Using Geodesign as a boundary management process for planning nature-based solutions in river landscapes

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Authors

Planning with nature-based solutions (NBS) presents a participatory approach that harnesses actions supported by nature to address societal challenges. Whilst Geodesign may facilitate participatory planning, manage boundaries between participants, and assess impacts of NBS, empirical insights remain scarce. This paper aims to develop and test a Geodesign process for planning with NBS, and to evaluate its contributions to boundary management. In a one-day Geodesign process, eleven stakeholders delineated priority areas, changed land uses, and observed resulting impacts on ecosystem services. Contributions to boundary management were evaluated regarding translation, communication and mediation functions, as well as perceived attributions of credibility, salience, and legitimacy. Results include spatial NBS scenarios and insights into contributions to boundary management: translating scenario stories into maps differed depending on the stakeholders involved; communication can be easily facilitated; yet mediation using an indicator tool led to frustration. Geodesign can indeed facilitate NBS co-design but needs to be integrated into a larger collaborative process.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAmbio
Volume50
Issue number8
Pages (from-to)1477-1496
Number of pages20
ISSN0044-7447
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.08.2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank all workshop participants of the LiLa project for their engagement and fruitful discussion. Further, we would like to thank Birgit B?hm from the MenschUmwelt consultancy for professional facilitation of the workshop. Funding was provided by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research Bundesministerium f?r Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) through a grant for the PlanSmart research group (funding code: 01UU1601A).

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

    Research areas

  • Freshwater, Land use change, Participatory mapping, Planning support tool, River management, Touch table
  • Environmental planning