A city is a large human settlement. People are the main driving force in a city. The dynamism of a city is dependent on people and their behaviour. A preliminary understanding of the composition and diverse capabilities of the populations in a city should be the key to a successful urban study.
This section provides a description of the demographic status and trends in the city, primarily based on 2012 census data, presenting an overall view of the population. Trends and patterns of urban population are discussed including aspects of demography such as age, sex, ethnicity, education levels; and overall observations with regard to migration patterns, suburban population and gender.
Understanding the demographic and composition patterns of the population within the existing physical boundary will help in planning a livable city.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics / SoSLC
The data is considering 2012 census data and population estimates of SoSLC for year 2017. Considering the population growth rate, it is estimated that the population in Badulla MC area by 2017 is 54000. As an urban area located in hilly area, this trends in population growth should be taken into consideration in areas such as demand for land and public serves provisions.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
According to the data in the chart, majority of female population is recorded in all age groups in Badulla Municipal Council limits, where as 46.9% are male and 53.1% are female from total population. 24.92% are children under age 15, 24.76%, are in the age group of 15 - 29, 39.82% are in 30-59 age group and 12.29% are elderly population over 60 year. Population who can be considered as the labour force is potentially high in the area.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The ethnic diversity of the Badulla city comprises a majority of 73.4 per cent Sinhalese, followed by 14.4 per cent Sri Lanka Moor, 6.8 per cent Tamil, and 5.1 per cent other groups. The data shows that Indian Tamils have a higher presence in the district and province than city. The main reason which can be seen effective is the high proportion of tea estates located in the Uva Province, with a labor force of Tamils of Indian origin.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Internal migration has always been one of the forces driving the growth of urbanization and bringing opportunities and challenges to cities, migrants and governments. Increasingly, municipal authorities are becoming recognized as key actors in managing migration and have started including migration in their urban planning and implementation. Thus, for cities to better manage migration, data on migration and urbanization are essential. The total male resident population in the Badulla Municipal Council area is 19809 the total female resident population is 22428 out of which the total male migrant population is 3834 and the total female migrant population is 4643 showing a slightly higher percentage of female immigrants. The majority of this migrant population has resided in the city for more than 10 years, thus more like first-generation citizens rather than migrants.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The immigration pattern is directly linked with gender. According to the data, employment is considered as the main reason for male population migration in to the city, and the females are migrated to the city giving the reason as marriages and accompanying with a family member. Education is another reason where many female population who are migrated to the city has given.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The above figure shows the ratio of women to 100 men. The highest percentage (127%) is over 60 years old and the lowest percentage (94.5%) is between 15-29 years old.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
This describes how domestic leadership is divided into genders. Number of Male headed households are higher than the number of Female headed households in the municipal limit.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
One distinctive feature of Sri Lankan culture is the way in which ethnicity, language and religious affiliation correlate with one another, each being key determinants of an individual’s identity. Alongside the two largest ethnic groups – Sinhalese (74.9%) and Tamil (15.4%) – the third largest ethnic group is Sri Lankan Moors (9.2%). The remaining 0.5% of Sri Lanka’s population is comprised of Burghers (mixed European descent), Parsis (immigrants from west India) and Veddas (who are identified as the indigenous inhabitants of the land). The Tamils separate further into two groups, Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils. There are three official languages of Sri Lanka: Sinhala, Tamil and English. This is evident throughout the country, with most signs written in all three languages. The Sinhalese - Buddhist majority mostly speak Sinhala, while Tamil is spoken widely by Sri Lankan Moors / Muslims and ethnic Tamils / Hindus. English was introduced as a result of the British colonial rule and has become the language used in government administration and commercial activities. This indicates that ethnic groups and their language abilities in 2012.
Education has always been a significant element in societal development. The development of education facilities contributes substantially to the development in an urban area.
As a developing country it is crucial to address poverty in order to attain the development goals. Education plays a major role in poverty reduction. Presently, several global cities have been implementing the concept of smart city to improve the quality of life of the society, including in the field of education.
Good educational institutions and coverage enables a population to have decent livelihoods be they self employed or part of the workforce. Understanding how a city provides primary, secondary and tertiary eductional as well as skill development through vocational centres could provide some pointers to how well a city is doing or where it needs to develop further.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The graph shows that very few people entering higher studies even though basic school education of the Badulla MC has a good number of students.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
This graph shows that there is still a higher proportion of males that achieve a higher degree and above despite more females graduating from GCE (O/L) and GCE (A/L).
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
It shows the computer literacy of persons between the ages of 10 and 40 in terms of gender and it explains that 66% of men and 43% of women in the Badulla Municipal Council are computer literate.
Connectivity is central to key GoSL strategic aims: to promote economic growth, and to rebalance growth across the country’s 9 provinces. Higher the connectivity to any city, better is the urban growth in that city.
