Figure 2 - uploaded by Christopher M. Raymond
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are solutions to societal challenges that are inspired and supported by nature. The European Commission requested the EKLIPSE project to help building up an evidence and knowledge base on the benefits and challenges of applying NBS. In response to the request, the EKLIPSE Expert Working Group on Nature‐based Solutions t...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... three stages of the quick scoping review of the literature. ..................................................................... 5 Figure 2 The 10 climate resilience challenges considered in this impact assessment framework. .............................. 6 Figure 3 Framework illustrating the relationships among elements of biophysical and social systems, climate resilience challenges and the NBS actions, impacts, indicators and methods for addressing each challenge. ...
Context 2
... relation to objective 1, the EWG developed a framework that enables the assessment of impacts related to specific NBS actions within and across 10 challenge areas (Figures 2 and 3). The framework was based on a quick scoping review of the literature ( Collins et al., 2015;Dicks et al., 2014) combined with expert consultation within and outside the EWG. ...
Context 3
... NBS impact assessment framework (Figures 2 and 3) builds on and supports several other closely related concepts, including the ecosystem approach, ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation, green and blue infrastructure and ecosystem services (European Commission, 2015). The European Commission, through MAES (Mapping and Assessment of Ecosystems and their Services), is assisting Member States in the process of mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services, as well as assessing the economic value of such services, and incorporating these values into EU and national accounting and reporting systems (European Commission, 2013). ...
Context 4
... NBS directed towards a given challenge has an associated set of objectives and actions. Each action has an associated set of expected impacts, and these impacts can in turn be assessed using a set of indicators, using specific types of methods for assessing those indicators ( Figure 2). ...
Context 5
... classification presented here has been designed specifically for the purpose of this document, but it is acknowledged that each of the 10 challenge areas can be expanded or reduced to consider all the multi-functional aspects of NBS. There is potential for indicators and methods to be applicable to more than one challenge area, as illustrated by the diamond body in Figures 2 and 3. In the application guide of this report, we discuss the applicability of indicators and methods across challenges. ...
Context 6
... there are a plethora of NBS and related impacts, indicators and methods related to climate change resilience in urban areas, as illustrated by the web of relations between NBS and the climate, ecosystems, socio-economic and socio-cultural systems. Here we focus on a subset of NBS, their impacts, indicators for assessing the impacts, and methods for assessing the effectiveness of NBS for a specific set of challenges, as represented by the blue target area in the middle of Figure 2. ...
Citations
... As a result of this global policy interest, the development of urban NBS assessment frameworks has mushroomed in recent years (van der Jagt, Buijs, et al., 2023). Prominent examples include the EKLIPSE Impact Evaluation Framework (Raymond et al., 2017), the IUCNs (2020) Global Standard and the European Commission's Handbook for Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions (hereafter: EC Handbook) (Dumitru & Wendling, 2021). The latter was published most recently and "serves as a comprehensive reference handbook, based upon current best available knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies and practices" (Dumitru & Wendling, 2021, p.25). ...
... The EC Handbook developers also included participatory planning and governance indicators for monitoring processual aspects important to the development and mainstreaming of NBS. Processual aspects, including governance, are understood to underpin the realisation of benefits from nature (Raymond et al., 2017). This is also reflected in Criterion 5 of the IUCN Global Standard for NBS assessment framework: "NbS are based on inclusive, transparent and empowering governance processes" (IUCN, 2020, p.14). ...
