Lecture on ancient irrigation

‘Ancient Irrigation in Sri Lanka: Some Issues Pertaining to Cascade Systems, their Origins and Functional Linkages’ - the 138th in the monthly lecture series of the National Trust of Sri Lanka will be delivered online on Thursday, September 30, at 6 p.m. by Prof. C. M. Madduma Bandara.

Those interested could use the following links to join the lecture

Website: https://thenationaltrust. lk/news/(which will provide the link)

Facebook:https://www.facebook. com/The-National-Trust-SriLanka(which will provide the link)

It may be conceded that, studies in this vast field could unravel only a minute proportion of the marvels and mysteries that remain unexplored, despite the seminal contributions by scholars such as Bell, Brohier, Parker and Kennedy. These early studies were further enriched by Paranavitane, Gunawardhana and a few energetic writers of the present generation.

Prof. Madduma Bandara has ventured into less trodden fields such as small village tank systems and their associated ecological settings. Scientific and quantitative research in Cambridge and other leading seats of learning in the West, led him to introduce the seminal concept of small village tanks and their organisation into ‘cascade systems’ and their wider ensembles, that gained international recognition since the mid-1980s as a World Heritage under the ‘Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems’ (GIAHS) by the FAO.

Prof. C.M. Madduma Bandara was educated at Peradeniya and at the University of Cambridge, England and was conferred an Hon. D Sc. for his contributions to research and higher education by the Sabaragamuwa University. He had been a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences,

Sri Lanka, and the Royal Geographical Society of London.