This study summarizes the use of satellite data to detect the change of southwestern coastal wetlands in Korea. The images used for this study were two Landsat Thematic Mapper(TM) images (June 12, 1984 & June 2, 1992). TM images were used to classify such different types of wetlands as aquatic bed, nonaquatic bed and other land use in the region. Then it, was possible to a) determine the status of wetlands using image classification products, and b) detect the changes of various types of wetlands influenced by both human and nature. The results from spatiotemporal analysis showed that approximately 120 lad of coastal wetlands were lost from the year of 1984 to 1992. 71 % of the lost wetlands were converted to the reclaimed land. This loss of wetlands has been causing the profound environmental impacts. It has been successfully proved that satellite data are very effective for spatiatemporal change analysis, especially for that of coastal wetlands.