Ancient Minipe Anicut, Sri Lanka is world-famous for its engineering excellence. Due to its importance, conserving the ancient anicut, another anicut was constructed downstream in the 20th century. Nevertheless, the water diverted from the ancient anicut to the Minipe Left Bank (LB) Canal was kept as it was due to inherited agricultural importance. This research focuses on studying the contributions made by the adjacent catchment along the Minipe LB Canal. There are several level crossings along the Minipe Left Bank Canal from which the runoff of the local catchment flow into the Minipe LB Canal. Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is used to obtain the yield from each catchment into the Canal, which was compared with the annual diversions from Minipe anicut. The total yield from each stream has been compared with the annual diversion of the Minipe LB Canal from 2014 to 2020. The results obtained from this study reveal that there is sufficient water available for water augmentation in the basin, with an estimated annual average cumulative yield from the catchment of 453.6 MCM. This cumulative yield is 1.7 times the annual average diversion from the Mahaweli River, which is 271.9 MCM. With the findings, it is concluded that there is a potential to augment water from the catchment to address pertaining water shortages conveyance in the command area.

Anuruddhika MLP, Perera KKKR, Premarathna LPND, et al. (2022). Forecasting flood inundation areas of Attanagalu Oya. Ceylon Journal of Science 51(3): 217–227. doi: 10.4038/cjs.v51i3.8030

Appiah DO, Asante F, Nketiah B (2019). Perspectives on agricultural land use conversion and food security in rural Ghana. Available online: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202011.0077/v1 (accessed on 14 September 2023).

Berking J, Schütt B (2021). Ancient water management. In: Eslamian S, Eslamian F (editors). Handbook of Water Harvesting and Conservation: Case Studies and Application Examples. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 35–47. doi: 10.1002/9781119776017.ch3

Britannica (2020). “Rajatarangini”—Historical chronicle of India. Available online: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rajatarangini (accessed on 8 May 2023).

Brohier RL (1937). The inter-relation of groups of ancient reservoirs and channels in Ceylon. The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 34(90): 64–85.

Bruce TJA (2010). Tackling the threat to food security caused by crop pests in the new millennium. Food Security 2: 133–141. doi: 10.1007/s12571-010-0061-8

Çakmakçı S, Çakmakçı R (2023). Quality and nutritional parameters of food in agri-food production systems. Foods 12(2): 351. doi: 10.3390/foods12020351

Chathuranika IM, Gunathilake MB, Azamathulla HM, Rathnayake U (2022). Evaluation of future streamflow in the upper part of the Nilwala River Basin (Sri Lanka) under climate change. Hydrology 9(3): 48. doi: 10.3390/hydrology9030048

De Haen H, Hemrich G (2007). The economics of natural disasters: Implications and challenges for food security. Agricultural Economics 37(s1): 31–45. doi: 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2007.00233.x

Demay J, Ringeval B, Pellerin S, Nesme T (2023). Half of global agricultural soil phosphorus fertility derived from anthropogenic sources. Nature Geoscience 16: 69–74. doi: 10.1038/s41561-022-01092-0

Dobriyal P, Badola R, Tuboi C, Hussain SA (2017). A review of methods for monitoring streamflow for sustainable water resource management. Applied Water Science 7: 2617–2628. doi: 10.1007/s13201-016-0488-y

Elakya R, Manoranjitham T (2021). A novel approach for early detection of disease and pest attack in food crop: A review. In: Gandhi TK, Konar D, Sen B, Sharma K (editors). Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computational and Communication Paradigms (ICACCP–2021); 22–24 March 2021; Sikkim, India. Springer. Volume 1373. pp. 93–101. doi: 10.1007/978-981-16-4369-9_10

Faurès JM, Goodrich DC, Woolhiser DA, Sorooshian S (1995). Impact of small-scale spatial rainfall variability on runoff modeling. Journal of Hydrology 173(1–4): 309–326. doi: 10.1016/0022-1694(95)02704-S

Fernando ADN (1980). Major ancient irrigation works of Sri Lanka. Journal of the Sri Lanka Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 22: 1–24, i–v.

Gimpel H, Graf-Drasch V, Hawlitschek F, Neumeier K (2021). Designing smart and sustainable irrigation: A case study. Journal of Cleaner Production 315: 128048. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128048

Gleick PH (1993). Water and conflict: Fresh water resources and international security. International Security 18(1): 79–112. doi: 10.2307/2539033

Goodrich DC, Faurès JM, Woolhiser DA, et al. (1995). Measurement and analysis of small-scale convective storm rainfall variability. Journal of Hydrology 173(1–4): 283–308. doi: 10.1016/0022-1694(95)02703-R

Gunaratne MS, Radin Firdaus RB, Rathnasooriya SI (2021). Climate change and food security in Sri Lanka: Towards food sovereignty. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8: 229. doi: 10.1057/s41599-021-00917-4

Gunathilake MB, Amaratunga YV, Perera A, et al. (2020). Evaluation of future climate and potential impact on streamflow in the Upper Nan River basin of Northern Thailand. Advances in Meteorology 2020: 8881118. doi: 10.1155/2020/8881118

Gunawardana RALH (1971). Irrigation and hydraulic society in early medieval Ceylon. Past & Present 53: 3–27.

