| dc.description.abstract | With developments and human civilization,
people are facing hazards. But without identifying such
hazard areas, no action can be taken to prevent such
incidents. The Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) is a main
hazard that impacts rural society in Sri Lanka. HEC is the
conflict between elephants and humans and implies the
death of elephants and humans. Increased populations of
elephants and humans, habitat modification, rainfall, water
bodies, and land use changes are vital for HEC. This study
focuses on mapping the spatial distribution of HEC risk
zones in Sooriyawewa DSD. Furthermore, this study
develops a method to validate the accuracy of risk zones.
Furthermore, the directions of the HEC hazard
propagation are demonstrated over the risk zones.
Embedding geographic information system (GIS) with
spatial interpolation is prominent to identify risk zones.
Moreover, integrating GIS can greatly facilitate the
classification of HEC risk zones into low risk, moderate
risk, and high risk. Additionally, this study used Inverse
distance weighted (IDW) spatial interpolation to create its
hazard risk validation approach. A comparison of spots
with some interstitial buffers was made to determine the
propagation of the HEC from the center of Sooriyawewa.
Therefore, it is crucial to determine the direction of risk and
take action to reduce the risk of HEC hazards. This will
help in generating an HEC scenario map for the future and
formulating an action plan of mitigation measures to avoid
damage, loss of life, and socio-economic impacts in the
study area. | en_US |
