The Cascade System in Sri Lanka and Its Ecosystem Services

The Cascade System in Sri Lanka and Its Ecosystem Services

The Cascade System in Sri Lanka represents a significant engineering feat aimed at optimized hydrological management, with a history dating back approximately 2000 years. This system stands as remarkable evidence of Sri Lankan's EbA procedure and their technical expertise aligned with environmental conservation. It is described as the integration of ecosystem and economy compositions in Sri Lanka, primarily built to enhance agriculture in the dry zone by collecting stormwater from the North East monsoon season. Consequently, most cascade systems are situated in the dry zone, particularly in the North Central province, Sri Lanka. Demographically, the increasing population was the main impetus for establishing most cascade systems to ensure food security by boosting agriculture in ancient society.

In 1985, Mr. Madduma Bandara rediscovered the cascade system in Sri Lanka and observed that the tanks within the system were organized spatially based on the natural landscape. The main components of the cascade system include Storage tank, Stream, Olagam Wewa, Rainfed farm, Water hole, Village tank, Gasgommana, Kattakaduwa, Hamlet, Paddy Field, Drainage Canal, and Shrubland. These components are interconnected, and the removal of any one component can significantly diminish the overall function of the cascade system. The following figure provides a clear illustration of the cascade system in Sri Lanka.

    Source: IUCN, 2015.

The cascade system serves various ecosystem services such as groundwater recharge, flood management, conservation of flora and fauna, erosion control, adaptation to extreme weather events, and carbon sequestration. Additionally, this integrated system plays a broad role by providing various types of ecosystem services categorized into four provisioning services:

1. Provisioning Services - food, raw materials, freshwater, medicinal resources.

2. Regulating Services - local climate and air quality, carbon sequestration and storage, moderation of extreme events, water purification, wastewater treatment, erosion prevention, maintaining soil fertility, and biological control.

3. Cultural Services - tourism, recreation, mental and physical health, aesthetic appreciation, inspiration for culture, spiritual experience, and sense of place.

4. Supporting Services - habitats for species.

Despite its vital role in maintaining the balance between humans and the environment, the cascade system in Sri Lanka is gradually being compromised by industrialization and technical development in the country. Consequently, the optimized balance of ecosystem services is declining, leading to the emergence of various destructive environmental events such as climate change.

Reference:

Dissanayake, S.T.M., Vidanage, S., Goonathilake, S.D.A., Herath, K. and Perera, N. (2021). Proceedings of Cascade Ecology & Management -2021. Research Gate, [online] pp.132–138. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356588790  [Accessed 16 Feb. 2024].

Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka

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