What are Nature-based Solutions?
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are practical actions which protect, restore, create and sustainably manage natural or modified habitats or features to address societal challenges. Compared to traditional engineering methods, NbS provide a more sustainable pathway, reducing long-term risks (such as climate change impact) and providing multiple benefits for businesses, communities and governments. Integrating NbS into planning and decision-making allows organisations to improve resilience plans, align with global sustainability goals, and unlock opportunities for growth and innovation while protecting and enhancing the environment.
Why is NbS important for longevity and community resilience?
Globally, across all sectors, we are reliant on primary source building materials that are extremely energy and carbon intensive to produce. While their use has supported vast economic and social development, this may have also inadvertently accelerated climate change and increased natural disaster related risks, along with negatively impacting biodiversity. If we are to meet global climate and biodiversity targets, we must look beyond this reliance on engineered solutions to address our challenges and embrace alternative options which are inherently sustainable and resilient.
NbS are widely recognised as being a key delivery mechanism in helping us to achieve our sustainability goals and targets. However, at present they are significantly underfunded. Considerable investment through new funding streams and repurposing nature-negative flows is needed to facilitate a world which is viable and liveable for future generations, with abundant, resilient and sustainable natural resources. By implementing NbS in place of traditional engineering options, more sustainable outcomes can be achieved while addressing multiple economic, environmental and societal challenges and delivering a wide range of co-benefits such as:
- Enhanced carbon sequestration and storage by conserving or restoring forests, wetlands, peatlands and other ecosystems.
- Improved water quality and quantity by filtering pollutants, regulating runoff, recharging groundwater and providing water for irrigation, drinking and sanitation.
- Reduced disaster risk by buffering floods, storms, landslides and droughts through natural green infrastructure such as native vegetation, mangroves, coral reefs, wetlands, green roofs and urban parks.
- Increased support for biodiversity by avoiding removal of vegetation, maintaining or increasing habitat condition, diversity, connectivity and resilience.
- Enhanced human well-being by providing food, fuel, fibre, medicine, recreation, culture and health benefits from nature.
- Lowering infrastructure development and maintenance costs through green solutions such as urban forests and implementing permeable surfaces.
- Ecosystems restored through NbS can generate economic gains through increased tourism, sustainable agriculture, and job creation in restoration and maintenance efforts.
A common challenge when proposing NbS is communicating the wide range of benefits they offer and determining when the benefits will be realised. To address this, a benefit-screening approach can help evaluate the holistic value and potential impact of proposed NbS programs, providing valuable insights for decision-making. This approach utilises existing knowledge to quantify the multiple benefits provided to society (discussed above). This approach can use methods such as identifying indicators of positive environmental effects and their scoring criteria, quantifying and monetising physical benefits, and assessing both short- and long-term timelines. Read more here.
NbS in action: Revitalising ecosystems with purpose
We are committed to delivering solutions that address technical challenges and make meaningful contributions to preserving the natural world and ecosystem services, upon which we all rely. Here are a few examples of our involvement in NbS:
Protecting and enhancing electricity network assets for Nature4Networks
The Nature4Networks project set out to explore the feasibility of using NbS approaches to enhance operational performance and resilience of electricity distribution network assets in a more sustainable way compared to engineered business-as-usual solutions. We provided specialist knowledge on NbS and electrical engineering on this project for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Distribution (SSEN-D).
We assessed the key challenges faced by SSEN’s distribution network assets and proposed a range of potential NbS options which could be implemented to overcome them. Proposed NbS approaches included linear woodland establishment adjacent to overhead lines to safeguard network reliability and performance whilst providing wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration and storage. We also proposed replacing concrete bunds around transformers with biodiverse swales to provide habitat for pollinating insects while avoiding the carbon footprint associated with concrete.
Creating spaces for monarch butterflies in Ontario, Canada
The shores of Lake Ontario play a critical role in the annual 5,000 km migration of monarch butterflies, an important species of pollinator in North America. They carry pollen on their bodies during their travels, allowing the transfer of genetic material critical for flowering plants, including ones that grow food and raw materials, to reproduce healthily. Without suitable habitats, these essential pollinators face population decline. In 2016 we implemented a vegetative matting solution within a 19.4-hectare residential development that would preserve and enhance these nectar habitats while stabilising slopes and revegetating disrupted areas without the common time-lag of traditional methods.
These habitat mats were removed during the fall, stored throughout winter, and re-laid in spring to allow for uninterrupted support for the butterfly migration, even during the construction process. We continue to monitor this process over for a total of six years for vegetation resilience, soil stability and butterfly presence.
Restoring wetland health on the Murray River, Australia
The Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project is an effort to revitalise over 14,000 hectares of wetlands and flood-dependent habitats along Australia’s Murray River. These floodplains provide ecosystem services to 1.6 million people through water supply, agriculture, employment and recreation. However, overuse of the river’s waters has diminished natural flooding cycles vital to nearby ecosystems. Our ecological assessments informed the design and construction of nine water management structures, enabling better control of environmental flows into wetlands and floodplains. We continue to observe these ecological interventions for long-term environmental stability and the rehabilitation of native vegetation.
The power of NbS
These projects showcase the power of NbS in protecting and revitalising ecosystems whilst addressing a range of problems and challenges. They safeguard biodiversity whilst driving meaningful and sustainable change. NbS are a part of our commitment to sustainability and resilience, learn more here.
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