Hewawasam

Chamali Hewawasm is a Town Planner with a Bachelor’s degree from the Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Moratuwa. She had observed these shortcomings in Sri Lankan cities. She says, “it is a challenge for the pedestrian to get to one point from another. Our pavements are laden with obstacles and in trying to avoid them one could step in to harm’s way”. I wanted to propose a solution for this and in my PhD research I undertook to look into planning safe and comfortable walkways”.

Chamali's objective was to build a tool for city planners to identify priority areas for improving pedestrian facilities in small and medium cities. So she conducted household surveys on the travel behavior of city dwellers for different purposes.

These include commute made to school, work, shops, banks and to reach other amenities from the point of origin, which, in most cases was from the home of the traveler.  Pedestrian demand in the city area was estimated using this data, together with land use data. GIS tools were used to find the shortest routes for the travel patterns. Facilities on these routes such as: size of sidewalks, level of lighting, frequency of bus stops, crosswalks, and accident statistics were measured using a scale of 0 to 5.

With her model she identified the most appropriate variables for evaluating the requirements of the pedestrians. The model also finds the shortest, safest and most convenient way to travel from the origin to the destination, and prioritizes this for refurbishment . She says,“ I hope that our authorities will make use of this model, we can make walking in our cities pleasant, safe and fast”.

Chamali was supervised by Senior Prof. Saman Bandara from the Department of Civil Engineering and Prof. Chan Wirasinghe from the University of Calgary, Canada. They are long-term collaborators in transportation research. Prof. Saman Bandara is a highly sought after supervisor. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Moratuwa and a PhD in Transportation Engineering from the University of Calgary. Prof. Wirasinghe has a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Ceylon. Both his Masters degree and PhD are in Transportation Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He has been the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Calgary

Chamali says “University of Moratuwa is my Alma Mater, I am glad I selected this University for my PhD. I was well supported by both my supervisors and I feel fortunate to have had them guide me”. Her studies were supported by a scholarship from the University Grants Commission. Chamali is now a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Town and Country Planning at UoM and hopes to continue with her academic and research work there. We wish her all the best for the future.

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