Browsing by Author "Kankanamge, N"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

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Development of a gamified application to enhance flood disaster education among children and youth
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, 2024) Mahamood, R; Kankanamge, N; De Silva, C; Ranasinghe, D; Kangana, N
Disasters, whether natural or man-made, pose a serious threat to the security and well-being of people everywhere. One in every 100 years floods directly damage 23 percent of the world’s population, or 1.81 billion people. Out of that 1.24 billion people live in South and East Asia, which 16% - 23% of them are Sri Lankans [1]. In Sri Lanka, flood-related losses and damages were over USD 2 billion between 1990 and 2018 [2]. It’s critical to manage and prevent disasters using proactive strategies in order to reduce the possible hazards to people and infrastructure. As a result, it is impossible to overestimate the significance of disaster awareness as a preventative strategy for disaster management.
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Development of a mobile augmented reality application to enhance youth engagement in planning and designing public spaces in urban areas
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, 2024) Ranasinghe, D; De Silva, C; Kankanamge, N; Mahamood, R
Urban planning necessitates public participation to ensure that every individual’s voice and requirements are heard and considered, thereby promoting inclusive urban development. According to UN-Habitat (2018), public participation fosters a positive relationship between a government and the public by communicating effectively and solving conflicts collaboratively. Despite the theoretical emphasis on participatory planning in planning practices, research has identified a lack of community participation in planning-related contexts, leading to the current gap between urban planning and public participation. The incompatibility between communication preferences and the public’s preferred method of engagement significantly contributed to the lack of public engagement in urban planning using traditional approaches [1]. Furthermore, in the local context, the existing participatory planning methodologies are outdated and fail to motivate people to voice their opinions. Given this situation, we hypothesize that incorporating advanced digital technology and an augmented reality application into a participatory planning methodology could enhance community involvement in planning and de-signing public spaces in cities based on their needs.
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Development of a mobilized crowdsourcing platform to enable participatory risk sensitive urban development.
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, 2024) Kangana, N; Kankanamge, N; De Silva, C; Ranasinghe, D; Mahamood, R
According to United Nations Development Program (2021) nearly 84% of the fastest growing urban areas are facing extreme climate and disaster risks especially in Asia and Africa. In Sri Lanka, it is ranked 63 (out of 171 countries) on the World Risk Index and 56 (out of 191 countries) by the risk assessment platform of countries that are exposed to disaster risks [3]. According to the hazard profile of Sri Lanka, over 50% of the highly populated cities are located in disaster prone areas. Sri Lanka is a developing country, facing highly challenging situations with governance deficits, and resource constraints. Therefore, risk sensitive urban development approaches have been a crucial concern in developing cities, where it integrates disaster risk reduction and adapting the climate smart measures into development planning across all sectors of development that help to protect development outcomes and investment made towards achieving development goals [3]. Disaster-vulnerable communities need active engagement in risk management to prepare, respond, and recover from disasters, utilizing their understanding on the risks and vulnerabilities they face and access to local resources and knowledge [2]. Therefore, participation of vulnerable communities within the decision-making process in risk sensitive urban environment is important. However, vulnerable communities are often marginalized in the decision-making process [1]. In the Sri Lankan context, community participation has been a least vital consideration in urban planning, not only in disaster risk reduction. Most importantly the existing attempts are lacking with the public participation where the awareness, trust, and interest of people towards the process has been marginalized.
item: Conference-Full-text
Examination of newly established bicycle lanes in Sri Lanka with special reference to Piliyandala and Katubedda
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2018-10-05) Dahanayaka, N; Kankanamge, N; Wijesundara, J; Dayaratne, R
With the increasing use of motorized modes and related infrastructure, different issues such as traffic congestion, environment pollution and road accidents made cities not liveable for citizens. Promoting Non-Motorized Transportation (NMT) modes is the emerging substitution against this issue. Sri Lankan government recently promote bicycle lanes following the concept of, “world bike to work day”. Under this project, few bicycle lanes were promoted in several towns including Piliyandala and Malabe. Although this was meant to reduce the traffic and make cities environmentally friendly, accidents increased in the areas of Katubedda and Piliyandala, after implementing the bicycle lanes. While appreciating the initiation of promoting bicycle lanes, research findings show the requirement of promoting proper infrastructure to encourage bicycle riding. Accordingly, this research suggests a GIS based bikeability index, to evaluate the bikeability (ability to ride) of bicycle lanes, for the betterment of decision making. In order to develop the index research derived different variables through literature research and, were validated through interviews with bicycle riders of Piliyandala-Katubedda bicycle lane. The results received after applying the developed index, highlighted the areas of Piliyandala-Katubedda bicycle lane, which might lead to severe traffic issues and life losses, if the existing design exist for long.