The last decade has seen a profound increase in the development of assessment frameworks for ecosystem services, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions (NBS). This has improved understanding of NBS impact assessment, including processual aspects related to participatory planning and governance. We argue that, although representing a move in the right direction, NBS assessment frameworks would benefit from a broader framing of governance, including the role of government-led laws, policies and regulations along with community-led and collaborative multi-stakeholder initiatives. The consideration of marginalised communities and environmental justice should also be strengthened. To ensure a feasible and comprehensive approach to NBS governance assessment, we carried out a systematic literature review on the topic of urban NBS governance. Using thematic analysis, we developed a framework of five themes encompassing nine governance dimensions, of
which some are further broken down into sub-dimensions. To assess the different NBS governance dimensions, we developed a tool in the format of a survey for urban decision-makers and other stakeholders, encompassing nine urban NBS governance indicators corresponding with the identified dimensions. Further to complementing NBS governance assessment approaches in important ways, we were able to highlight knowledge gaps around
integrating features of the planning process and community-based or traditional knowledge. Our tool for monitoring urban NBS governance is simple to use and provides cities with a low-cost and comprehensive approach for monitoring and evaluating their readiness for mainstreaming NBS.
... This issue of scale and connectivity also needs to be considered in the context of cumulative effects, thereby addressing the larger question of whether ecosystem services of altered landscapes, even if they are managed through an NbS design, are sufficient to respond to a larger context of changing landscape/ecosystem. Raymond et al. (2017b) concluded that the spatial and temporal dimensions of NbS impacts remained poorly considered and were an important direction for future research, while Sowińska-Świerkosz and Garcia (2021) noted that it is necessary to consider NbS-oriented solutions in a local, regional or national context to select an appropriate intervention that matches the scale of the problem. In their review of modeling approaches for NbS Kumar et al. (2021) felt that the SWMM model can be an effective tool in evaluating the performance and efficacy of a range of NbS designs for flood mitigation, much as was done in our current study. ...
... In their review of modeling approaches for NbS Kumar et al. (2021) felt that the SWMM model can be an effective tool in evaluating the performance and efficacy of a range of NbS designs for flood mitigation, much as was done in our current study. As noted previously, the advantage of PCSWMM is that it is capable of scaling up or scaling down to consider the geographic dimensions discussed by Raymond et al. (2017b) and Sowińska-Świerkosz and Garcia (2022). Irvine et al. (2022b) emphasized the importance of connectivity in their development of Smart City designs for a peri-urban area of Pathum Thani, Thailand; connectivity of water movement, habitats for biodiversity, and community flow lines for smart mobility. ...
Nature-based Solution (NbS) designs increasingly are being implemented to reduce environmental impacts of urban development and enhance community resiliency to disruptions ranging from floods to climate change to Covid-19. But, the question remains, how do we assess the ecosystem service benefits provided by competing NbS designs in order to optimize such benefits? As such, the objective of this study was to develop and trial an assessment approach for the valuation of ecosystem services in a peri-urban area of Bangkok, Thailand. In our evaluations we considered the ecosystem service benefits of: i) water yield; ii) sediment yield; iii) nutrient yield; iv) carbon sequestration; v) urban heat island mitigation; vi) crop production; vii) habitat quality; and viii) aesthetics. Our ecosystem services valuation approach was tested using three case studies in peri-urban Bangkok, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani: i) an existing new single detached housing development in the area; ii) an area in its currently undeveloped, open and scrub forest state; and iii) the same area as (ii), but theoretically developed using an Agrihood design concept. The valuation approach included a combination of mathematical modeling for the water, sediment, and nutrient yield ecosystem services and an empirical, data-driven approach for urban cooling, carbon sequestering, crop production, habitat quality, and aesthetics. While the existing housing development design was meant to be relatively green and nature-oriented, the Agrihood design outperformed it in every ecosystem service category, including habitat quality and aesthetics. The Agrihood design also had lower sediment and nutrient yields and mean concentrations as compared to current (natural) conditions at the site, which is attributed to the inclusion of constructed wetlands in the design for the main drainage canal. This work represents a good preliminary step in establishing a local scale ecosystem services valuation framework for urban areas in a tropical climate, but additional refinements to the indicator determinations are needed.