Detailed information on key transport aspects including bus and rail transport, freight route maps, airports and logistic systems are aspects that should be considered for a city to be properly interconnected within the bigger system. One of the SDG targets 11.2 is about access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems, road safety, public transport, and if we are to move towards being sustainble, these need to be considered in tranpsort planning. Further, the needs of people in vulnerable situations, women and children, persons with disabilities and older persons should also be considered.
ICT coverage is another way of being connected and recent technological advances enable a city to be better connected through its access to ICTs as well.
Source - Road Development Authority & Badulla Municipal Council, 2017
The special character in Municipal Roads within Badulla is that the majority of them are in the form of steps passages due to the topographical features.
Source - Road Passenger Transport Authority, Uva Province Sri Lanka Transport Board, Badulla 2016
The number of buses arrive to the city and the number of buses depart from the city are as above, according to the data from the Transportation Authority of Badulla and Sri Lanka Transport Board. As destination of up-country railway line, 5 railway turns departure and 5 railways turns arrive at the Badulla Railway Station a day.
Source - Uva Provincial Office, UDA 2017
According the survey conduct by Uva Provincial Office of Urban Development Authority and Road Passenger Transport Authority in 2017, daily commuting people to the city is around 100,000. Daily commuters to the city, residents and the outsiderscome to the city for three main services.
Source - Sri Lanka Police Department
Accident is an undesired or unintended happening. Inevitable accident falls within the concept of fatal or an unfortunate harmful event, event without apparent cause unexpected occurring. A Motor Traffic Accident occurs on highway collision with vehicles, persons or with property.
An Accidents may occur, between a vehicle and other vehicle, vehicle colliding with a person, vehicle colliding with movable or unmovable property, when a vehicle goes off the road, A person being knocked down with another person or due to natural or man made disaster.
Here are the details of the fatal road accidents that have taken place within the Badulla Police Division within the last few years. In addition, the following data file contains further details covering the entire country with an accident classification in varios sub sections.
Source - SOSLC Project
Used limit number of buses are holding the largest number of passengers in the city transport. there are considerably high number of private owned vehicles in the transport system which can be a reason to vehicular traffic in the system.
Source - Sri Lanka Railways
The date records a increase in annual railway passengers from 2014 to 2016
Source - SOSLC Project
Between 7 am to 9 am is the busiest traffic period in the Badulla MC area with peak reached at 8am due to school and work commuting traffic.
Source - SOSLC Project
Use of privately owned vehicles like, motorcycles, car, van... are in a considerably high level in the city. number of buses which more passengers can be served are used in a minimum level.
Source - Sri Lanka Railways
majority of the rail passengers are using the main line to come in to the city and to leave from the city.
Source - SOSLC Project
The data is elaborating the pedestrian movements in the city.
Cities are the primary drivers of economic development, therefore, Sri Lanka’s cities have a decisive role to play in driving the economy forward by catalysing high value-added economic activities, as the country strives to achieve upper middle-income country status.
According the latest Word Cities report, 80 per cent of global GDP is created by cities, despite their accounting for less than 60 per cent of the world’s population (UN-Habitat, 2016).
The Government of Sri Lanka recognizes the role of urban economy in shaping the future of the country. In this respect, Vision 2025 and Public Investment Programme (PIP) 2017-2020 lays out the urban policy priority actions: to promote western region as economic hub of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, and to promote strategic city development to secondary urban spaces as provincial economic hubs.
It is also interesting to see how competitive a city is, taking into account current and potential roles of governments, businesses and the private sector in the economic development of the city and urban settlements, best use of human capital, and labour force participation, and existing skills and the job market etc. within demarcated territory.
Source - SOSLC Project
Badulla is ranked as the least on the city competitiveness indes (CCI). The graph indicates the CCI of Badulla by categories is lower than compared to the average across the nine provincial capital cities.
Source - Central Bank Annual report 2017
This graph indicates the gradual rise in estimated per capita GDP in Badulla MC.
Urban governance can be simplified as “how government (local, regional and national) and stakeholders decide on planning, financing and managing urban areas”. It involves a continuous process of negotiation and contestation over allocation of social and material resources and political power.
This section provide a snapshot of the emergent contours of urban governance in Sri Lanka, focusing on financial resilience, service provision and economic dynamism.
Information available here are collected and calculated considering secondary data sets, ground level surveys as well as stakeholder discussions. The city governance index has taken many a factor into consideration and provides a valuable way of assessing our cities and how they rank from a governance perspective.
Source - Badulla Municipal Council
There are permanent and casual workers in the road sector in the MC. in year 2018, the majority of them are permanent workers.
