Land use occupation and construction around the Córdoba, Capellanía and El Tunjo wetland reserves 1998–2024

Urban wetlands (UW) are highly valued ecosystems due to the wide range of services they provide to cities and regions worldwide. They contribute to improved urban air and water quality, enhance human well-being, and play a crucial role in sustainable urban development and climate change mitigation by safeguarding biodiversity, regulating hydrological cycles, and acting as carbon sinks. However, urban growth and consolidation continue to be a major driver of UW degradation, leading towards area decrease, pollution, habitat fragmentation, and loss of biodiversity through infrastructure development, land conversion, and increase of resources demands. In this context, information about existing interactions between city development and UW conservation is essential to explore integrative approaches that enable the protection of urban and peri-urban ecosystems. The present study analyzes land-use occupation and urban development attributes in the surroundings of three UW in Bogotá, Colombia, between 1998 and 2024. Land-use area, together with indices of building coverage (BCI) and floor space (FSI), were comparatively examined within 500-m buffer areas around the Capellanía, Córdoba, and El Tunjo wetland reserves. Results indicate that the areas' land-use configurations vary according to their location, with some areas still hosting polluting activities such as industry near the wetlands. Additionally, mean BCI and FSI across development cohorts reveal that, since 1999, around 148 ha of city land have been developed near these wetlands, with higher mean FSI values than the ones exhibited in the −1998 cohort, particularly in residential buildings. This article presents partial findings derived from the author's doctoral research.