Knowledge Repository

Nature-based solutions simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits by bringing more nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes. The Horizon 2020 Expert Group on ‘Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities’, chaired by Dr. Wilhelm Krull, Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation, was established under the 2014 Work Programme for the Societal Challenge “Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials”. Dr. Pam Berry, Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University, rapporteur, and 12 other renowned experts, engaged in forward-looking reflection on future orientations for EU Research and Innovation for Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities. This report presents their main findings.

Link: http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/horizon2020/document.cfm?doc_id=10195

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 is a global phenomenon that poses risks to sectors across society and the economy. Nature-based approaches can offer sustainable solutions to cope with climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges. The brochure "Nature-based approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation", developed by Ecologic Institute on behalf of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), introduces the opportunities, challenges, and success factors of nature-based solutions and presents good practice examples.

Link: https://www.ecologic.eu/11240

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 report – and a series of accompanying case studies – offers practical and proven approaches for environmental management and eco-engineering in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, that can, in large, be tailored for different situations. This is important if the benefits of what this report highlights are to become shared and used more extensively. Planners and landscape managers must apply their experiences in broader settings, professionals engaged in disaster risk reduction need to converse more closely with climate change and environmental management professionals. Decision-makers too have a vital role to play in highlighting the many advantages that this avenue of easily applied science offers. Even donor organisations have a pivotal role to play in this context in the coming years as innovative means of financing initiatives relating to climate change adaptation and mitigation are increasingly being sought.

Link: https://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/4148

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 has been prepared as part of an effort by IUCN to define its position on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and plan for future work to advance this concept and support effective implementation of NbS to enhance ecosystem services provision and address societal challenges. The report proposes a definitional framework for NbS, including a set of general principles for any NbS intervention. The report also defines the scope of NbS as an umbrella concept embracing a number of different ecosystem-based approaches.

Link: https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46191

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 worldwide is increasingly affected by climate change, including disruption of vegetative growth cycle and rainfall, changes in species range or loss of species and natural habitats, desertification, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and coral bleaching. According to recent scientific studies, one species out of four is at risk of extinction by 2050 due to climate change.

Link: https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46343

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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Protected areas play a major role in reducing climate changing carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Fifteen percent of the worlds terrestrial carbon stock - 312 gigatonnes - are stored in protected areas around the world. Protected areas also serve as natural buffers against climate impacts and other disasters, providing space for floodwaters to disperse, stabilizing soil against landslides and blocking storm surges. And protected areas can keep natural resources healthy and productive so they can withstand the impacts of climate change and continue to provide the food, clean water, shelter and income communities rely upon for survival.

Link: https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2009-045.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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IUCN is extensively involved in supporting climate change adaptation, with a specific focus on Ecosystem based Adaptation (EbA). This is directly aligned with IUCN’s commitment to Nature based Solutions as a part of its overall vision and mission. In order to fully define IUCN’s approach to adaptation, an EbA Learning Framework has been developed. The objective is to systematically document and glean learning from the rich knowledge being generated through the world wide implementation of EbA related projects. The goal is to initiate a process of providing evidence based knowledge on EbA and its effectiveness.

Link: https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46342

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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Nature is presented as a new paradigm for ergonomics. As a discipline concerned with well-being, the importance of natural environments for wellness should be part of ergonomics knowledge and practice. This position is supported by providing a concise summary of the evidence of the value of the natural environment to well-being. Further, an emerging body of research has found relationships between well-being and a connection to nature, a concept that reveals the integrative character of human experience which can inform wider practice and epistemology in ergonomics. Practitioners are encouraged to bring nature into the workplace, so that ergonomics keeps pace with the move to nature-based solutions, but also as a necessity in the current ecological and social context. Practitioner Summary: Nature-based solutions are coming to the fore to address societal challenges such as well-being. As ergonomics is concerned with well-being, there is a need for a paradigm shift in the discipline. This position is supported by providing a concise summary of the evidence of the value of the natural environment to well-being. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2016.1157213

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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Increasing climate change impacts are a major threat to sustainable urban development, and challenge current governance structures, including actors' responsibilities for dealing with climate variability and extremes. The need for distributed risk governance and citizen engagement is increasingly recognised; however, few empirical studies systematically assess interactions between citizens and municipalities in climate risk management and adaptation. Here, we develop an explorative framework, applied to three Swedish municipalities, to map existing ‘adaptation interactions’ and analyse how responsibilities for climate adaptation manifest and are (re)negotiated. The results show that adaptation planners rarely consider collaborations with citizens, despite positive adaptation outcomes from related local processes. Structures and mechanisms for systematic monitoring and learning are also lacking. We argue that fostering collaborations with citizens – to support long-term adaptation and reduce the adaptation burden of those most at risk – requires consideration of four strategic issues: proactive engagement; equity and ‘responsibilisation’; nature-based approaches; and systematic adaptation mainstreaming. Finally, we discuss how our analytical framework can contribute to further theorising municipalities' engagement with citizens on climate risk. © 2017 The Authors. Environmental Policy and Governance published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2017 The Authors. Environmental Policy and Governance published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/eet.1795

Actions: Sustainable use of Matter & Energy, Urban Regeneration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Goals: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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Cities are particularly prone to the effects of climate change. One way for cities to adapt is by enhancing their green infrastructure (GI) to mitigate the impacts of heat waves and flooding. While alternative GI design options exist, there are many unknowns regarding public support for the various options. This study aims to fill this gap by performing a socio-cultural valuation of urban GI for climate adaptation that encompasses multiple dimensions: people's notion of and concerns about climate impacts, the degree to which people acknowledge the benefits of GI to alleviate such impacts, and people's preferences for different GI measures, including their willingness to pay (WTP). Data were collected through photo-assisted face-to-face surveys (n = 200) with residents in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and linked to GI GIS data. Respondents had a notion of and concerns about climate impacts, but did not necessarily acknowledge that GI may help tackle these issues. Yet, when residents were informed about the adaptation capacity of different GI measures, their preferences shifted towards the most effective options. There was no information effect, however, on people's WTP for GI, which was mostly related to income and ethnicity. Our study shows that economic valuation alone would miss nuances that socio-cultural valuation as applied in this paper can reveal. The method revealed preferences for particular adaptation designs, and assists in detecting why policy for climate adaptation may be hampered. Understanding people's views on climate impacts and adaptation options is crucial for prioritizing effective policy responses in the face of climate change. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2016.05.027

Actions: Carbon Sequestration, Urban Regeneration, Well-being in Urban Areas

Goals: Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, Sustainable Urbanisation in cities

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