Nature-based Solutions

Working with nature to create climate-resilient and nature-positive landscapes

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) harness the power of healthy ecosystems to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Rather than relying primarily on rigid sensible and often monofunctional grey infrastructure, NbS protect, restore, and enhance ecosystems to deliver long-term benefits for people, biodiversity, and essential ecosystem functions such as climate regulation and water security. As a nature-positive approach, NbS aim not only to reduce environmental impacts but also to regenerate ecosystems, strengthen ecosystem resilience, and enhance natural capital.

At the Research Group Landscape Planning, we place a particular emphasis on blue Nature-based Solutions, recognizing water as a key driver of resilient landscapes. Our research investigates how rivers, wetlands, floodplains, lagoons, coastal ecosystems, and catchment-scale hydrological processes can be restored and managed to reduce the risks of floods, droughts, and water-borne pollution while improving water security, biodiversity, and ecosystem functioning.

By adopting a catchment-scale perspective, we develop innovative planning strategies that strengthen natural water retention, reconnect hydrological and ecological processes, and build resilience across interconnected landscapes. Recognizing that healthy catchments depend on the interactions between forests, agricultural lands, rivers, wetlands, floodplains, and coastal ecosystems, we promote integrated, nature-based approaches that enhance water security, reduce climate-related hazards, and restore ecosystem functions across the entire landscape. In doing so, we contribute to a nature-positive transformation by creating multifunctional landscapes that safeguard biodiversity and support healthy human and more-than-human communities.