... societal challenges), and therefore, still searching for its place under different policies and regulations. NBS aims to address challenges associated with climate resilience, health and well-being in urban areas (IUCN 2012;Cohen-Schacham et al. 2016), integrating established ecosystem-based approaches, such as biodiversity, ecosystem services (ES), green infrastructure (GI) etc., and aiming in broadening them, in order to holistically tackle issues of environmental, economic and social nature in building resilience (Raymond et al. 2017a(Raymond et al. , 2017b(Raymond et al. , 2017c. Within European Research and Innovation (R&I) programmes, e.g. ...
... Another issue related to the relatively new concepts of NBS and Circular Cities is identified in the persisting challenges of the costs and benefits of circularity methods in cities (Raymond et al. 2017a(Raymond et al. , 2017b(Raymond et al. , 2017c. Although the costs of the shift are tangible and measurable, the burden of proof on the short-term benefits of NBS is still on the proponents. ...
... A notable example is represented by the European Union actions towards sustainable growth for Europe 2020 and EU Biodiversity (COM 2011) and Green Infrastructure (COM 2013) strategies. Furthermore, the European Union Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment (COM 2005) recognizes that it is in urban areas that the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy come together most strongly (Raymond et al. 2017a(Raymond et al. , 2017b(Raymond et al. , 2017c. Therefore, NBS are directly relevant to several policy areas and through their systemic nature they interact with many others (land use, planning etc.). ...
This book comprises six chapters prepared by the COST Action Circular City (https://circular-city.eu/). The Action aims to establish a network of researchers and stakeholders testing the hypothesis that: ‘A circular flow system that implements nature-based solutions (NBS) for managing nutrients and resources within the urban biosphere will lead to a resilient, sustainable and healthy urban environment.’ They are the starting point towards deeper exploration of how NBS can contribute to circular cities, gathering state-of-the-art knowledge of one of the biggest COST Actions so far.
In Focus–a book series that showcases the latest accomplishments in water research. Each book focuses on a specialist area with papers from top experts in the field. It aims to be a vehicle for in-depth understanding and inspire further conversations in the sector.
... Furthermore, 62% of these areas show multiple challenges simultaneously, particularly with the AIR-CLIM group (i.e., challenges of air quality and climate adaptation and mitigation occurring simultaneously), which occupies the greatest relative surface both on impervious and permeable non-forested land covers (Figure 2). These results are in line with the previous literature showing the relationship between sealed surfaces and the interaction of air pollutants and thermal discomfort [67][68][69]. From an urban planning perspective, these results offer the following insights: (i) the need to consider the multiple challenges to tackle as a key criterion to improve the NBS cost-effectiveness and (ii) NBS research and implementation need to strengthen their focus on impervious surfaces. ...
Worldwide, national governments and private organizations are increasingly investing in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to foster both human well-being and biodiversity while achieving climate and environmental targets. Yet, investments in NBS remain uncoordinated among planning levels, their co-benefits underestimated, and their effectiveness undermined. This study aims to provide a spatially explicit approach to optimize the budget allocation for NBS implementation across Italian urban areas while maximizing their effectiveness in terms of environmental health. We explored three different NBS implementation scenarios oriented to (i) maximize the Ecosystem Services supply of NBS (Scenario BP), (ii) minimize costs of NBS (Scenario LC), and (iii) maximize Ecosystem Services supply of NBS at the lowest cost (Scenario CP). Once selected, we prioritized their allocation through the territory following an environmental risk index for population, and we explored the relationship between costs and effectiveness for the three scenarios. The implementation of Scenario BP costs EUR 777 billion while showing 31 billion of effectiveness. Scenario LC costs 70% less than scenario BP (EUR 206 billion) while losing 70% of its effectiveness. Scenario CP costs 60% less than Scenario BP (EUR 301 billion), offering just 20% less effectiveness. Our results show that employing the risk index for NBS allocation would allow for reducing the surface of interventions by saving 67% of the budget in the three scenarios with a negligible loss in terms of return for human health. The here-proposed approach can guide the national funds’ allocation system, improving its cost-effectiveness and equitableness.
