NBS for flood management
Nature based solutions for flood management
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) described nature-based solutions (NBS) as ‘actions that protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems, to address societal challenges such as climate change, human health, food and water security, and disaster risk reduction, whilst simultaneously benefiting human well-being and biodiversity’[1].
Regional and Unitary Councils across New Zealand are increasingly looking at options to incorporate NBS into flood mitigation designs. At the current time, funding for 21 flood mitigation studies has been provided by The Ministry for the Environment (MfE) across 15 Regional and Unitary Councils. The studies will utilise numerical models to assess the potential benefits of incorporating NBS into their project designs.
Given the extent of interest and potential investment in using NBS, there is a risk of duplication of effort across Regional government. This duplication could occur when evaluating the contribution of NBS to improved flood resilience as well as their co-benefits such as environmental, social and economic outcomes. To improve the cost efficiency of the current projects as well as those in the future, Regional and Unitary councils came together to look at the establishing a common, widely available background literature review to help guide decision making.
A steering group was formed and support was provided by an Envirolink Advice Grant (2419) to contract NIWA to undertake the work. Alastair Clement, Senior Scientist Rivers and Coast of Tasman District Council (TSDC), led the Envirolink Advice Grant application on behalf of the steering group.
The report focused on two key areas:
- a review of current national and international literature on the use of NBS in flood mitigation and management, and
- a review of existing guidance and case studies for how such measures may be implemented in New Zealand.
Flowchart of decision processes needed in planning NBS for flood mitigation (Report Fig. 6)
Alastair says “the work is now being picked up by those leading the individual projects across the country. As a group we are now looking at our next step and aspire to come together once many of the projects are completed and see what we can learn”. Alastair explains that TSDC is directly using the guidance in the report to feed into their feasibility study of NBS for flood mitigation in the Motueka catchment.
[1] IUCN (2020) Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions. A user-friendly framework for the verification, design and scaling up of NbS. First edition. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.
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