The impacts of tidal wetland loss and coastal development on storm surge damages to people and property: a Hurricane Ike case-study.

Coastal wetlands protect communities during hurricanes by reducing storm surge flooding and damages. Previous studies have quantified surge reduction benefits of wetlands, but there is less understanding of how the combination of wetland loss and coastal development influences the spatial distribution of flood extents and damages. In this study we integrate a high-resolution 2-D hydrodynamic model with land-use/land-cover change analyses to assess the effects of total wetland loss, decadal wetland loss, and coastal development on storm surge damages in Galveston Bay, Texas.