Master of Science (Major Component Research)http://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/136732024-03-29T08:05:34Z2024-03-29T08:05:34ZTeaching and research capacity of disaster resilience in the built environment higher education in Sri LankaNanayakkara NBhttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/222092024-02-08T22:07:33Z2023-01-01T00:00:00ZTeaching and research capacity of disaster resilience in the built environment higher education in Sri Lanka
Nanayakkara NB
Built Environment (BE) is immensely damaged due to the increased intensity of
disasters. Therefore, the BE professionals are expected to react effectively and
efficiently during both pre-disaster and post disaster phases. Nevertheless, the
existing knowledge insufficiency on disaster resilience (DR) acts as a barrier for the
professionals to deliver an effective service. Thus, incorporating DR studies within
the higher education curriculum has been identified as one of the action plans by the
Disaster Management Centre in Sri Lanka. This research, therefore, sets out to
enhance the current teaching and research capacity in the field of DR among the BE
disciplines in Sri Lankan state universities. This study adopts a phenomenological
philosophy and uses multi-method qualitative as the methodological choice in
deriving a conclusion. Under survey strategy, desk study and semi-structured
interviews were incorporated as the data collection techniques. The findings were
subjected to manual content analysis.
The importance of acquiring DR knowledge by BE professionals are confirmed in
the literature review. This research developed a landscape using desk study to
identify the current status of DR education in terms of teaching and research among
BE disciplines in the state universities in Sri Lanka. The landscape revealed that
among the departments that offer BE related programmes, the teaching modules that
are related to DR are comparatively limited. Nevertheless, the research activities
related to DR are conducted in most of the BE related departments. The key drivers
for the integration of DR into the BE education are to make BE professionals
responsible in building a habitable world to human-beings and to face the increasing
number of disasters, the personal research interest, expertise of academic staff
members in the DR related research area, and the social responsibility of the
academics. The key barriers encountered in terms of DR teaching and research
capacities were the heavily loaded modules specific to the degree programme of the
curriculum, the high priority given for the technical knowledge, not updating the
curriculum frequently to meet the emerging knowledge requirements, lack of
resource persons, and lack of awareness on educating BE professionals with DR
knowledge. Finally, recommendations were suggested to effectively incorporate DR
knowledge within the higher education curriculums and research activities on the BE
disciplines of the state universities in Sri Lanka.
2023-01-01T00:00:00ZEconomic evaluation of grid -tied PV technology used in apparel manufacturing industry in Sri LankaHarindi GLhttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/222182024-02-19T22:05:36Z2021-01-01T00:00:00ZEconomic evaluation of grid -tied PV technology used in apparel manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka
Harindi GL
Grid-Tied Photovoltaic (PV) technology is a globally accepted renewable technology
used for built environment. Application of grid-tied PV system is a promising
alternative and it’s essential that clients know if the investments in such technologies
are actually profitable. In Sri Lanka fewer studies were found on the economic
evaluation of grid-tied PV technology. In particular, the economics of generating solar
electricity has not been addressed appropriately for Sri Lanka’s apparel manufacturing
industry. Therefore, aim of this study is to evaluate the economic gain of grid-tied PV
technology for apparel manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka to promote its application.
The case study approach was adopted as the research strategy and four (04) apparel
manufacturing facilities were selected. The data collection was done through semistructured
interviews
and
documentary
reviews,
whereas
the
analysis
was
conducted
through
manual
content analysis and evaluation of economic indicators. Case study
data revealed the key economic benefits of the system such as monthly revenue, low
maintenance cost, reduce burden on local utility grid, etc. Key economic challenges
were identified as high initial cost, high replacement costs, cost due to conflicts with
suppliers, revenue depreciation with system losses and the like. Selecting energy
service companies, promote bulk purchase and maintain stocks, enhance national solar
energy demand, improve the process of renewable energy loan schemes, etc. are the
proposed strategies to overcome those challenges. In addition, three (03) economic
indicators were measured, such as levelized cost of electricity, net present value and
simple payback period. The levelized cost of electricity resulted in a reasonable range
for the cost of producing electricity using a solar PV system, ranging between Rs. 10
and Rs. 12 per kilowatt hour (kWh) and simple payback period and net present value
showed a favorable condition, implying system’s profitability for apparel
manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka.
2021-01-01T00:00:00ZCulture of municipal solid waste management : analysis of values, attitudes and behavioursKumarasiri DMGBThttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/222712024-03-14T22:02:18Z2021-01-01T00:00:00ZCulture of municipal solid waste management : analysis of values, attitudes and behaviours
Kumarasiri DMGBT
Developing countries like Sri Lanka are having huge stinking garbage dumps which is a “silent
looming crisis” as cities grow day by day. Even though, there are strategies already
implemented in municipal solid waste management (MSWM), most of those were either failed
or not sufficient to address the current waste crisis. This is mainly due to the poor planning
and implementation practices in MSWM, where the relevant authorities are responsible. They
are not enthusiastic in pursuing solutions for the growing public concerns towards MSWM.
Because they are not aware about the exact importance of proper MSWM for the country.