Source - Badulla Municipal Council
The majority of the available sanitation-related workers in the MC are permanent in the year 2018. the workers are responsible for all the cleaning and maintaining sanitation-related services in the MC. the permanent as well as casual workers in the MC are supporting the services to be maintained at an efficient level.
Source - SOSLC Project
Badulla MC is ranked as 6th in the City Governance Index and scored a high of 74.72 in the ‘Service Delivery Coverage’ and low of 20.83 in ‘Accountability and Equity’.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
In Sri Lanka the LAs are divided into three types according to its population and size: Municipal Councils (MC, 23) which corresponds to the city, Urban Councils (UC, 41) which corresponds to the town, and Pradeshiya Sabha (PS, 271) which corresponds to the village. They are responsible for providing a variety of local public services including roads, sanitation, drains, waste collection, housing, libraries, public parks and recreational facilities. This pie chart shows the distribution of LAs by province in particular local authority belongs. Uwa province consist with 2 MC’s , 1 UC and 25 PS’s. Badulla is the provincial capital city of Uwa province.
An important function of Sri Lanka’s cities is to provide housing for the diversity of residents that support urban life. Sri Lankan early urban settlement legacy – histories, patterns, trends including land use and housing and the development challenges that come along with it have shaped the nature of our cities.
The share of housing as a proportion of built-up area across the different cities was considered, and numerous factors affect the figure. e.g. Anuradhapura, has restrictions on residential developments because of its cultural, historical and touristic importance, other MCs include significant social and economic land use, operating as a hub to surrounding suburbs and rural areas with large residential populations.
Housing policy challenges that are encountered by the city administrators relate to tenure systems, the supply of affordable, high quality housing, and difficulties accessing housing finance.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics and Resource Profile, Badulla PS
With the development of administration activities in Badulla city, residential population within Badulla MC Area has risen rapidly. At the same time, when compared to previous years, thenumber of houses within the MC area also has been increased. Department of Census and Statistics data in 1992, 2001 years and Resource profile of the 2016 shows the continuous increase of the housing. 62% of the land within Badulla area is under residential use. Therefore, it can be considered as a residential city.This is mainly due to the employees who are working in the government and private sectors are willing to locate their residences within the MC area itself. However still there are under-utilized lands within the town center.
Source - Divisional Secretary Office, Badulla, 2017
One salient feature to be mentioned here is that 60% of the land within Badulla South Grama Niladhari Division is owned by Kataragama Devalaya where majority is dominated by commercial activities.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The graph indicates the typology of housing in the Badulla MC Area. The majority of housing (around 90 percent) comprises single story and two story houses.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
The graph indicate that in Badulla Municipal council almost 89 per cent of the houses were permanent in 2012
Municipal services is one of the key tasks an urban centre carries out fto ensure a functional living condition for its citizens.
The access to municipal services and the quality of their provision strongly influence the social, economic and environmental performance of a city as well as urban development.
Urban centres provide key services that underpin Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic development. Cities provide key government administration functions, such as vehicle registration services, access to social protection schemes, and a range of additional services (explored in detail in Chapter 9, urban governance in the SoSLC Report). Urban centres provide residents with health and education services: providing equitable access to quality healthcare and education. They also include services to facilitate social recreational activities and promote community cohesion, such as libraries, community centres and sports facilities. Ensuring quality services is a crucial component in securing an urban future for all Sri Lankans.
| Availability of Road Inventory | Yes |
| Availability of Asset register | Yes |
| An online system is available for citizen to request services | No |
| A "reference no" is issued to the citizen requesting services | No |
| A "Front Office" is available | No |
| All the services can be accessed at a single location (Front Office) by a visiting citizen | No |
| Separate Male/Female toilets are available for the visiting citizen | No |
Source - Badulla Municipal Council
This data represent the 2018 records. Services delivered to the citizens by the local authority is very important to measure the functionalities and capacities of the local authority.
Source - IWMI Publication - Solid and Liquid Waste Management and Resource Recovery in Sri Lanka: A 20 city analysis
Waste collection in the city is scheduled according to a plan developed by the MC under which the city has been divided into four zones. The highest waste generation within area is from the City Center, which is about 30% of the total. Waste collectors of the MC only accept the waste that is segregated into biodegradable and non biodegradable. Present schedule is such that the biodegradable waste is collected for 5 days in a week whereas the non-biodegradable waste is collected only on 3 days in the city center. Within the peak seasons; mainly April (Sinhala and Hindu New Year season) and May (Deepavali season); the waste collection increases ranging from 20-25 MT/Day. In those seasons, the waste collection frequency of the city limit is increased. Except the MC, no other institutions are engaged in waste collection activities. However, there are some informal private collectors who are engaged in collecting recyclable waste such as paper, cloths, glass, metals and coconut shells etc. within the area. The MC conducts a collection program twice a year with the collaboration of CEA for collecting the toxic waste such as e-waste, during which the public can hand over the e-waste to the MC. Nevertheless, the places that usually generate more e-waste such as electric equipment repairing shops etc. have dealers purchasing the e-waste on regular basis. In 2016, MC implemented numerous waste reduction strategies and subsequently, they were able to withdraw waste collection service from some of the municipal areas. This resulted in a remarkable reduction of the amount of waste collected, which was 3 MT/Day within one year.
