Aplicación de los criterios de la Ley Chilena de Humedales Urbanos a la ciudad de Coronel (Chile) revela coberturas superiores a las conocidas.

Wetlands are complex ecosystems featuring delicate ecological balances, with those located nearby urban areas undergoing the strongest pressure, as human intervention can be irreversible. The city of Coronel (Biobío region in Chile) is surrounded by wetlands covering 434,06 Ha of surface area, extending from the Calabozo sector to Boca Maule sector. Along these borders, official urban planning maps label those sectors as residential, likely growing towards covering more of these urban wetlands, despite their limits are not fully known. The goal of this work was to delineate and characterize these yet unidentified urban wetlands sectors. To do so, we applied methods recommended by the new Urban Wetlands Law (2020), using spatial data, GIS procedures, and fieldwork observations. The overlap between the mapped wetlands and the Urban planning map effectively revealed hitherto unrecorded wetland zones labelled as mixed residential uses. Thus, our results suggest that the current urban plan needs to be updated and adjusted to the guidelines of the new Urban Wetlands Law because that is the best way to ensure better environmental management and sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]