Abstract

Wetlands are valuable and threatened ecosystems throughout the world. They are essential for the maintenance of life and ecological balance, in addition to providing a larger number of benefits to human societies. Wetlands reduce the risk of flooding by regulating the flow of water, being essential to reduce the impacts of climate change, especially along the coasts and coastal cities of the world. Urban growth poses a risk to wetlands in and around urban areas. In this work, we quantify the loss trends of wetlands in urban areas in three Latin American countries between the years 2002 and 2019