Planning nature-based solutions: Principles, steps, and insights

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Christian Albert
  • Mario Brillinger
  • Paulina Guerrero
  • Sarah Gottwald
  • Jennifer Henze
  • Stefan Schmidt
  • Edward Ott
  • Barbara Schröter
Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning: Co-define setting, Understand challenges, Create visions and scenarios, Assess potential impacts, Develop solution strategies, and Realize and monitor. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely Place-specificity, Evidence base, Integration, Equity, and Transdisciplinarity. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAmbio
Volume50
Issue number8
Pages (from-to)1446-1461
Number of pages16
ISSN0044-7447
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.08.2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Open Access funding provided by Projekt DEAL. The work was realized by the PlanSmart Research Group funded by Grant 01UU1601A and B from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung—BMBF). This article contributes to the Global Land Project (GLP) Science Plan on the Theme of Land Governance and to The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS). We thank our partners from the LiLa-Project and all workshop participants for the successful cooperation. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for the insightful comments. We are grateful to Birgit Böhm from Mensch und Region and her team who provided guidance in the preparation of and served as facilitator during the workshops, and to Camila Jérico-Daminello and Sebastian Scheuer for their involvement in some of the workshops. We thank Metronom - Agentur für Kommunikation und Design for support in developing the graphics. We also thank all of our student assistants, for the contents of this paper especially Jana Brenner, Rodrigo Caracciolo Martins and Ilka Beith, for their dedicated research support.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Ecosystem services, Environmental planning, Framework, Lahn river, Landscape planning, Spatial planning
  • Biology
  • Ecosystems Research