We collaborate with the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) and the International Research Institute for climate and society (IRI) to explore the use of climate information for river basin management. We have studied climatic teleconnections with river basin rainfall and stream flow, investigated drought and flood indices, and the applicability of climate information for agricultural, water resources, environmental and disaster management at basin level.

Our research has indicated a significant relationship between rice production in Sri Lanka and ENSO. These findings are useful to underpin the use of seasonal climate predictions for agricultural management and policy-making.

This project was a three-year collaborative undertaking between five Sri Lankan organizations and IRI, funded by the global change system for Training, Analysis and Research (START). We engaged in climatic analysis, impact assessment, development of adaptation strategies and capacity building. We have developed climate change assessments and contributed to a prediction scheme for coconut production.

This project was in collaboration with the IRI, Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), Environment and Forest Conservation Division of the MASL and the Department of Wildlife Conservation in Sri Lanka. We established precipitation and NDVI climatologies, undertook downscaling of climate predictions and identified a link between drought in the first half of the year and elephant deaths.

We identified disaster hazard risk spatially and seasonally for Sri Lanka at fine scales along with the impacts of combination of these risks. We also studied vulnerability to disaster. This work resulted in a proposal for disaster risk management. This work was published by the World Bank.

We are studying the interaction of dengue and malaria and climate in Sri Lanka in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute, the Anti-Malaria Campaign in a project funded by the Climate Variability and Human Health program of the Office of Global Programs of NOAA. We also undertake analysis of dengue and climate.