Study: Wetland Loss Costs $177 B in Flood Damage
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- United States has seen flood‑insurance claims rise by $10 billion over the past 40 years as wetlands have been destroyed.
- Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Environmental Defense Fund published a peer‑reviewed analysis in Nature Water (June 1) that used federal flood‑insurance data to value wetlands’ flood‑reduction benefits.
- Unprotected wetlands are estimated to cost $177 billion in flood‑mitigation benefits, with North Carolina alone losing $4.6 billion of value and at least 52,000 acres disappearing between 1985 and 2023.
- Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett v EPA decision narrowed the Clean Water Act’s definition of wetlands to only those with a continuous surface‑water connection, removing federal protection from millions of intermittently flooded acres.
- Study estimates focus on riverine flooding of residential properties and exclude coastal, tidal, and uninsured losses, meaning the $177 billion figure likely underestimates total flood‑damage avoided by wetlands.
- Low‑income communities and people of color are disproportionately impacted because they often live in low‑lying, flood‑prone neighborhoods and lack flood insurance, amplifying the human cost of wetland loss.
- Carolina Wetlands Association is monitoring the unprotected and restoring wetlands such as the Carolina Bays and Stony Run to improve local flood resilience.
Why it matters: Taxpayers and vulnerable residents shoulder higher flood costs as unprotected wetlands no longer curb river flooding, while insurers face $10 billion more in claims; the $177 billion valuation underscores the economic stakes of the Court’s rollback and the urgency of restoring wetland protections.
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