... In a workshop with seven experts involved in the project, we decided that the Urban Challenges framework, from Eklipse project, would be a good starting point to define the indicators, since the intention was to address as many aspects as possible in a city. From these urban challenges, 10 indicators were based on the Eklipse's recommendations [27] and were adapted to the possibilities and requirements of Tygron platform ( Table 2 & Supplementary material 1). ...
Serious games have been proposed by several studies as a tool to foster civic participatory processes. However, such an endeavour is often prone to failure due to lack of funding or lack of skills on designing serious games. In response to this problem, this paper provides a novel framework for the design of serious games for participatory planning of nature-based solutions, which provides guidance for the definition, content, and evaluation steps. The usefulness of the framework is illustrated with the design of the Edible City Game (ECG), a digital serious game for participatory planning of edible city solutions (urban nature-based solutions with a food component). The designed ECG was then implemented in Tygron, a platform which provides a graphical interface for serious games for urban planning. However, although Tygron provides a user-friendly software to design serious games, our thesis is that the final product still needs a proper design-oriented process to fulfil its purpose. We believe that this framework, as well as our experience using the Tygron platform, can be of great utility to both researchers and practitioners that have considered using serious games in their projects but discarded the idea because of the foreseen resource intensity of the endeavour.
... Many papers in this and other journals, as well as large numbers of reports, websites, and books, have outlined and discussed the potential of nature-based solutions to address societal challenges, while simultaneously creating the potential for economic, environmental, and economic co-benefits, especially in relation to building urban resilience [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Indeed, complex biodiverse ecosystems, including cities, can supply or even augment the ecosystem services necessary for high quality of life and the creation of sustainable and resilient environments [7,8]. ...
... Although this may raise awareness of NBS, it suggests the concept is more closely associated with weak sustainability. This is further illustrated by the development of the EKLIPSE framework (Raymond, Pam, et al., 2017), which places environmental, social, and economic dimensions on equal footing. The framework is influential in the EU because the EC requires cities to use it when monitoring the benefits of NBS in all its funded demonstration projects (Section 3.1). ...
... Most of the existing policy-relevant documents call for co-production and meaningful community engagement in the design and delivery of NBS. For example, the EKLIPSE Framework (Raymond, Frantzeskaki, et al., 2017;Raymond, Pam, et al., 2017) used in the EU emphasises the importance of co-creation, knowledge co-production, community engagement, and socially inclusive NBS, among other principles. The global NBS standard links democratic governance (Criterion 5) with co-production in its indicators (IUCN, 2020). ...
... All projects, including the Urban GreenUP project, funded under the EU Horizon 2020 programme, are required to use the NBS framework developed by EKLIPSE to monitor the impacts of various interventions. This document outlines possible benefits across ten challenge areas that can be monitored for impacts (Raymond, Frantzeskaki, et al., 2017;Raymond, Pam, et al., 2017): The focus of all challenge areas is on the benefits directly provided to humans, even for those that are ostensibly environmentally focused (e.g., air quality improvements provide human well-being benefits). Strong sustainability was thus not a major focus, with efforts focused on implementing a series of specific interventions and measuring their impact on key performance indicators (Urban GreenUP, 2019). ...
