The concept and application of nature-based solutions (NBS) have been rapidly progressing in Europe and Latin America, reflecting a transition in the way that urban governance is perceived. There is a large call for the collaborative, polycentric, and interdisciplinary governance of NBS. However, research on options for operationalising these governance processes in different contexts is still insufficient. This study explores and analyses the operationalisation of NBS adaptive governance in Europe and Latin America. Seven cities that are part of the project EU-H2020 CONEXUS have been selected as case studies: Barcelona, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo, and Turin. This contribution aims to (i) understand how NBS governance processes are managed; (ii) identify the main positive and negative factors that influence NBS adaptive governance; and (iii) understand common factors and relationships that can hinder or drive forward adaptive governance for NBS in the investigated contexts. The results revealed common priorities indicating a shared pathway for Europe and Latin America; however, context-dependent specificities were also observed. These findings can be used to support cities in both European and American contexts in developing plans and actions for the more efficient enabling of NBS implementation and governance through adaptive governance.
The attention given to nature-based solutions (NBS) in urban governance is often hindered by the fragmentation of responsibilities in technical and administrative services and by rigid structural conditions within urban regimes. This drastically harms NBS implementation and their co-benefits. There is limited information regarding NBS integration across levels and scales of urban governance, in particular a lack of studies that access such integration in urban policy and planning. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the integration of NBS in urban policy and planning in Barcelona, Lisbon, and Turin, the three European municipalities participating in the H2020 project CONEXUS. The objectives are: (1) to understand the state of top-down and bottom-up integration of NBS in urban policy and planning in the three cities; (2) to understand barriers in integration that might hinder the evolution of the NBS agenda in said instruments; (3) to identify policy and planning entry points that can catalyze forms of cross-sectoral, multilevel, and interdisciplinary governance of NBS toward transformative change. The methods used include an in-depth analysis of official municipal, metropolitan, regional, and national documents and expert interviews. The results show that NBS integration in urban policy and planning is novel in all cities but advancing considerably with initial dialogues among the public sector, academia, and local actors of various provenances. Planning in silos persists, negatively impacting any possible confluence of actions toward NBS integration and implementation. However, a constellation of national and international plans including NBS, combined with the development of cross-cutting policies and plans, and an increasing interest from the municipalities and citizens, reveal an enabling environment for NBS integration in urban policies. Our findings are translated into insights that can support policy and decision makers to operationalize NBS integration in their municipal agendas, policies, and plans.
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