Capturing the multiple benefits associated with nature‐based solutions: Lessons from a natural flood management project in the Cotswolds, UK

Abstract

Following severe flooding in 2007, a decision was taken in 2012 to explore nature‐based solutions in 250‐km2 river catchment in the southern Cotswolds in the United Kingdom. The project involves working with landowners to create in channel, riparian, field, and woodland structures aimed at attenuating high flows or increasing infiltration rates to reduce flood risk. After 3 years, it is clear that the threshold for effectiveness requires the implementation of measures throughout large areas of the upstream catchment. Early results suggest that social, as well as natural, capital has been enhanced through the project. What is clear is the beneficial role of working with multiple stakeholders to implement natural flood management on a catchment wide scale. In this sense, the project has adopted a comanagement approach that brings together the knowledge of hydrologists, ecologists, farmers, woodland owners, and the local community to implement locally agreed solutions within a broader project framework. This paper will outline the initial findings and the governance structure within a theoretical framework of comanagement and suggest how this type of framework is suitable for a range of nature‐based solutions across Europe. However, the challenge remains in capturing the multiple benefits that such projects offer as these are often missed through conventional approaches such as cost–benefit analysis. The paper concludes by presented along with a potential way forward for a proof of concept for nature‐based solutions.

Key Enablers of and Barriers to the Uptake and Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions in Urban Settings: A Review

“…An important group of actors whose role is emphasized in the literature reviewed are transboundary actors, also known as change agents or knowledge brokers. These actors are important as their actions diffuse knowledge of NBS among multiple stakeholders and facilitate mainstreaming the concept into urban planning practices, by engaging disparate groups to form networks centered on NBS [16,45]. Depending on the context, different actors can play this role.…”

“…Depending on the context, different actors can play this role. For example, NGOs and scientists functioned as transboundary actors in a Polish green roof initiative [17], whereas a project officer, appointed by the local district council, played this role in the case of a NBS project focused on flood management in the UK [16]. Frantzeskaki et al [31] argued that the role of transboundary actors is central to NBS innovation diffusion.…”

“…The lack of comprehensive information regarding the creation, implementation and management of NBS as well as the dearth of evidence regarding NBS effectiveness across widespread spatial and temporal scales may lead to a great deal of uncertainty, particularly among the public [37], or even invoke conflict among actors [22,35]. The body of knowledge regarding NBS has remained largely academic [52], with limited diffusion which has negatively affected the level of acceptance of NBS by the public [16,22].…”

“…Education and training * 8 [16,20,27,31,36,43,45,50] Effective monitoring and Valuation systems for implementation process and benefit *** 16 [8,9,[12][13][14]16,19,20,[26][27][28][29][32][33][34]42] Open innovation and Experimentation *** 5 [15,16,26,31,34] Combining NBS with other urban elements and gray infrastructures ** 8 [12,22,23,27,28,37,43,45] Appropriate planning and design ** 5 [26,30,34,37,48] * = socio-institutional enablers, *** = hybrid enablers (both socio-institutional and biophysical), and ** = biophysical enablers.…”

Evaluating the effectiveness of catchment-scale approaches in mitigating urban surface water flooding

“…In practice, stakeholder engagement is critical for any NFM implementation project [31,61,62]. Although the interventions evaluated here would require wholescale changes in the management of the Asker River catchment, they demonstrate the impact available from an 'NFM max'.…”