Abstract
To address challenges associated with climate resilience, health and well-being in urban areas, current policy platforms are shifting their focus from ecosystem-based to nature-based solutions (NBS), broadly defined as solutions to societal challenges that are inspired and supported by nature. NBS result in the provision of co-benefits, such as the improvement of place attractiveness, of health and quality of life, and creation of green jobs. Few frameworks exist for acknowledging and assessing the value of such co-benefits of NBS and to guide cross-sectoral project and policy design and implementation. In this paper, we firstly developed a holistic framework for assessing co-benefits (and costs) of NBS across elements of socio-cultural and socio-economic systems, biodiversity, ecosystems and climate. The framework was guided by a review of over 1700 documents from science and practice within and across 10 societal challenges relevant to cities globally. We found that NBS can have environmental, social and economic co-benefits and/or costs both within and across these 10 societal challenges. On that base, we develop and propose a seven-stage process for situating co-benefit assessment within policy and project implementation. The seven stages include: 1) identify problem or opportunity; 2) select and assess NBS and related actions; 3) design NBS implementation processes; 4) implement NBS; 5) frequently engage stakeholders and communicate co-benefits; 6) transfer and upscale NBS; and 7) monitor and evaluate co-benefits across all stages. We conclude that the developed framework together with the seven-stage co-benefit assessment process represent a valuable tool for guiding thinking and identifying the multiple values of NBS implementation.
Highlights
Practitioners need to consider elements of urban management, biodiversity, governance and social innovation within a socio-ecological system (Maes and Jacobs, 2017; McGinnis and Ostrom, 2014), and to integrate diverse types and systems of knowledge and values for nature-based solutions (NBS) design and implementation so as to be socially comprehensible and acceptable to a range of stakeholders (Frantzeskaki and Kabisch, 2016; Maes and Jacobs, 2017; Raymond et al, 2017). In response to these challenges, this paper provides a holistic framework that systematically identifies how NBS may provide both synergies across ecosystem services, and co-benefits in other different elements in urban areas
We presented a framework for the assessment of NBS co-benefits across various challenge areas considering relevant indicators and methods
We translated the framework from theoretical support to practical importance by presenting a seven-stage process which can guide NBS implementation
Summary
The potential for introducing ecosystem-based approaches into urban planning and policy-making is increasingly gaining attention from both scientists and policy-makers as approaches that offer sustainable and cost-efficient solutions for water management (Armson et al, 2013; Young et al, 2014), air quality (Calfapietra et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2015) urban biodiversity (Connop et al, 2016), and for cross-cutting challenges like biodiversity conservation, public health and well-being (Bennett et al, 2015; Carrus et al, 2015). Researchers are encouraged to move from ecosystem-based approaches to nature-based solutions (NBS) in order to work integratively with ecosystems to adapt to and mitigate the impacts from climate change, conserve biodiversity and improve human health and well-being (Cohen-Shacham et al, 2016). NBS can be defined as “solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience” NBS bring together established ecosystem-based approaches, such as ‘ecosystem services’, ‘green-blue infrastructure’, ‘ecological engineering’, ‘ecosystem-based management’ and ‘natural capital’ (Nesshöver et al, 2016; Nature Editorial 2017) with assessments of the social and economic benefits of resource-efficient and systemic solutions that combines technical, business, finance, governance, regulatory and social innovation (European Commission, 2015). NBS, are directly relevant to several policy areas and through their systemic nature interact with many others, such as land use and spatial planning
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