Diagnosing delivery capabilities on a large international nature-based solutions project

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly at the centre of urban strategies to mitigate heatwaves and flooding, improve public health and restore biodiversity. However, on-ground implementation has been slow, inconsistent and often limited to demonstration sites. A broad literature consistently highlights institutional barriers as a major reason for the observed implementation gap. In this study, we developed and deployed an assessment tool to identify barriers to NBS delivery on a European Commission Horizon 2020 project spanning seven cities. We found that practitioners were effectively navigating challenges in the areas where they had significant control, including community engagement, strategy development and technical skills. The greatest barriers were outside the influence of project teams: understaffing, a lack of intra-organisational processes, and risk-averse organisational cultures. These findings emphasise that after cities embrace NBS at the strategic and political level, it is vital that executives follow through with the necessary pragmatic reforms to enable delivery.

Strategies for mainstreaming nature-based solutions in urban planning in ten European cities

“…The mainstreaming strategies demonstrate how NBS were integrated in urban planning across ten European cities by investing in and developing diverse governance conditions manifesting new capacities for the implementation of systemic, inclusive, and adaptive NBS. They speci cally address policymakers and planners of city governments that continue to play key roles in implementing NBS 14,17 .…”

“…The lockdown experience during the COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the bene ts of green and open spaces for mental and physical health and wellbeing 11,12,13 . Nonetheless, the on-the-ground implementation of NBS lags behind ambitions, often remaining limited to isolated pilots of innovation, and without attention to long-term management and maintenance 14,15,16,17 .…”

Engineering nature-based solutions: examining the barriers to effective intervention

“…This has been supported by academic knowledge of engagement and evaluative techniques to generate biophysical and socio-economic data for examination. The combination of public, environmental and academic expertise has facilitated a more directed approach to investment and monitoring than if one partner has been solely responsible for the project (Cohen-Shacham et al, 2019;Croeser et al, 2021). Best practice from Liverpool, and other EU-funded HO2020 NBS projects, represents an effective step towards this, but further evidence and piloting of NBS is needed to integrate urban nature fully in mainstream urban planning practice (Dumitru et al, 2020).…”

Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological integration

“…In such cases, collaboration and information exchange between different stakeholders is key for NbS viability and upscaling (Tzoulas et al 2021;Venter et al 2021;Wickenberg et al 2021). Thus, overcoming limitations imposed by sectoral, comparatively narrow, and often actor-specific processes is essential to support NbS implementation, as well as for building resilience around NbS management (Croeser et al 2021;Lin et al 2021). To overcome this, we hypothesize that social-ecologically framed and informed technology can serve as an instrumental link, enabling alternative, accessible and feasible pathways that support a more equitable urban system.…”