Source - Badulla Municipal Council
Uplifting the people’s living standards is a prominent task as well as a requirement of any country. Sri Lanka also attempts to acquire a higher level of living standard of people in the field of economic, social, and cultural development. In the process, it is a preeminent contribution in minimizing regional disparities, contributing to national economic development, and strengthening the democratic process that has been shown by the Provincial Councils and the Local Government system in the country. Local Government ministry has provided allocation for the strengthening of low-income generated Local Authorities to improve infrastructure facilities and furnish essential machines and equipment. Especially, more allocations have been provided for selected local authorities, which are facing many difficulties in carrying out day-to-day maintenances due to insufficient income levels. according to the data, the capital city of Uva province is having road roller, excavators and fire engines.
Source - Badulla Municipal Council
The Municipal council receive different types of applications. Considering the monthly average of the received applications, the highest amount of applications are received to obtain trade license. minimum number of applications are received for Environmental protection license and subdivision and amalgamation approval.
Source - Department of Census and Statistics
Badulla MC Area has extremely high coverage of electricity and water services with 98 per cent and 95 percent having access to safe drinking water and electricity respectively.
Source - JICA
70 percent households are covered for garbage collection in the MC ares. Majority of the remaining 30 percent households are burning the solid waste as a disposal method.
A city needs to have an environment that is habitable and conducive with appropriate spaces for people who use the city, while also being resilient in the face of increasing climate risk.
Aspects such as a cities’ air and water quality, quality of the built environment as well as the aesthetic and historic aspects in the city are things we need to look at. However, in the light of increasing disaster risk, managing climate change impact in the light of current urbanisation patterns becomes a key concern, and thus land use planning in a city needs to take this into account.
SDG targets 11.4 (safeguarding cultural and natural heritage) and 11.5 (reducing impacts of disasters, especially floods), 11.6 (air quality and waste) and 11.7 (safe, open and green spaces for all groups) all emphasize that for a city to be sustainable, these aspects need to be considered.
Source - Disaster Management Center
There is only one recorded flood event in Badulla urban area in year 2016. Located in the hill country, the flood events are not often in the area. Still, several locations in Badulla district are affected due to flood and records are available for year 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Source - Department of Meteorology
Here is the change in the annual values of air temprature from 2006 to 2013. According to the Badulla Observatory station, air temprature in the area is calculated separately for each month and more information can be downloaded from the following detailed statistics.
Source - Disaster Management Center
This graph indicates that climate exposure from 1974 to 2017. Due to land slides and floods most of the people were effected.
Badulla Municipal area:
Badulla Municipal Council covers an area of 1065 hectares. (Data Source _ Urban Development Authority)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Map of Distribution of Grama Niladhari Divisions in Badulla Administrative Limits:
The ethnic / sex / age composition in the Colombo Municipal Council area, detailed for each of its 13 Grama Niladhari Divisions. (Data Source _ Department of Census and Statistics)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Landslide risk map in Badulla Municipal Council area:
Landslide risk is classified as high risk, low risk and medium risk (Source: NBRO)
Download Map Here Download Data Layer Here
Below you can download all of the above data maps and data layers (under Download HD Map and Download Spatial Data).
Proper management of land, a scarce resource, can bring about many benefits. This is of great importance especially in urban areas.
It is timely to figure out how land is allocated and being used for what purpose in our cities today. In order to create well planned cities with a futuristic vision, having a better understanding of current land use is imperative.
Land use maps are categorized into 36 sub-categories under two types – built-up and non built-up. The extent of land in each of these sub categories are indicated below.
In all of the cities it can be identified that the higher densities are concentrated in the city centres and the expansion is taken place along the roads. The expansion pattern is shaped by the geography of the surrounding area.
The selection of the area for the urban expansion analysis was followed by several preliminary studies. Initially, the urban index values which was identified using the remote sensing information were studied in the respective municipal areas including a fringe area.
Before selecting interested area for the expansion analysis it should consider following facts
- Municipal boundary
- At least 2-3 km buffer around Municipal boundary
- Rough boundary where the physical urban character disappearing
In the remote sensing discipline, the values higher than 0 represent the built-up areas.The boundary for the fringe area was identified by getting the extent of urban expansion as well as a fine boundary where the high-density expansion become insignificant. The identified boundaries were projected on to the latest satellite images to assure the identified urban index values are in line with the existing building densities.
