Urban Wetlands: A Review on Ecological and Cultural Values

Abstract

Wetlands are a critical part of natural environments that offer a wide range of ecosystem services. In urban areas, wetlands contribute to the livability of cities through improving the water quality, carbon sequestration, providing habitats for wildlife species, reducing the effects of urban heat islands, and creating recreation opportunities. However, maintaining wetlands in urban areas faces many challenges, such as the reduction of hydrological functions, changed water regimes due to barriers, contamination by wastewater, habitat loss due to land-use change, and loss of biodiversity due to the entry of alien species. In this article, we review the theoretical background of wetlands in urban areas through the existing studies in the literature. We provide knowledge on urban wetlands and highlight the benefits of these wetlands in urban areas. These benefits include sustainability, biodiversity, urban heat islands, social perception, and recreation values. We also summarize the objectives, methodologies, and findings of the reviewed articles in five tables. In addition, we summarize the critical research gaps addressed in the reviewed articles. Our review study addresses the research gaps by performing a rigorous analysis to identify significant open research challenges, showing the path toward future research in the field. We further discuss and highlight the role of policymakers and stakeholders in preserving wetlands and finally present our conclusions.

A Typology of Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of Form, Function, Nomenclature, and Associated Applications

“…Riparian buffer zones can protect water quality and aquatic habitats from non-point source pollution, while enabling bioinfiltration for evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge [72,101,136,137]. Conservation and restoration of wetlands are essential because they provide numerous ecosystem services and societal benefits that include hydrologic functions for flood protection and water treatment; essential habitats for multiple aquatic, avian, insect, and terrestrial species; and climate regulation [139][140][141][142]. Perennial grassland conservation and regeneration supports landscape hydrologic functions, provides carbon sequestration capacity and essential pollinator habitat, in addition to providing erosion control [143][144][145][146].…”

“…Wetlands are increasingly threatened by land conversion, pollution, deforestation, and urban development. Designating inland and coastal wetlands as protected areas under the law can ensure the continued provision of numerous ecosystem services including biodiversity conservation of aquatic, avian, insect, and terrestrial species; extensive carbon sequestration capacity; hydrologic functions that reduce flood risk and improve water quality; and climate regulation benefits [104,105,119,120,[139][140][141][142]. Within the context of 'protected area management', these NbS applications specifically support the UN SDGs of 'sustainable cities and communities' (UN SDG 11) 'climate action' (UN SDG 13), 'life below water' (UN SDG 14), and 'life on land' (UN SDG 15).…”

Decline in Environmental Quality and Spatial Dynamics of New City Area Development Metropolitan Mamminasata, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…Furthermore, the decline in environmental quality due to the intensity of the physical development of new urban areas is positively associated with the use of deep groundwater and the loss of biodiversity. Thus, the main challenges in the development of new urban areas are reduced hydrological functions, environmental pollution and excessive use of water resources [20,21].…”

Exploring the Driving Factors that Influence the Design, Function, and Use of Urban Wetlands in the United Kingdom

“…Themes regarding biodiversity were also highlighted in the literature, including habitat protection and creation to benefit wildlife (Hassall 2014 ; Palta et al 2017 ; Alikhani et al 2021 ; Wang et al 2022 ). However, many studies suggest that there are conflicting interests in habitat conservation and recreational use of urban wetlands (Hettiarachchi et al 2014 ; Rojas et al 2022 ), thus, more research on urban wetlands as a multi-use, functional space should be encouraged, to determine whether conservation and recreation opportunities can succeed in tandem.…”