Group 10- Assessed project work 1

Sustainable Land Conservation Strategies

Land is a natural resource which is readily available. But due to location and other reasons like fertility and type of soil use of a certain land may be limited. Some uses of land are;

1.      For agricultural purposes

2.      For residential purposes

3.      For commercial purposes

4.      For recreational purposes

5.      For mining

These uses require development of lands. Land development can be harmful to the natural state of land. But as these developments are vital for us, we should at least consider conservation programs when developing land.

Above uses of land can cause various damages to land. As examples;

·         Agricultural lands may have a lasting chemical imbalance.

·         Mining operations can cause landslides.

·         Land pollution due to construction waste.

Sustainable land use practices

·         Site selection – Using brownfield sites for development rather than using undeveloped land when starting projects.

·         Avoid using agricultural lands, flood risk areas, forest areas with endemic species, coastal belt, and special conserved areas.

·         Planning land use.

·         Zoning

·         City in a garden concept

Garden City Concept

“Garden City” visions can include plants growing from almost every spatial where as much as possible. A green city has to revolve around the combine systems which helps to follow a natural ecology. In order to properly utilized plants should be treated as one component of a network of sustainable efforts. The introduction of heavily planted cities has tried to capture the impressive nature of constructed urban density. The concept is definitely following the possibilities of cities as they were imagined by legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted who designed numerous parks across the U.S. and Canada including New York’s Central Park. There is no doubt about that the greenery can plays an important role in hold on the negative effects of urban life. Their roots help mitigate storm water and their canopy supports microclimates for urban wildlife. Green roof systems go one step further. In addition , these layers of growing medium can reduce urban heat islands in the summer while providing year-round insulating value to the buildings below them even in as little as 5 inches of depth.

Land conservation in University of Moratuwa

The University of Moratuwa is predominantly surrounded by man-made constructions, there is no doubt in it. But apart from that we can see the efforts which were made to fulfil the concept of greenery within the university premises.

                                          

Many trees were grown in the free spaces within the university premises in order to admire the natural beauty in the university. The area near open air theatre is totally filled up with plants and natural vegetation and it can easily erase the artificial concrete structures prevailing in the university. We can assume that the university premises is following a concept similar to green city because of the measures which is taken to fill the university premises with plants, grasslands etc.

           

                                   

De Zoysa G.H.W.               -162612B

Jayathilaka K.P.S.M.          -162417G

Nafha M.N.F.                      -162654E

Seneviratne S.M.L.V.          -162669E

Viroshitha R.                       -162679J