A recent study conducted by the UNHABITAT (2017) on climate change in urban areas indicated that certain coastal cities will be moderately exposed to sea level rise. Out of 14 coastal towns examined, 7 (Colombo, Negambo, Mannar, Galle, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Hambantota) will experience moderate and low level impacts of sea level rise by 2050 such as inundation of low-lying areas and salt water intrusion posing challenges to local authorities perhaps even forcing affected sections of population to migrate.

The disturbances to agricultural based livelihoods trigger internal migration of farmers to other labour markets such as construction, taxi driving and security.

Climate change has the potential to create harmful impacts on the education system. Recent extreme events dropped school attendance frequently while occasionally forcing the authorities to close down schools temporarily. Floods caused temporary displacement of children of victimized households, often resulting in losses and damages to their school books and other educational materials. Displaced children had to miss their school attendance for several days and in few occasions bar examinations had to be rescheduled for accommodating children faced with disaster events. Even though not systematically investigated, spread of climate sensitive diseases (e.g. dengue) among school children has apparently increased recently.

Adaptation measures needed: Better networking among hotels, local authorities and district disaster management committees is needed to develop contingency planning, flood early warning systems and early evacuation of tourists out of flooded areas, all of which could further enhance resilience. Planning of tourists to the country based on the climate change scenarios and develop tourism packages accordingly is one of the best adaptation measures that can be applied.