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Imageability and legibility: cognitive analysis and visibility assessment in galle heritage city
(Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and Taylor & Francis., 2022) Abeynayake, T; Meetiyagoda, L; Kankanamge, N; Mahanama, PKS
The concepts of imageability and legibility are important aspects of urban design. Many scholars use the terms “imageability” and “legibility” interchangeably, usually examining one concept and applying the implications to the other. This research explores the relationship between these two concepts by answering the research questions: 1. how do people perceive the saliency of landmarks (imageability) and 2. how does the spatial configuration facilitate the visibility level of landmarks (legibility)? The Galle Heritage City in Sri Lanka is considered as the case study. The first part of the empirical study is to assess the level of imageability of urban space users by completing 100 cognitive maps and producing a composite cognitive map that indicates the structural landmarks’ salience or the level of imageability. The second part is the level of legibility of the landmarks by employing the visibility assessment process and the third part compares the two results with a concurrence matrix. The findings highlight that there is a positive relationship between people’s perception (imageability) and level of visibility (legibility). Further, imageability mostly depends on semantic properties than legibility, but legibility predominantly depends on structural properties and visual properties are almost equally important to both concepts.
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Pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation for strategic decision-making: a COVID-19 index for government response in Australia
(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2022) Yigitcanlar, T; Kankanamge, N; Inkinen, T; Butler, L; Preston, A; Rezayee, M; Gill, P; Ostadnia, M; Ioppolo, G; Senevirathne, M
Abstract Purpose: This study aims to develop a pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation index to support the strategic decision-making efforts of authorities. Design/methodology/approach: First, the key vulnerability factors from the literature are identified. Second, using the vulnerability factors as indicators, a composite index is developed. Last, from the index values, a set of vulnerability knowledge maps, showing the vulnerability hotspots, are prepared. Findings: Ten indicators are identified as vulnerability factors that could significantly impact the virus spread risks. Verifying the identified hotspots against the recorded infected cases and deaths has evidenced the usefulness of the index. Determining and visualising the high-vulnerability locations and communities could help in informed strategic decision-making and responses of the authorises to the pandemic. Originality/value: The study demonstrates that the developed pandemic vulnerability knowledge visualisation index is particularly appropriate in the context of Australia. Nonetheless, by replicating the methodologic steps of the study, customised versions can be developed for other country contexts.
item: Conference-Full-text
A study on the process of studentification: a case study of Katubedda neighbourhood
(Department of Architecture, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, 2018-10-05) Shanmugarajah, D; Kankanamge, N; Ratnayake, R; Kariyawasam, S; Wijesundara, J; Dayaratne, R
Studentification has been identified as a form of gentrification by many scholars. Spatial restrictions in an urban fabric, which are close to academic intuitions, lead to studentification. This form of gentrification is popular in many countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America where universities create towns and cities. Such studentification characteristics also could be identified around some of the leading universities in Sri Lanka. University of Moratuwa is one such university in Sri Lanka where students from all over the country come for their higher education. Clearly, the impacts of university students could be observed in the immediate vicinity. Thus, this research incorporates both qualitative and quantitative tools to provide a comprehensive explanation for this phenomenon. The objective of this study is to investigate the studentification process took place around the Moratuwa University. The process of studentification is examined through the lenses of economic, spatial and cultural changes that have occurred in the area. More than 200 land lords within a 500m walking distance from the university were interviewed to achieve the research objective. The study results show that the university has a great impact in changing the community in various dimensions such as standards of living and quality of life. The increasing demand for student accommodation has changed the entire socioeconomic structure of the community living around the university. New investors have started to invest in this area targeting the students as their main consumer base. This study provides economic, social, cultural and physical evidences and the assessment can advance the understanding about the process of studentification happening in the Moratuwa university neighbourhood. Local authorities and city planners will be benefited from this study in making future decisions on land use and infrastructure.