Abstract
Human activities have recognized in recent years as the most significant force shaping the biosphere. This is completely true concerning rapid changes in the land surface. Concerning land resources, it is important to understand how this change happens. Thus, this chapter aims to review how this change has occurred throughout the history of Sri Lanka. A piecemeal approach in the unsustainable manner of land resource utilization towards severe land changes illustrates and compares the land use and land cover changes in significant phases in the history of Sri Lanka. This was further revitalized as well as influenced by the land-use policies introduced throughout history. The absence of a clearly defined land-use policy in the country after independence is problematic when addressing land-related issues. Consequently, chronological changes in land use and land cover existed within the country has now doubled and more intensified than ever.
TopIntroduction
The land comprises a range of biophysical components and subjected to various effects and also land in its natural condition undergoes regular rejuvenation. The range of biophysical components embedded in the landscape is used for different purposes. Thus land use (LU) has become one of the main concerns of many disciplines. Though the topic is debatable among researchers, academics, and scientists much have been contributed to ‘LU’ rather than ‘preservation or restoration of the land’ (Mather, 1986). Its principles are mostly those of economics and ecology, but it is the product of human decisions operating within social, political, and legal frameworks. Land is classified among basic natural resource, and in classical economics (Abegunawardhana & Senarathne, 2002), the land is considered as one of the three factors of production along with capital and labour. Throughout human history, man has drawn most of his sustenance and fuel, clothing, and shelter from the land. The land has been man’s living space and key resource to avoid hunger. Therefore the use of land should have been of key consideration to man is not surprising. What is more surprising is the man’s attachment to the land and his persisting concern for it into the industrial and post-industrial ages. In the developed countries man has been detached from the land. His food comes from the supermarkets rather than directly from the soil. Much of his clothing is of synthetic fiber. In place of firewood, he uses fossil fuels from deep below the land surface. Days, weeks, or months may pass when his only landscape is townscape. Yet the man is still concerned about the use of the land from which he has become largely separated. A man who may be living in the city would have a general concern for the use of both rural and urban land. The use of more natural resources invariable evokes concern, but the use of land seems to stand out in attracting special attention. No clear identification between man and land is expressed than in the Hebrew language; man is Adam and land is Adama (Mather, 1986).
The term LU refers to human activities associated with a specific piece of land, whereas Land Cover (LC) relates to the type of features present on the surface of the earth. Furthermore, both LU/LC are synonymous in the scientific community. LU/LC are two ways of observing the earth’s surface. LC Land cover is a feature that can be used in different disciplines (geography, ecology, geology, forestry, land policy, and planning, etc.) as a geographical reference (e.g., for land-use, climatic or ecological studies). In modern geographic databases, due to its relatively easy spatialization, LC has become a sort of “boundary object” between different disciplines. In more detail, the LC consists of physical characteristics of the earth’s surface with relation to the distribution of vegetation, water, soil, and other physical features. LU is how the land has been utilized by humans and their habitats such as agriculture, settlements, industry (Kaul and Sopan, 2012). Burns & Hart (1970) have observed: Land as an object, tends to produce benefit, gives a social advantage, pleasure, happiness…..to the party whose interest is considered. These non-materials are mostly based on personal objectives. Thus, non-personal objectives differ from personal objectives. In that aspect, the objectives of land may be an economic, social, or cultural phenomenon. These phenomena may spatially and temporally vary in a country like Sri Lanka. LU has changed over time and is changing in the country under different perspectives.
This chapter begins with an introduction to the background of Sri Lanka and then moves to the LU/LC pattern of Sri Lanka, focusing on LU/LC changes during the colonial period. Then the attention has been drawn to the post-independence period highlighting the changes of LU/LC with the introduction of liberalized economic policies. The final concern gave on planning and sustainable developments are decisive measures of LU management in Sri Lanka.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Water Management: Planning, developing, distributing, sustainable utilization of water resources under clearly defined water policies and regulations.
Subsistence Agriculture: Farmers grow food crops to meet their needs of themselves.
Land Use and Land Cover: How people utilize land and physical land types such as forests.
Cascade Tank System: A cascade tank system is a connected series of tanks organized within a micro-catchment.
Plantation Economy: Economy based on mass agricultural production limited to a few crops which are grown in large areas.
Shifting Cultivation: A form of agriculture, the ground is cleared and cultivate with vegetables, pulses, for few years and abandoned to fertilize naturally.
Colonial Period: A country or a region subjected to administration by colonials.
Export-Oriented Commercial Agriculture: Foreign market-oriented large scale production of crops for sale, widely distributed and harvested perennially and sold to world markets.