Nature-based solutions and water security

This helpdesk report highlights some of the best practice examples of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for water security and examines the implementation challenges and lessons learned. Best practice examples of nature-based solutions include: water for agriculture; source water protection and water funds and urban green infrastructure. The report argues that combining green and grey infrastructure can improve storage and supply, lower costs, produce more resilient services, enhance system performance and better protect communities. On the other hand, the author underlines that scaling-up NbS faces the following implementation challenges: finance; scale and context; equity; stakeholder engagement and gaps in technical guidance. In addition, there is a high degree of variation in how ecosystems impact on hydrology. Consequently, site-specific knowledge will be important in implementing NbS