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are proposed as a comprehensive approach to addressing a wide range of social, economic, and ecological problems in cities, featuring centrally in international policy as well as in many national and sub-national discourses. There is hope that NBS can address a wide range of societal challenges whilst also ameliorating the crisis of confidence in democracy, focusing on tailored solutions that are ‘co-produced’ and ‘co-designed’ with the communities who will benefit from them. NBS also offer a new way to frame urban greening efforts; one that is economically efficient and politically palatable. This chapter explores two key promises of NBS to achieve sustainable urban transformations: (1) that they offer democratic solutions to sustainability crises in urban areas, and (2) that NBS interventions offer innovative solutions to these crises. In doing so, the chapter reveals a mismatch between the ways NBS are framed as potential solutions to both material and existential sustainability challenges, and the reality of how NBS are implemented in practice. Their promise as a means of addressing environmental and socio-economic transformation is discussed in general and with respect to a particular case study, Urban GreenUP. The ways in which NBS are seen as technical solutions with measurable physical impacts, rather than as a new way to plan and develop cities, are found to stultify progress in using NBS to address society’s greatest challenges. Ultimately, this analysis finds that the transformative potential of NBS requires that cities be treated not just as living laboratories where new ideas can be tested, but that these new ideas need to be more than engineering advancements or novel demonstration projects. A more ambitious scope for NBS implementation would push the boundaries of how decisions are made, require a re-consideration of patterns of development, and significantly increase the scale of greening interventions.
... Therefore, integrating pro-active retrofit measures into urban regeneration projects appears to be a sound and effective strategy to implement effective climate change measures (Zevenbergen et al., 2008a). Raymond et al. (2017) suggests national-based solutions (NBS) impact assessment framework for different sectors. Urban regeneration, as one of these sectors, is regarded as an activity that can have positive impacts on the environment through NBS. ...
... Thus, these actions can be adapted to urban regeneration actions that aim to integrate climate measures. • Source: own compilation based on Raymond et al. (2017) Considering the integration of climate change issues into urban regeneration in Korea, Wang (2013) highlights the absence of institutional foundations to incorporate climate change measures in urban regeneration. Wang (2013) provides suggestions for the government to establish institutional systems to integrate spatial planning, urban regeneration, and environmental planning. ...
Urban regeneration plays a significant role in the creation of climate-friendly urban areas. Urban regeneration strategies such as (1) the creation of open spaces and green infrastructure, (2) the effective use of inner-city land, (3) changes in land-use structure and elements through regeneration of inner-city areas, and (4) changes in building stock through retrofitting existing buildings and the construction of green buildings can all help with climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Many cities throughout the world have enacted urban regeneration policies, plans, and programmes, highlighting the significance of implementing climate measures into urban regeneration policies and initiatives at the supranational, national, regional, and municipal levels. The government of the Republic of Korea has made urban regeneration a primary priority, investing a significant amount of public funds in the process. Korea's urban regeneration initiative has made tremendous progress, with projects in numerous cities around the country currently underway. However, Korea's urban regeneration rarely takes up the opportunities to incorporate climate measures into its policy and plans. As a result of these fragmented policy approaches, both urban regeneration and climate change policies may become inefficient in terms of inefficient budget execution and staff management. Although recent Korean studies have emphasised the significance of incorporating climate change measures into urban regeneration areas, these studies do not provide empirical evidence of specific institutional hurdles and only provide a limited amount of recommendations for successful climate policy integration in urban regeneration policies and plans. According to the literature on environmental policy integration and climate mainstreaming in worldwide academic discussion, there is a lack of empirical information on the factors that influence policy implementation phases. Identification of variables influencing the integration of climate change policies into urban regeneration—at both the policy development and implementation stages—is crucial to understanding effective climate policy integration in this policy domain. The goals of this dissertation are to (1) investigate the current urban regeneration process and how it incorporates climate measures, (2) identify the relevant internal and external factors that influence the integration of climate measures into urban regeneration policy during the policy development and implementation stages, and (3) identify implementation gaps in the integration of climate measures into urban regeneration projects during the policy development and implementation stages. This study develops a conceptual framework based on earlier studies that examine (1) the assessment of climate policy integration levels and (2) the factors that