Abstract:
Wetlands, the lands of areas saturated with water throughout the year or seasonally, are the
caretakers of the earth due to the reason that they provide an unparalleled range of environmental
benefits. Wetlands actively contribute to making this world liveable. However, the sad truth is that
wetland habitats continue to be lost entirely or progressively degraded at an alarming rate,
regardless of the multitude of benefits that the wetlands provide. Wetlands are badly subjected to
environmental pressures as a direct consequence of anthropogenic activities, which are the driving
forces that lead to ecosystems damage. In turn, the state of such ecosystem changes subsequently
impact the natural environment as well as the society. Madinnagoda wetland is one such valued
ecosystem embracing the sad truth of wetland degradation that had occurred persistently during
the past few decades. Close proximity to a highly urbanized area thus receiving a high value on its
land extent, the severe shortage of land for economic development in the city, availability of a
large extent of land in this wetland, and its location in the heart of Colombo make this wetland
becoming a populated and rapidly developing area of Colombo District attracting more urban life.
The exploitation of this wetland resource has vast negative consequences if this trend continues.
Based on such concerns, issues of sustainability have been in focus lately, with Colombo’s
wetlands declared as Ramsar sites. The necessity of a proper mechanism has arisen to maintain
these ecosystems as they were. Therefore, this research was carried out to develop a framework
for sustainable management and utilization of wetland resources at Madinnagoda Marsh.
The DPSIR framework was used for the study, one of the best tools recognized to analyse
environmental problems and devise sustainable solutions. However, it has been subjected to
critiques in the literature. Although the confusion between the terminologies is identified as the
main reason for such criticism, the framework has been subjected to many evolutions to give the
best output. After analysing the Madinnagoda wetland with nested DAPSI(E1 and S1)R(M1)
framework, a development plan was proposed, and its capability of sustainably managing and
utilizing the wetland resources was measured as per the level to which its strategies fulfil the 17
Sustainable Development Goals. For this purpose, scorecards were developed under each weighted
sustainable goal to assign the development plan with scores, and then, a methodology was
developed to calculate the sustainability score. Finally, a wetland rating system was proposed to
decide the level of sustainability of the Madinnagoda Marsh. Since there is no ongoing
development plan for Madinnagoda Marsh targeting its sustainable development, this research
study leaves the validation phase as a future work - though a hypothetical situation is proposed to
ensure that the procedure and the validity of the framework that have been proposed is well
demonstrated. Therefore, it is possible to modify the proposed development plan, proposed
framework, and rating system to comply with the future settings aiming at achieving sustainable
utilization of wetland resources. Even so, the beneficiaries of the wetland resources and the public
at large should make sensible decisions to determine how they are going to sustainably manage
and conserve this valued ecosystem.
Citation:
Pathirana, H.A., & Manathunga, J.M.A. (2021). Framework for sustainable management and utilization of wetland resources: a case study of Madinnagoda marsh [Abstract]. In P. Hettiarachchi (Ed.), Proceedings of Civil Engineering Research Symposium 2021 (p. 45). Department of Civil Engineering, University of Moratuwa.