Abstract: Based on historical land use data of the past 40 years (1980-2020) interpreted from remote sensing data in combination with relevant socio-economic data and policy collections, we analyzed the spatial and temporal dynamics of coastal wetlands and associated driving factors in the three major coastal urban agglomerations (i.e., the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Sea Rim).zed. We calculated the degree of correlation between coastal urban wetland area and associated social and economic indicators by grey relation analysis, and also selected three typical case areas (i.e., the west coast of Shenzhen, the Pudong New District of Shanghai, and the Binhai New District of Tianjin) to conduct qualitative comparative analyses on the driving factors of coastal wetland change. The study results showed that the temporal sequence of coastal wetland dynamics of the three urban agglomerations was consistent with the temporal sequence of economic development over the past forty years, and their changes showed the temporal sequence from south to north of China. The driving factors of wetland dynamics in the three coastal urban agglomerations showed both similarity and regional differentiation. For the three typical case study areas within the three urban agglomerations, the main driving factors were population agglomeration, rapid economic growth and major infrastructure construction. The natural wetlands on the west coast of Shenzhen had experienced a rapid loss of area due to polder farming and urban construction in the early urbanisation period, and a slowing of the loss of natural wetland area in recent years due to the implementation of coastal development control and ecological restoration projects. The introduction of Spartina alterniflora and urban development projects led to the destruction of natural wetlands in the Shanghai Pudong New District. The reduction in the extent of natural wetlands in the Tianjin Binhai New District was predominantly attributable to the expansion of oilfield and salt field operations, as well as aquaculture activities.