Quantitative assessment of land use/land cover changes on the value of ecosystem services in the coastal landscape of Anzali International Wetland Jalil Badamfirooz & Roya Mousazadeh Received: 23 May 2019 /Accepted: 1 September 2019 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract This study, using remote sensing techniques and GIS, studied the land use land cover (LULC) changes of Anzali International Wetland from 1975 to 2013, and the effects of these changes on the ES (ecosystem service) values of the wetland. The benefit transfer method was used to estimate the economic value of the ecosystem goods and services. The basis for the valuations was the values provided for the ES of the world biomes. According to the results, in the period of study (1975 to 2013), the highest percentage of incremental change was attributed to urban and manmade centers (73.85 %), while the lowest was related to the wetland coverage area (0.32 %). Value changes between 1975 and 1975 for agricultural lands were positive and equal to US$ 12.85 million and for the rangelands were negative and equal to US$ - 26.84 mil- lion. These changes were positive for the coastal wetlands, equivalent to US$ 258.95 million a year. Despite the negative value changes of the rangelands, the total ES value changes in the entire wetland during the years 1975 to 2013 were evaluated to be positive (equal to US$ 244.96 million). Changes in the value of the services of pollination, biological control, genetic resources, and food production in 2013 were negative, compared to 1975. This indicates the loss of these values, which is due to the loss of rangelands in the study area. The findings of this study can inform policymakers, managers, and environ- mental planners about the continuation of the changing process and may lead to the formulation of policies for the sustainable exploitation of land resources, as well as future effective land use planning for achieving the goals of sustainable development in the study area. The findings can serve as a tool for raising awareness about the contri- bution of nature to the benefits, social welfare, and liveli- hood of the stakeholders. Keywords Land use/land cover changes . Ecosystem services . Economic valuation . Anzali wetland . Change detection Introduction Ecosystems offer a range of services that are critical to the well-being of human communities and their liveli- hoods, so the life of human communities is dependent on ecosystem services (ES) (Costanza et al. 1997; de Groot et al. 2012; MA 2005). Land use land cover (LULC) change is the main driver for changes in the supply of ES (Paudyal et al. 2019). It is also known as one of the main drivers of loss of ES (Costanza et al. 2014; Zorrilla-Miras et al. 2014). In recent years, LULC changes have altered the provision of ES, which affects the welfare of human communities (Karki et al. 2018). Wetlands are one of the most valuable ecosystems in the Environ Monit Assess (2019) 191:694 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7802-8 J. Badamfirooz (*) Assistant Professor of Research, Research Center for Environment and Sustainable Development (RCESD), Department of Environment, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran e-mail: jalil.badamfirooz@gmail.com R. Mousazadeh Research Group of Environmental Economics, Research Center for Environment and Sustainable Development (RCESD), Department of Environment, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran