As the largest city and the commercial capital of Sri
Lanka, Colombo has experienced rapid urbanization.
In the colonial era, the city of Colombo was slated
to be a "Garden City," but unfortunately only a trace
amount of green space remains today. Using aerial
photographs and high-resolution satellite imagery
from GIS and remote sensing technology, I prepared
land use change maps. I found that per capita green
space decreased from 11.35 m
2
(122 square feet)
to 4.88 m
2
(53 square feet) from 2000 to 2019.
Additionally, I inventoried the trees on the grounds
of the University of Colombo, something that had
not been done before in a systematic way. For 1380
trees belonging to 141 species, I provided raw data
to my advisors on diameter at breast height (DBH);
species and family; GPS location; origin; conserva-
tion status; leaf phenology; optimum climatic growing
conditions; basal area; species-specific aboveground,
belowground, and total carbon stocks; maturity;
disturbances; and presence of strangler fig (Ficus
benghalensis) invasions or other threats. Since then,
the University has made inventory data available to
the public via QR codes on the trees themselves.
What other experiences propelled you
toward urban forestry, and then to
the community well-being aspect?
At the University of Colombo, I took full advantage
of the resources there to learn about plants more
methodically. This led to interest in other species in
the urban forest; for instance, I became fascinated by
the remarkable diversity of butterflies that an urban
environment can support. I learned to identify butter-
flies and their host plants and began photographing
them and other species in nearby nature. Some of
my favorite courses as an undergraduate were Plant
Systematics, Plant Ecology, and Phylogenetics. It
makes sense that I moved towards urban forestry as
a field of study given where I grew up and went to
college; urban environments are what I know best.
Currently, I am an urban forest ecology researcher at
Ohio University in the U.S. I received a full scholarship
to study for my PhD in Plant Biology and to practice
urban ecology research. I study historical land use leg-
acies in southern Appalachia in Ohio and how these
changes have shaped urban plant communities in >>
Butterflies, top to bottom: Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace),
Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe), Common Mormon
(Papilio polytes), Lemon Pansy (Junonia lemonias)
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