Coastal wetlands provide an average property damage savings of $1.8 million annually per square kilometer of wetland, as determined by a study of property damage caused by 88 tropical storms and hurricanes hitting counties on the coast of the United States from 1996 to 2016. Although estimated economic value varies widely across individual counties, counties with more wetland coverage experience significantly less property damage in extreme storm events.
Sun, Fanglin, and Richard T. Carson. “Coastal Wetlands Reduce Property Damage during Tropical Cyclones.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, February 2020. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915169117.