Sustainability is a core principle in our research. We explore strategies for sustainability in areas like water management, energy use, waste disposal, and land utilization. By combining environmental, social, and economic aspects, we strive to create solutions that foster resilience and a sustainable future.
Study 1:
- Traditional Asian agriculture has long been beneficial economically, environmentally, and socially.
- Preserving indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage is important as modern agriculture replaces traditional systems.
- UNESCO and FAO initiatives preserve representative sites but cannot cover all traditional systems.
- Feasibility of integrating traditional and modern systems explored through mosaics.
- Deduru Oya reservoir in Sri Lanka aims to enhance livelihoods through increased land and water productivity.
- Left bank canal supports paddy cultivation using ancient rainfed small reservoir-based irrigation systems.
- Right bank canal transfers excess water to the adjacent Mee oya basin.
- Deduru Oya irrigation project integrates modern and ancient systems for research purposes.
- Simulation shows the project can meet water demand for paddy cultivation without failure.
- Integration of small tanks provides resilience during extreme drought.
- Integration allows for macro-micro scale integration and autonomy at the micro scale.
Study 2:
- Deduru Oya basin experiences significant temporal variation in rainfall, causing flash floods and low flows.
- Deduru Oya reservoir is constructed upstream of Ridi Bedi Ela anicut to regulate discharge for better water resource utilization, especially for irrigation.
- The multi-purpose Deduru Oya reservoir project has a capacity of 75 MCM.
- The project enhances water resources for 136 tank-based irrigation systems in Deduru Oya Left Bank through the Left Bank (LB) canal.
- Water is also diverted to Iginimitiya tank in the Mee oya basin via a right bank transbasin canal.
- A model is developed to manage water in the LB canal development area and assess diversion requirements from Deduru Oya reservoir through the LB Canal.
- Hydrological Engineering Center-Hydrological Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is used for runoff estimations and CROPWAT model for crop water requirements.
- Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model is utilized for water balance simulations and calculating LB canal's water requirements over the past 10 years.
- The study reveals that the annual water requirement from the LB canal for 100% cropping intensity in the proposed 3000 ha irrigable area ranges from 26 MCM to 41 MCM.
Study 3:
- Advances in science and technology have brought prosperity but also unresolved problems like poverty and inequality.
- Overexploitation of natural resources and anthropogenic impacts on planetary systems are becoming evident.
- Traditional disciplinary approaches are inadequate for addressing complex global problems.
- Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to address problems holistically and efficiently.
- New platforms are necessary to tackle interconnected problems effectively.
- Solutions should target equitable and sustainable development.
- Linking solutions with the global development agenda and concrete actions is crucial.
- The paper explores sustainability, sustainable development, and the global development agenda.
- It discusses linking these concepts with postgraduate education, using examples from UNU-ISP's postgraduate program.