Knowledge Repository

We are facing a broad range of challenges, such as unsustainable urbanization and related human health issues, degradation and loss of natural capital and the ecosystem services it provides (clean air, water and soil), climate change and an alarming increase of natural disaster risks. Currently over 70% of Europe's population live in cities, expected to increase to over 80% by the middle of the century. This translates to 36 million new urban citizens, who will need housing, employment and care by 2050.

Link: https://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/pdf/nbs_infographic.pdf

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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This book brings together research findings and experiences from science, policy and practice to highlight and debate the importance of nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation in urban areas. Emphasis is given to the potential of nature-based approaches to create multiple-benefits for society. The expert contributions present recommendations for creating synergies between ongoing policy processes, scientific programmes and practical implementation of climate change and nature conservation measures in global urban areas.

Link: https://www.springer.com/gb/book/9783319537504

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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The BiodivERsA Stakeholder Engagement Handbook is a non-academic practical guide for researchers planning and carrying out research projects. It is designed to assist research teams identify relevant stakeholders to engage with in order to enhance the impact of their work. The Handbook draws upon exiting literature and presents case studies that provide clear, simple guidance, which considers ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘when’ and ‘how’ to engage.

Link: http://www.biodiversa.org/705/download

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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Natural Solutions, in the context of this Guide, refer to those urban interventions from a broad perspective, use nature - and its processes - to mitigate the impacts arising from climate change and foster the adaptation of the municipality and the general public to the changes. These Natural Solutions include both micro-scale interventions in buildings, such as green roofs and facades, and also other natural elements, blue and green infrastructures in the public spaces, connected to the parks and natural areas of the municipalities.

Link: http://growgreenproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/NBS-Climate-Adaptation-...

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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This reference book is made up of currently 26 individual Synthesis Papers (SPs) generated by the OpenNESS members. The individual SPs have been formally consulted within the entire OpenNESS consortium and hence represent an agreed document for OpenNESS defining and elaborating on essential ideas linked to the ecosystem service concept. All SPs have been gone through an editorial process including approved revisions. The consultation was handled for the consortium in a transparent way, e.g., the consortium could see how authors responded to the comments/criticism on the original drafts. These consultation documents were available to al partners on the OpenNESS extranet. Some SPs were followed up and published in journals

Link: http://www.openness-project.eu/library/reference-book

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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This report follows on from the English Nature report Revealing the Value of Nature and picks up in more detail references to quality of life. In today’s society, and with government looking at joined up thinking, it is important to assess the benefits achieved by the work of English Nature and other conservation organisations over and above that for nature conservation.

Link: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/130015?category=127020

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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The Natural Environment White Paper “The Natural Choice: securing the value of nature” (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2011) sets out the need to strengthen the connection between people and nature. However, the White Paper also acknowledges that the opportunities to benefit from spending time in the natural environment are currently not open to everyone, which can contribute to health and other inequalities. Natural England is committed to increasing the number and range of people who can experience and benefit from access to the natural environment, and through the Outdoors for All Programme is leading the Government’s ambition that ‘everyone should have fair access to a good quality natural environment’.

Link: http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/6567580331409408

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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Europe continues to be faced with challenges related to the economy, the climate, the environment, and society at large. Most of these challenges have a strong urban dimension; they either manifest themselves mainly in and around cities - e.g., poverty, social and spatial segregation; environmental degradation - or find their solutions in and through cities – e.g.; resource efficiency and CO2 neutral economy; economic development and innovation; social innovation and integration. Although cities’ role for economic, social and cultural development, and their potential for a more resource efficient habitat, have long been recognised, the policy response at European and national level has been slow and piecemeal, with many but poorly integrated sectoral initiatives. A growing number of voices argue that cities need to be adequately involved in the conception and implementation of EU policies, and that EU policies need to be better adapted to the urban realities where they will be implemented. This is expressed by calls for an EU urban agenda coming from a range of stakeholders at the EU, national and local level. As a response to these calls the European Commission organised a CITIES Forum to initiate a debate on the need for an EU urban agenda.

Link: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/communication...

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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Climate change impacts are a key challenge for sustainable urban development. To address this challenge, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), i.e., the use of ecosystem services and biodiversity to help people adapt to climate change, is increasingly being considered as an alternative or complement to traditional, engineering-based approaches (increasingly also known as nature-based solutions). However, little research on ecosystem-based adaptation has been carried out in urban areas, and empirical evidence of its effectiveness and uptake in strategic adaptation planning is particularly lacking. Against this background, this study investigates the implementation of urban EbA in strategic adaptation planning. Based on a comparative analysis of all German municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, it examines the integration of EbA into municipal adaptation strategies. The results show that there is, so far, no comprehensive uptake of the EbA concept. While current strategies differ significantly in their type, structure, scope, maturity and content, overall the EbA concept remains implicit. 76% of the assessed strategies include some kind of ecosystem-based adaptation measures, which focus on enhancing the conservation, restoration, creation or sustainable management of ecosystems, and 25% of all strategies highlight the multiple benefits of these measures. However, comprehensive approaches are missing. We conclude that better policy support and comprehensive mainstreaming of EbA (e.g., through more distributed urban governance, science-policy integration, combined top-down policies and bottom-up activities) is urgently needed to foster sustainable urban development. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.146

Actions: Enhancing Ecosystems' Insurance Value, Urban Regeneration, Well-being in Urban Areas

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

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Nature ‐ Based Solutions (NBS) are solutions to societal challenges that are inspired and supported by nature. The European Commission requested the EKLIPSE project to help building up an evidence and knowledge base on the benefits and challenges of applying NBS. In response to the request, the EKLIPSE Expert Working Group on Nature ‐ based Solutions to Promote Climate Resilience in Urban Areas (EWG) devised the following objectives: 1) To develop an impact evaluation framework with a list of criteria for assessing the performance of NBS in dealing with challenges related to climate resilience in urban areas; 2) To prepare an application guide for measuring how NBS projects fare against the identified indicators in delivering multiple environmental, economic and societal benefits; 3) To make recommendations to improve the assessment of the effectiveness of NBS projects, including the identification of knowledge gaps according to the criteria presented in the impact evaluation framework. This document reports on these three objectives. It is intended to be used as a reference document by members of current and future European projects with an interest in NBS in urban areas, and by practitioners seeking to compare the effectiveness of NBS design, implementation and evaluation. The EWG recognises that the type and intensity of NBS impacts may vary according to the characteristics of the NBS and the context in which they are applied. The intent of this report is not to define NBS, but rather provide examples of indicators and methods for assessing impacts of NBS that may be applied in a range of different ways across urban areas in Europe. As such, the report also identifies the scale at which the indicators are relevant, to guide an assessment of impacts

Link: http://www.eklipse-mechanism.eu/apps/Eklipse_data/website/EKLIPSE_Report1-NBS...

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

Impacts:

Regions: