The value of coastal wetland flood prevention lost to urbanization on the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico: An analysis of flood damage by hurricane impacts

Wetlands provide ecosystem services such as flood prevention; however, their transformation to housing developments limits the provision of these services. When tropical storms and hurricanes occur where coastal wetlands have undergone land use change (LUC), socioeconomic disaster results. Our objective was to estimate the economic value of flood prevention service provided by coastal wetlands. We quantified LUC and the loss of water retention capacity as a wetlands loss function and estimated the economic cost of flooding to households (lost appliances). The Veracruz-Boca del Rio-Medellin conurbation in Veracruz, Mexico, was used to evaluate these parameters during the floods caused by hurricane Karl in 2010. The total economic cost of losses to households was $150.85 million USD/2007. Between 1980 and 2010, the urban zone grew by 1,437.41 ha, resulting in the loss of 16.34 ha of water bodies, 455.41 ha of agriculture, and 965.66 ha of coastal wetlands (25.36 ha of mangroves, 152.95 ha of freshwater marshes and 787.35 ha of flooded grasslands). These results were used to obtain the economic value of flood prevention service and expressed as indirect-avoided cost. The economic values of flood prevention were: flooded grassland at $148,277 USD/ha/2007, freshwater broad-leaved marsh at $190,863 USD/ha/2007, and mangroves at $193,674 USD/ha/2007. The results of this study highlight the importance of protecting coastal wetlands and can be used by urban planning decision-makers when drawing up public policies in regional coastal contexts to protect human settlements and infrastructure.