Research Interests

• Climate Change
• Ecosystem Services
• Hydrology and water resources
• Land Use Changes

Education

• Master of Engineering, Water Engineering and Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand (2021)
• Bachelor of Science, Civil Engineering, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Sri Lanka (2018)

Appointments

• Instructor, Faculty of Civil Engineering, SLIIT

Biographical Statement

Shanali Fernando is a Doctoral Researcher in the Joint PhD Programme in Integrated Management of Water, Soil, and Waste between Technische Universität Dresden and UNU-FLORES. Her research focuses on integrating the soil-forest-water nexus to develop a scientifically rational, technologically advanced, economically feasible, and socially acceptable payments for watershed ecosystem services scheme. Shanali has research experience in a variety of fields such as climate change impact and adaptation, land-use/land cover change, watershed hydrology, and integrated water resource management.

Prior to joining UNU-FLORES, Shanali received the Best Master Thesis of 2021 award at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand where she specialised in Water Engineering and Management. She has worked as an Instructor of Civil Engineering at SLIIT, Sri Lanka after the completion of her bachelor’s degree in 2018. Shanali has further reinforced her background in water engineering through an internship at RIMES, Thailand.