The value of China’s coastal wetlands and seawalls for storm protection

•Coastal wetlands play a significant role to mitigate storms in China.•An empirical study estimated the storm protection value of coastal wetlands in China.•A long term historical storms hitting China with economic damage from 1989 to 2016 were analyzed.•The estimated storm protection value of coastal wetlands was initially controlled for seawalls.•Coastal wetlands rank over engineered structures to mitigate storms in terms of cost-effectiveness.