![CREDIT - KEITHBRILEY/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS CREDIT - KEITHBRILEY/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS](/sites/default/files/COASTALwetlands_floodMITIGATION.jpg)
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A first-of-its-kind article co-authored by scholars at Resources for the Future (RFF) and Columbia University in the journal American Economic Review finds that the loss of a hectare of wetlands (roughly the size of two and a half football fields) costs society an average of $1,900 in flood damages per year. In developed areas, that figure jumps to more than $8,000.