Author(s): Multiple authors
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Hydrolink; Nature-based solutions; Flood resilience; Stakeholder engagement; Biodiversity impact; Interdisciplinary monitoring
Abstract:
This edition comprises of six articles, five of which focus on their use in wetland, riverine and coastal settings, and illustrate their potential effectiveness to provide flood and drought resilience to communities while providing a plethora of other environmental and societal benefits. The examples given in these articles show that care needs to be given to good monitoring and modelling for a sound understanding of the functioning of these measures under a wide variety of hydro-meteorological events. An essential ingredient of what makes a scheme successful is the involvement of all stakeholders in its co-design and adoption. The sixth and final article focuses on the role and benefits of community involvement in a scheme in South-West Uganda for managing drought and providing food security in agricultural production. One thing we, as a community of researchers and practicing engineers can further improve on is a wider more integrated assessment of all types of proposed measures, both green and grey, on their impact on co-benefits such as biodiversity, water quality, socio-economic aspects, and human well-being. Even in the stories in this Hydrolink we notice this is still frequently lacking. Furthermore, monitoring and evaluating all aspects of NbS and grey measures is challenging and requires interdisciplinary teams, yet this should not keep us from doing it, as working together will bring a greater breadth of view. For instance, considering biodiversity and human well-being impacts will make NbS schemes more desirable compared to the current practice where civil engineering measures are typically optimized based on one goal, which is the avoided damages.
Year: 2025
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