Thanks to the large harbor and strategic position along the East-West sea trade routes, Colombo was known about 2,000 years ago. It was the capital city during British Empire and lasted until 1978 when administrative functions were moved to Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte.

As many cities in South-East Region of Asia, here is also huge population density and significant urbanization. In the whole metropolitan area live approximately 5.6 million people.

The main city is home to a majority of Sri Lanka’s corporate offices, restaurants a entertainment venues.

Services

Land cover status and change were extracted using very high resolution satellite imagery. Distribution of LU status and change supports understanding patterns of urban growth in spatial context.

For detailed information please explore the Service section.

A segment of the Land cover status product.

Results

First chart shows the structure of urban classes in years 2001 and 2014 (100% = Total urban area for given year). Second chart shows relative structure of Land cover flows (100% = total area of changes in AOI). Figure shows relative proportions of land cover changes categorized into so called “land cover flows”.