Thus, there is a need of an attitudinal and behavioural change to overcome this problem.
Despite the availability of research on community attitudes and behaviours in MSWM, a gap
in literature could be identified in identifying the values, attitudes, and behaviours of
authorities in planning and implementation of MSWM in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this research
intends to provide a culture-based solution for MSWM by investigating values, attitudes, and
behaviours of authority personals in MSWM. A Comprehensive literature review was
conducted to review the concepts of value, attitude, and behaviour in MSWM context,
including the waste management strategies adopted in MSWM. Positioning this research in an
interpretivist stance, a qualitative approach was used adapting qualitative survey as the
research strategy to achieve the aim of the research. Seventeen semi structured interviews were
held with the key authorities who responsible for planning and implementation of MSWM in
Sri Lanka. Manual content analysis was used to analyse the results of qualitative survey. The
verdicts of the research revealed the common MSWM practices in Sri Lanka, which are open
dumping, landfilling, composting, adaptation of 3R concept and so on along with the
accompanying values, attitudes, and behaviours. Positive values, attitudes and behaviours
along with noteworthy negative values, attitudes and behaviours such as community
cooperation is less in MSWM, open dumping of waste is the easiest method of getting rid of
waste and adapting new technologies is not affordable to Sri Lanka, which is result in the
behaviours like open dumping of waste without any treatment and reluctancy in allocating
fund for latest technologies in MSWM. Although many positive values are held by Sri Lankans
in MSWM, such values are not reflected through the attitudes and behaviours. Moreover, it
was revealed through the findings that future positive behaviour of an individual influences
changing the attitude of another while creating a positive value to the authorities responsible
for MSWM. Thus, the research could be concluded that behaviours should be improved as it
was already revealed that the cycle of culture management can do a great influence on
managing MSW. Finally, the study was concluded by proposing strategies to manage MSW
from a cultural perspective by refining the conceptual framework. The knowledge generated
through this research can be used by respective authorities in Sri Lanka in successful planning
and implementing MSWM strategies.
2021-01-01T00:00:00ZPost fire refurbishment of apparel manufacturing buildings for enhanced building performanceRathanyake RMDIMhttp://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/177012022-06-21T09:23:29Z2020-01-01T00:00:00ZPost fire refurbishment of apparel manufacturing buildings for enhanced building performance
Rathanyake RMDIM
The essence of buildings in apparel sector is highly influenced on the efficiency and effectiveness of occupants’ performance and comfort. Creation of user satisfaction can be reached through the involvement of building performance mandates (BPMs) within the interplay of total building performance (TBP). TBP is affected by numerous reasons. Among those, fire incidents may cause direct or indirect impacts to the present building or even in old age. Consequences of these fire incidents in apparel buildings lead to building refurbishments which intended to reinstate the building condition as well as to improve the quality of life. Nevertheless, evaluation of post-fire refurbishment projects mainly focused on building integrity in terms of mechanical and physical properties. However, there are no evidence of any building evaluation especially focusing to the other performance mandates in post fire building refurbishment. Therefore, equal importance should be given to other five BPMs (spatial performance [SP], thermal, acoustic [TP], indoor air quality performance [IAQP], visual performance [VP] and acoustic performance [AP]) in order to achieve building functionality and comfort of the building occupants.
The study was conducted by involving the concurrent nested mixed design under mixed research approach. An extensive literature review and case studies of three fire affected apparel buildings were involved as data collection methods. Literature review was conducted in order to review the behaviour of building fires, factors contribute to building fire incidents, hardware and software measures of fire safety and models for building fire impact evaluation. Moreover, refurbishment of fire damaged buildings and its impact on building performance were recognised through the literature review. Data collection were supported by eighteen semi structured interviews and a questionnaire survey among thirty-six respondents. Collected qualitative data analysed using manual content analysis and quantitative data analysed by relative importance index (RII).
The results revealed that due to the business nature of apparel sector holds high risk for fire incidents. To fight against high fire risk in apparel sector, better symbiosis between elements of fire detection, notification and suppression emphasised by the current research. On the other hand, lack of practice on passive fire protection and unavailability of apparel sector specific fire regulation in Sri Lanka asserted as a practice which hinder the effective building protection against fire. To safeguard the building from critical fire incidents, forty-nine factors highlighted and strategies to overcome the identified loopholes elaborated in the current study. Accordingly, ‘faulty wiring’ was ranked with highest relevance followed by ‘welding work with electrical sparks’. Importance of BPMs for apparel manufacturing buildings was analysed to enhance building performance in post-fire situation. Then existing best practices of BPMs in the apparel sector were discussed. Even though these BPMs essential to apparel manufacturing sector, the better application of BPMs have been limited by many challenges in the business operation. The research identified forty-five (45) challenges encountered in maintaining BPMs of post fire refurbished apparel manufacturing buildings and provided strategies to overcome the identified challenges. Finally, a framework was developed by incorporating main three themes, push factors and pull factors identified in the study to enhance the performance of post-fire apparel buildings beyond restoration.
2020-01-01T00:00:00Z