Developing a database for timber used in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Until recently timbers used for Structural purposes were limited to timber species that had been “tried and tested” over a long period of time. Today, however, these timbers are scarce and expensive, and it has become necessary to use either lesser known indigenous timber species or imported varieties of timber. The lack of easily accessible information on the local varieties of timbers has led to a reluctance by some potential users of timber to use the indigenous varieties for structural purposes. Information relating to different aspects of nearly 300 indigenous species is available from different sources. There is however a need to collate and integrate this information and present it in an easily accessible single source. A database is a suitable form of storage of the information, since it not only stores the information in an easily retrievable format that can be updated but also can be queried, to select suitable species for specific end uses or to find suitable end uses for a given species.