The superior effect of nature based solutions in land management for enhancing ecosystem services

Abstract

The rehabilitation and restoration of land is a key strategy to recover services -goods and resources- ecosystems offer to the humankind. This paper reviews key examples to understand the superior effect of nature based solutions to enhance the sustainability of catchment systems by promoting desirable soil and landscape functions. The use of concepts such as connectivity and the theory of system thinking framework allowed to review coastal and river management as a guide to evaluate other strategies to achieve sustainability. In land management NBSs are not mainstream management. Through a set of case studies: organic farming in Spain; rewilding in Slovenia; land restoration in Iceland, sediment trapping in Ethiopia and wetland construction in Sweden, we show the potential of Nature based solutions (NBSs) as a cost-effective long term solution for hydrological risks and land degradation. NBSs can be divided into two main groups of strategies: soil solutions and landscape solutions. Soil solutions aim to enhance the soil health and soil functions through which local eco-system services will be maintained or restored. Landscape solutions mainly focus on the concept of connectivity. Making the landscape less connected, facilitating less rainfall to be transformed into runoff and therefore reducing flood risk, increasing soil moisture and reducing droughts and soil erosion we can achieve the sustainability. The enhanced eco-system services directly feed into the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

Spatial Modeling of Soil Erosion Risk and Its Implication for Conservation Planning: the Case of the Gobele Watershed, East Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia

“…Moreover, the recent study by Cerdà et al [50] revealed that application of the straw mulch as erosion control practices has been shown to reduce the rainfall-runoff velocity and connectivity of the flows, subsequently decreasing the soil loss rates and sediment fluxes. Keesstra et al [51] emphasized the nature-based solutions (NBSs), including the soil solutions and landscape solutions as a cost-effective and sustainable conservation strategies for mitigating and restoration of degraded land and improve ecosystem services. Though the SWC implemented over the recent years might have reduced the magnitude of soil loss rate, the eroded areas are widely observed in the study area (Figure 8a-c).…”

“…Keesstra et al [51] emphasized the nature-based solutions (NBSs), including the soil solutions and landscape solutions as a cost-effective and sustainable conservation strategies for mitigating and restoration of degraded land and improve ecosystem services. Though the SWC implemented over the recent years might have reduced the magnitude of soil loss rate, the eroded areas are widely observed in the study area (Figure 8a-c).…”

“…On the contrary, Wang et al [92] found improvement in the state of erosion risk in the Danjiangkou reservoir area, China, where the eroded areas have declined from 32.1% in 2004 to 25.43% in the 2010 study period. Moreover, Jiang et al [16] reported that the eroded area has Therefore, since there is geospatial variation in soil erosion risk distribution across the watershed area, identification of priority area is the key factor for planning and implementing appropriate SWC [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]51,90,142]. Accordingly, we prioritized areas with a higher and increasing soil loss rate as SWC priority areas (Table 6).…”

Improving stock unearthing method to measure soil erosion rates in vineyards

“…The SUM method should be enhanced to include measurements which incorporate those factors affecting soil movement in the inter-row areas. Those improvements will contribute to a more accurate soil erosion measurement that will end in a more sustainable management and nature based solutions (Keesstra et al, 2018).…”

Responses of Soil Seed Bank and Vegetation to the Increasing Intensity of Human Disturbance in a Semi-Arid Region of Northern China

“…In the past decades, trees and shrubs planting were traditionally employed to restore vegetation and combat desertification in North China [6], but it did not perform very well, mainly due to its high cost, low survival rate, and high water consumption [7]. A nature-based solution was considered as a cost-effective long-term solution for land degradation; it focused on improving soil quality and restoring vegetation to enhance the sustainability of the degraded land [8]. Soil seed bank has been considered as a promising method for restoring vegetation [9], but its influencing factors have not yet been fully understood [10].…”