edge effect analysis of peri-urban natural ecosystem deterioration; Bahirawakanda terrain, Kandy, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Ecosystems are constantly threatened by the poorly regulated development impact in the developing world. Rapid urban development and inadequate management of the ecosystems are the main reasons for this. This is mainly due to the rapid urban developments and inadequate concern of managing natural ecosystems. Using the remote sensing field this research intends to investigate the ecological deterioration of natural terrain due to the rapid urbanization process. The field of remote sensing is not widely used in analysing urban issues in Sri Lanka. This study focuses on understanding and calculating the ecological impact with reference to Kandy Bahirawakanda natural peri-urban terrain ecosystem based on remote sensing field. There are four ecological impact indexes that can be used to measure the impact using remote sensing technology. This paper uses the edge effect index as the measuring device to measure the increase of isolation of ecological patches. This approach provides a clear insight in to how a single ecological patch fragments into the separate patches and the increase of gaps between those patches. This provides a very good physical and visual indication of one important aspect of the destruction of natural ecosystems.