smooth release of the water from the bridge across the Sammanthurai-Ampara main road, which leads to the overcapacity of water and consequent flooding. To sum up, many recommendations have been proposed, such as; proper land use planning, risk management, conducting awareness programs, cropping the slanting areas etc. to curb the ramifications of the flooding in the Mavadippalli area.
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