Economic and socioecological perspectives of urban wetland loss and processes: a study from literatures.

Abstract

Existing literatures across the world highlighted the causes and rate of wetland loss; however, so far, no researches tried to analyze how these are guided by the socioeconomic and ecological conditions. The current review work wished to explore how economic and socioecological perspectives could control the rate and drivers of urban wetland loss. Through meta-analysis, this study also intended to explore the changing polarity in research publication and collaborative research. Total 287 original research articles indicating the rates and drivers of wetland loss from 1990 to June 2022 for the first objective and 1500 articles focusing wetland researches from Dimensions AI database for the last objective were taken.Results clearly revealed that the rate of urban wetland loss varies from 0.03 to 3.13% annually, and three main drivers like built-up, agricultural expansions, pollution were identified all across the world. Loss rate was found maximum in the developing and least developed countries. Pollution, built-up expansion, and agriculture expansion, respectively, in developed, developing, and least developed nations were identified as the most dominant drivers of urban wetland loss. Linking loss rate and drivers with socioecological and economic perspectives revealed that human development index (HDI), ecological performance index (EPI), sustainable development goal index (SDGI), and social progress index (SPI) is negatively associated with the rate of urban wetland loss. Contrarily, a poverty rate encouraged higher rate of loss. This study articulated that improving these socioecological and economic conditions could help wetland conservation and restoration to achieve SDGs.