The Role of Wetlands in Flood Control: Natural Defenses

Picture this: you’re on a trip to Yogyakarta from Jakarta, and along the tollway, you’re nestled between Mother Earth’s greenery from both sides. You gape in astonishment to see daylight at its zenith and the towering mountains, and you gradually move your focus downward in the hope of more beauty, so that you might just leverage it for your Instagram’s second account story. Yet, you notice something odd: long stretches of land that seem to be suffocated in a flood, where the tall grasses are partly submerged in a cold, harsh reality, but not enough to stop existing entirely.

One day, a revolutionary wordsmith observes this ecological body and coins it a wet land. However, its definition and mechanism are surely not as complex as its insightful name! Wetlands are ecosystems where water covers the soil creating waterlogged, anaerobic conditions that support specialized flora and fauna. These features serve as transitional zones between land and water ecosystems, with water being the main controlling factor. For decades, we humans thought that wetlands were practically functionless, and, consequently, they are often drained and obliterated in favour of urban development.

Urban flooding can happen for several reasons, mainly because impervious surfaces stop water from soaking into the soil. Wetlands act like natural sponges, absorbing and holding water until it permeates into the ground. In urban areas, increased infiltration is especially important since most runoff comes from previous groundwater withdrawals. Any water that doesn’t infiltrate slowly flows into nearby streams via wetlands, helping to prevent flooding during cases of rampant rainfall. To compound this, the vegetation in wetlands also slows down water flow over the landscape. The combination of these features provides significantly more capacity for water storage and reduced flood heights, protecting urban cities and our environment.

References

International Institute of Sustainable Development. (2017). Wetlands: Protecting us from floods and saving us money. Retrieved August 23, 2025, from
https://www.iisd.org/articles/insight/wetlands-protecting-us-floods-and-saving-us-money

Tinkers Creek Watershed Partners. (2024). Wetlands as a tool for flood control and prevention. Retrieved August 23, 2025, from
https://www.tinkerscreek.org/wetlands-tool-flood-control-prevention