Exploring an Environmentally Sustainable Design Framework for Integration of Built Environment and Wetlands: A Case of Urban RAMSAR Wetland in Colombo Wetland City Part 2 Dissertation 2023 Piumi Chamik Sooriya Arachchi University of Moratuwa | Sri Lanka Ecologically sustainable designs mitigate the adverse impacts of the built environment on ecosystems. Land scarcity and haphazard urbanization promote encroachment in urban wetlands and this trend is not an exception for the wetland city of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Which signifies the sole South Asian city accredited by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.Ramsar convention prioritizes the principle of "left alone" as the best practice and the philosophy is the "wise use" of wetlands. Considering the burgeoning demand in utilizing wetlands for urban built environment, this dissertation explores a systematic framework to harmonize integration of built environment with wetlands.Thus, the methodology employs an "Environmental Briefing System" which is grounded on theoretical synthesis of the use of open space, environmental concepts, and policy standards to accomplish “wise nexus of buildings and wetlands” and formulated a sound systematic framework as the primary tool. The Critical case approach assessed two case studies using a "scorecard" and compared it with a globally certified reference case. A case study of Sri Lanka was used to validate the framework. Findings explicitly confirm that the Unified Framework is a novel decision-making tool for pre-design phase of an architectural inventions on wetlands. Tutor(s) Indrika Rajapaksha