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
Within the Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha, 48.67% of the total population is male and 51.32% are female. The proportion of the population divided by age was 21.19% for children under 15, 21.19% for those aged 15 to 29, 41.95% for those aged 30-59 and 15.73% for the elderly population over 60 years.
Source - Resource Profile 2018
In the Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha area, the percentage of males is 48.67% and females 51.32%.
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
Although the percentage of students who sit for the G.C.E (Advanced Level) is low, the percentage of students looking for a degree is lower.
Source - Divisional Secretariat - Pallepola
There are 25 government schools in this division, 23 Sinhala medium schools and 2 Tamil medium schools. The total number of students and teachers in the year 2020 will be around 6760 and 438 respectively and the teacher-student ratio will be as high as 1:16. There is only one Sinhala Medium National School in the Pallepola Education Division which belongs to the Galewela Zonal Education Office
Source - Resource Profile - 2020
Two libraries are functioning under the supervision and maintenance of Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha. It has about 8069 registered members and 902 active members. The library has about 24208 books.
Source - Zonal Education Office - Galewela
There are 25 schools functioning in the Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha area and they include two 1AB schools, five 1C schools, four 2 type schools and fourteen three type schools.
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 - Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha
The revenue and expenditure status of Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha for the year 2020 is shown in the chart.
Source - Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha
The above graph shows the revenue of stamp duty for the year 2020 according to the revenue and expenditure summary.
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 - Resource Profile - 2017
The graph shows the houses in the Pallepola Pradeshiya Sabha area. The majority of the homes are single-storey. The total number of houses is 9108, consisting of 17 other houses.
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.
