Knowledge Repository

Find out about the importance of nature-based solutions in tackling one of humanity's greatest challenges.

Actions: Carbon Sequestration, Coastal Resilience, Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value, Sustainable use of Matter & Energy, Urban Regeneration, Watershed Management & Ecosystem Restoration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Goals: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS, Risk Management and Resilience, Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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Rwanda recognizes the importance of forest landscapes for its socio-economic transformation goals. The Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy - EDPRS2 and the Vision 2020 provide a roadmap for forest cover increase up to 30% of the total country. To date, Rwanda has about 28.8% forest cover (of which 37 percent are humid natural forests and Savannahs). In 2004, forest cover was 19.6% meaning we have registered a growth of 1% per year for the last decade.

Actions: Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value

Ecosystem Services: Grassland, Ecosystem Services: Wetlands, Ecosystem Services: Woodland and forest

Goals: Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS

Impacts: Biodiversity, Conservation, Goods, Land use change, Protected areas

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This video showcases the work of the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department's restoration at McMurry and North Shields Ponds, lowering unnaturally steep riverbanks and removing an abandoned diversion structure which improved the habitat on the Cache la Poudre River. In 2014, the Natural Areas Department received two Blue Grama awards from the Colorado Open Space Alliance for their outstanding conservation work.

Actions: Watershed Management & Ecosystem Restoration

Ecosystem Services: Rivers and lakes

Goals: Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS

Impacts: Biodiversity, Direct use value, Land management, Nature-based solutions

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Medmerry is the largest UK sea realignment scheme project. The new sea defences will significantly reduce the risk to 350 homes, local infrastructure and the main road into Selsey. This groundbreaking project has also provided the opportunity to create more than 180 hectares of important new wildlife habitat which compensates for the loss of similar conservation areas in and around the Solent.

Actions: Coastal Resilience, Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value

Ecosystem Services: Coastal

Goals: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS, Risk Management and Resilience

Impacts: Biodiversity, Climate change, Heritage (cultural and natural), Land management, Nature-based solutions, Resilience

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The ThinkNature project animation explains what Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are and how the ThinkNature Project and Platform aim to use this NBS as a better instrument to overcome development challenges and needs. Nature-based Solutions are an important topic on the EU Research and Innovation policy agenda. The ThinkNature project is part of Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and has received funding under grant agreement No 730338. The objective of the ThinkNature project is the development of a platform that supports the understanding and the promotion of Nature-based Solutions (NBS). NBS are defined by the EU as solutions that are 'inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Such solutions bring more, and more diverse, nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes, and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions' (source: The EU Research and Innovation policy agenda on Nature-Based Solutions).

Actions: Carbon Sequestration, Coastal Resilience, Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value, Sustainable use of Matter & Energy, Urban Regeneration, Watershed Management & Ecosystem Restoration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Goals: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS, Risk Management and Resilience, Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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Actions: Carbon Sequestration, Coastal Resilience, Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value, Sustainable use of Matter & Energy, Urban Regeneration, Watershed Management & Ecosystem Restoration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Goals: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS, Risk Management and Resilience, Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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Actions: Urban Regeneration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Ecosystem Services: Urban

Goals: Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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Pieter van der Zaag is a professor of integrated water resources management at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in Delft, The Netherlands and professor at Delft University of Technology. This talk was presented on Sept. 15, 2016 as part of the Water Institute's ongoing WaterTalks series.
The presentation addresses if alternative ways of increasing water storage capacity exist that minimize negative impacts. Topics covered include: 1) enhanced availability and use of groundwater through soil and water conservation measures and artificial recharge and 2) enhanced storage capacity in dry river beds of seasonal (ephemeral) rivers, through so-called sand dams.

Actions: Carbon Sequestration, Coastal Resilience, Watershed Management & Ecosystem Restoration

Goals: Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS

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Nature has provided humankind with food, fuel, and shelter throughout evolutionary history. However, in contemporary cities, many natural landscapes have become degraded and replaced with impermeable hard surfaces (e.g., roads, paving, car parks and buildings). The reversal of this trend is dynamic, complex and still in its infancy. There are many facets of urban greening initiatives involving multiple benefits, sensitivities and limitations. The aim of this paper is to develop a characterisation method of nature based solutions for designing and retrofitting in the built environment, and to facilitate knowledge transfer between disciplines and for design optimisation. Based on a review of the literature across disciplines, key characteristics could be organised into four groups: policy and community initiatives, multiple benefits assessment, topology, and design options. Challenges and opportunities for developing a characterisation framework to improve the use of nature based solutions in the built environment are discussed.C2017 by the authors.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010149

Actions: Urban Regeneration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Goals: Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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Nearly half of Earth's forests have been cleared or degraded – but we have the power to change this! WRI's Global Restoration Initiative works with governments and international partners to inspire, enable and mobilize action to restore vitality to degraded landscapes and forests around the globe. Global Restoration Council Co-Chair Wanjira Mathai describes how restoring degraded landscapes can benefit people and planet.

Actions: Carbon Sequestration, Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value

Ecosystem Services: Woodland and forest

Goals: Restoring Degraded Ecosystems Using NbS

Impacts: Afforestation, Biodiversity, Carbon sequestration, Land use change

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