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Data analysis

The data available on tally sheets were entered manually into an MS Access database for further analysis. Three different tables were created within MS Access. The Main table holds raw data of the survey while the Dsdiv table contains data pertaining to the geographical and climatic details of the study area. The Botname table contains the local and botanical names, families and category of the species. The database structure is shown in Table 6.


Table 6. Structure of the home garden database

Table name

No. of records

Field name

Description

Main

9 568

District

Administrative district

Srlno

Identification number of the DS division used in GIS

Sppno

Identification number of the species

Above 30

Number of trees in the DS division above 30 cm girth

Below 30

Number of trees in the DS division below 30 cm girth

Total

Total number of trees in both girth classes

Dsdiv

302

District

Administrative district

Ds_div

Name of the DS division

Srlno

Identification of the DS division used in the GIS

Cli_zone

Climatic zone of the DS division (dry, intermediate, wet)

Gnd

Number of GN divisions in the DS division

Villages

Number of villages in the DS division

Botname

142

Sppno

Identification number of the species

Lcl_name

Local name of the species

Bot_name

Botanical name of the species

Family

Family of the species

Type

Category of the species (timber, timber & food, food)

The data pertaining to all the species, regardless of species frequency, were entered into the database for dry and intermediate zones while only the most common 41 species were entered into the database for the wet zone. The total number of species reported was 482 and only 76 species, based on the frequency of occurrence, were considered in the final analysis. They represented 46 timber species, 17 timber and food species, and 13 food species. Several tables and queries were used within MS Access for data analysis. The tables and queries were exported subsequently to MS Excel and DBF formats to generate maps, tables and charts.

A map of Sri Lanka was produced by digitizing the boundaries of the 25 administrative districts and 302 DS divisions to facilitate the spatial data analysis using the Map Maker Pro GIS package. The database was linked to the spatial data and several maps were produced to illustrate the climatic zones, species distribution and species density.

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