Wetlands in our future

Abstract

Wetlands include various types of ecosystems, all of them dependent on the presence of water. There are several definitions. They include reefs and seagrass meadows, beaches and dunes, herbaceous wetlands known as marshes (known locally as ‘tulares' ^[1] and ‘popales' ^[2]) or reed beds, mangrove swamps, and flood plain freshwater forests. They are fundamental in the water cycle and help recover the planet's fresh water. They are of great value to society due to the ecosystem services they provide, such as feeding the groundwater table, water purification, protection of the coastal zone, support for fisheries, climate change mitigation, flood containment, among others. The objective of this paper is to review the ecosystem services that coastal wetlands provide to the human society making an evaluation for rural areas wetlands and urban wetlands by measuring these services. In urban areas. Special emphasis is given to the concept of sponge cities that have been built in China. These examples show the importance that ecosystem services will have in the future in the lives of people and in the development of Mexico. Mexico is a country in which many of its cities are coastal, are subject to heavy rainfall, and therefore, have flood problems.

[1] Tular, from the Nahuatl tullin or tolin, sedge or cattail (Cyperus lacustris L., Typha latifolia L., etc.). Its leaves are used to weave mats, petates (it is a woven tule or fine palm mat with many uses, it comes from the Nahuatl pétlatl, mat), chairs and some other objects, and its inflorescences are edible (Cabrera, 2002) [Note from the editors]

[2] Popal, from the Nahuatl potoni, heder and palli, mud, smelly mud, marsh or marshy deposit of stagnant water, swamp covered with aquatic vegetation (Cabrera, 2002) [Editors' note]