influence climate policy integration across policy domains. This dissertation takes a qualitative case study method, integrating content analysis, process tracing, and document analysis with data from semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholder representatives, as well as a collection of relevant documents. Seoul was chosen as the case study area because it is a densely populated city with active urban regeneration and climate change policies. The case study provides empirical evidence of relevant factors for the climate policy integration in urban regeneration for cities that are pursuing successful integration of climate measures into urban regeneration policy. Throughout the policy cycle, this study gives a detailed list of internal and external factors that influence the incorporation of climate measures into urban regeneration. Political factors, organisational factors, and resources are critical factors in both policy development and policy implementation, as previous studies have shown. However, in the policy development and policy implementation stages, this dissertation studies more detailed aspects within these categories and examines them closely by categorising them into internal and external factors. According to existing research in this field, implementation gaps are caused by a lack of sustained political support and cooperation among key stakeholders, rather than a lack of knowledge or financial resources. Other factors related to implementation gaps, such as (1) a lack/absence of information about climate measures, (2) residents' pecuniary focus, (3) public awareness and support, and (4) spatial issues such as lack of facilities/spaces for adopting climate measures, are all significant impacts in the case study of Seoul. This study suggests that sharing information and research about the effectiveness of climate measures is a good place to start when it comes to improving the level of climate policy integration in urban regeneration policies; urban regeneration stakeholders should have enough information on potential climate measure strategies that can be integrated into urban regeneration projects, as well as the benefits of doing so for the neighbourhood (e.g. climate-related businesses which support community cooperation and profit generation, community-based climate activities, and more diverse ways of measuring the success of climate measures in order to educate the public better).
... Engineered solutions often cannot reinstate the natural habitat and geomorphological properties of the river, and these objectives have been largely ignored (Birnie-Gauvin et al., 2019). Therefore, a shift from merely designing a hydraulic solution to providing a more ecological solution has been recognized as the most efficient approach (EEA European Environment Agency, 2018;IUCN, 2020;Raymond et al., 2017). ...
The study presents several steps of a fish ramp geometry optimization performed with a 3D numerical model DualSPHysics, which is based on the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. The optimization process led to the design of a bottom ramp that is capable of providing suitable conditions for the migration of target fish species (Salmo truta, Phoxinus phoxinus, Cottus gobio, and Eudontomyzon vladykovi). Migration routes were determined as complex 3D volumes of fluid according to the simulated velocity field in various steady flow conditions. Including three categories of potential migration zones (rest, effort, and limit zones), migration routes were quantified in high detail in terms of the size and position of each zone, and in terms of the distance from a given fluid part to the nearest rest zone. The interdisciplinary approach of this study also led to the development of new tools for the DualSPHysics model, specifically suited to improve functionality in eco-hydraulics research.
... For the differentiation of the spatial scale, on which the impacts of NbS were evaluated, together with the type of NbS adopted and the dimension (micro, meso, or macro) in which it is implemented, and respecting the classification shown in Table 2, the following scenarios were established: (1) district or neighbourhood; (2) regional, metropolitan, or urban; and (3) street, plot, or building. Regarding the categorization of the different urban ecosystem services and multiple benefits in the implementation of NbS actions, when not made available by the program, this factor was evaluated according to the EC manuals published by and available from the "Publications Office of the European Union" [50][51][52]. ...
Currently, the world is facing resource scarcity as the environmental impacts of human intervention continue to intensify. To facilitate the conservation and recovery of ecosystems and to transform cities into more sustainable, intelligent, regenerative, and resilient environments, the concepts of circularity and nature-based solutions (NbS) are applied. The role of NbS within green infrastructure in urban resilience is recognised, and considerable efforts are being made by the European Commission (EC) to achieve the European sustainability goals. However, it is not fully evidenced, in an integrated way, which are the main NbS implemented in the urban environment and their effects. This article aims to identify the main and most recent NbS applied in urban environments at the European level and to analyse the integration of different measures as an innovative analysis based on real cases. For this purpose, this work presents a literature review of 69 projects implemented in 24 European cities, as well as 8 urban actions and 3 spatial scales of implementation at the district level. Therefore, there is great potential for NbS adoption in buildings and their surroundings, which are still not prioritized, given the lack of effective monitoring of the effects of NbS.