Haile GG (2015). Irrigation in Ethiopia, a review. Journal of Environment and Earth Science 5(15): 141–147.

Hydrologic Engineering Center (2023). HEC-HMS tutorials and guides. Available online: https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/hmsdocs/hmsguides (accessed on 20 March 2023).

Jayasinghe PKSC, Adornado HA, Yoshida M, Leelamanie DAL (2010). A web-based GIS and remote sensing framework for spatial information system (SIS): A case study in Nuwaraeliya, Sri Lanka. Agricultural Information Research 19(4): 106–116. doi: 10.3173/air.19.106

Karunananda PAK (2020). From the editor. Engineer: Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka 53(3). doi: 10.4038/engineer.v53i3.7415

Kenneth MK, Donald EW, Claudia CH, et al. (2010). Chapter 15—Time of concentration. In: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (editor). National Engineering Handbook: Part 630—Hydrology. USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS).

Khan S, Tariq R, Cui Y, Blackwell J (2006). Can irrigation be sustainable? Agricultural Water Management 80(1–3): 87–99. doi: 10.1016/j.agwat.2005.07.006

Klomp J, Hoogezand B (2018). Natural disasters and agricultural protection: A panel data analysis. World Development 104: 404–417. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.11.013

Leach ER (1959). Hydraulic society in Ceylon. Past & Present 15: 2–26.

Li Y, Tan X, Zhou B (2020). Philosophy and value in irrigation heritage in China. Irrigation and Drainage 69(S2): 153–160. doi: 10.1002/ird.2453

Mancosu N, Snyder R, Kyriakakis G, Spano D (2015). Water scarcity and future challenges for food production. Water 7(3): 975–992. doi: 10.3390/w7030975

Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management (MIWRM, 2014). Proposed Raising of the Minipe Anicut and Rehabilitation of the Minipe Left Bank Canal Project in Kandy District—Initial Environment Examination (IEE) Report. Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management.

Morin E, Goodrich DC, Maddox RA, et al. (2006). Spatial patterns in thunderstorm rainfall events and their coupling with watershed hydrological response. Advances in Water Resources 29(6): 843–860. doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2005.07.014

Neuenschwander P, Borgemeister C, De Groote H, et al. (2023). Perspective article: Food security in tropical Africa through climate-smart plant health management. Heliyon 9: e15116. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15116

Oyonarte NA, Gómez-Macpherson H, Martos-Rosillo S, et al. (2022). Revisiting irrigation efficiency before restoring ancient irrigation canals in multi-functional, nature-based water systems. Agricultural Systems 203: 103513. doi: 10.1016/j.agsy.2022.103513

Perera KRJ, Wijesekera NTS (2012). Potential on the use of GIS watershed modeling for river basin planning—Case study of Attanagalu Oya Basin, Sri Lanka. Engineer: Journal of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka 45(4): 13–22. doi: 10.4038/engineer.v45i4.6922

Rockström J, Falkenmark M, Karlberg L, et al. (2009). Future water availability for global food production: The potential of green water for increasing resilience to global change. Water Resources Research 45(7). doi: 10.1029/2007WR006767

Rondhi M, Pratiwi PA, Handini VT, et al. (2018). Agricultural land conversion, land economic value, and sustainable agriculture: A case study in East Java, Indonesia. Land 7(4): 148. doi: 10.3390/land7040148

Saumyarathna NGR, Gunawardena ERN, Dayawansa NDK (2016). Water conflicts among different water users and uses in the Hakwatuna Oya watershed in the Deduru Oya basin, Sri Lanka. Tropical Agricultural Research 28(1): 38–49. doi: 10.4038/tar.v28i1.8182

Sojka RE, Bjorneberg DL, Entry JA (2002). Irrigation: Historical perspective. In: Lal R (editor). Encyclopedia of Soil Science—Two-Volume Set, 2nd ed. CRC Press.

Vetter T, Rieger AK, Nicolay A (2014). Disconnected runoff contributing areas: Evidence provided by ancient watershed management systems in arid north-eastern Marmarica (NW-Egypt). Geomorphology 212: 41–57. doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2013.10.002

Wickramanayake IWKS (editor) (2022). Scheme Register, s.l. Irrigation Department, Colombo 07.

Zhong S, Okiyama M, Tokunaga S (2014). Impact of natural hazards on agricultural economy and food production in China: Based on a general equilibrium analysis. Journal of Sustainable Development 7(2): 45–69. doi: 10.5539/jsd.v7n2p45