Nature-Based Solutions For Our Nature-Positive Journey

The term “nature-based solutions” is relatively new to the industry, but its concept is not. Quite simply, it’s working with nature – from the plants, bacteria and fungi to the scale of the ecosystem – to solve social and economic issues.

By using nature-based solutions, we can protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems in ways that address societal challenges effectively to benefit both people and biodiversity. 

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are the benefits that flow from healthy ecosystems and target significant challenges, such as climate change, natural disaster risk reduction, food and water security, biodiversity loss, and are critical to sustainable economic development.

Nature-based solutions are highly adaptable and resilient to changing environmental conditions that may occur due to climate change and can outperform traditional hardened counterparts.

When we work to protect communities from flooding, as an example, there is an opportunity to look at it through a broader lens of how we can work with nature. We can adapt and modify traditional solutions to turn more grey into green by replacing hard infrastructure with a greener environment that offers ecological and societal co-benefits and helps combat flooding, erosion, extreme temperatures, and restores biodiversity.

Nature-based solutions vary with each situation. Remediation teams collaborate with ecologists and biologists early in the process to establish a design that sets the end ecological uplift as a focal point, creating a design that embed nature-based solutions. By treating a brownfield, for example, we can make it productive for other uses, such as a park that incorporates landscaping, which reduces the heat island effect, serves as a pollinator habitat, manages stormwater, and captures carbon.

After Superstorm Sandy, WSP helped design and implement the Living Breakwaters project to protect Staten Island (NY, USA) from wave energy as well as rebuild the local oyster population by providing habitat within the bay’s rich marine ecosystem. Constructed from partially submerged structures built of stone and ecologically-enhanced concrete units, the structure provides tiny nooks and crannies for marine life to latch onto and grow.

The consultants’ traditional toolbox of solutions is still applicable, but we must look for options that soften the edges. Development of new infrastructure is needed to meet the needs of our society and adapt to climate change but we must progress in a way that sustains our future. NbS will help us make resilient communities, infrastructure that is able to adapt to a changing climate and retore nature. This is vital in the context of climate change and the very real risk of large-scale ecological collapse.   

Another example is the 12-mile segment of Highway 98 – a key hurricane evacuation route that traverses Apalachicola Bay on the Florida (US) panhandle and lies directly beside the water’s edge. Wave energy, rising tides, and severe storms make this stretch of shoreline and the adjacent roadway infrastructure vulnerable to chronic erosion. The Highway Franklin 98 project used a nature-based strategy to mitigate erosion and protect this hurricane evacuation route and the environment.

Digital technologies, or 3D modelling, are an efficient visual tool to show how the solutions work for stakeholder engagement to foster buy-in. For the Highway 98 project, models were utilized to show how vulnerable the highway currently is to storm surges, as well as illustrate the improved conditions with the project. The result was a clear visualization of how the velocities and the power of the water forces were reduced as it washed over the reef balls.

We talk about nature-based solutions for climate change, but it’s not just about climate change – it’s about getting the benefits that support healthy ecosystems. This is crucial! Miss-applied nature-based solutions, such as tree planting, could potentially have a negative impact on flood risk. It’s imperative that we asses and identify the impact on biodiversity. 

For example, planting native trees  will often grow slower and absorb carbon more slowly than some non native species, but will provide other benefits, such as creating green spaces for the health and well-being of people. Alternatively, non-native eucalyptus or conifer plantations could be planted to absorb carbon quickly but have other issues that can negatively impact water or soil quality and biodiversity.

Any time we build anything, we impact its surrounding. So, to assess and implement the net gains for the environment at a project scale, WSP built a NATURE Tool that clarifies what will happen if nature is no longer there and what happens if it is. This open-sourced tool will help make future land use more sustainable and help the built environment sector play a more positive role by becoming a net contributor to tackling environmental issues.

For any project, it’s vital to understand the process or risk you’re trying to manage and then align the correct solution. This is a good time to think differently about solving problems and how we can do our jobs differently for less negative and more positive impact on the earth. 

Nature-based solutions are not new, and we know we need to take the natural environment into account. Now businesses are starting to see this hit their bottom line and recognizing the risk associated.  The thirst for NbS could increase as they can be a more cost-effective approach to addressing a range of social and environmental challenges. 

Businesses are more receptive today, and there’s a massive shift in how governments, investors, stakeholders, and businesses view nature. We need to shift how we all see nature-based solutions to achieve our business and ESG goals. 

The companies that don't take this seriously are going to be the ones that fail over the coming decades because they're simply ignoring risks to their own business and to the planet. These risks are interrelated.

At WSP, we are clear about designing places that are climate resilient, nature positive and future-ready, and support our people – a powerful and important mission for our planet.