Method

Resilience to climate change creates challenges at urban and regional level. The increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events (e.g., floods, heat and cold waves, storms), as well as other associated events (e.g., forest fires) and slow-onset trends (e.g., sea-level rise, glacier melt, droughts), result in compounded and cascading risks. These will impact regions across Europe (and other areas across the world), especially those that are most vulnerable either because of their location or because of their socioeconomic characteristics. Thus, the necessity for adaptation and mitigation solutions and responses, needs to incorporate nature as one of the key solutions as ecosystem-based adaptation towards systemic solutions. It can be boosted when supported by (smart) technological innovations, and also faster thanks to societal and economic/financial solutions to ensure climate resilient development across our regions and local communities.

NBS are solutions inspired by nature that are proven to be increasingly efficient in alleviating the impacts from climate related hazards, and are singled out in the EU adaptation strategy as a key component of systemic adaptation, although the suitable types of NBS vary, according to the challenges faced in each bio-geographical region. NATALIE aims to transform, implement, and test 18 NBS among the 8 Case studies.

As NBS are increasingly implemented (and financed), evidence has already shown that several emerging issues need close attention to unleash full potential of ecosystem-based adaptation and make NBS more effective (and equitable) in enhancing the resilience to climate change.

To name a few of these issues:
NBS need to be accompanied with societal, smart and financial innovative solutions; societal, stakeholder and citizen engagement is often the key to the long-term success and sustainability of NBS, while approaches and methodologies for long-term engagement of stakeholders and (chiefly) citizens are not always successful and need improvement; larger planning and systemic solution at regional level; their continuous monitoring and evaluation (in terms of effectiveness and cost-benefit analysis) are still an open issue, NBS need to be considered in early stages of urban or regional planning and project design (i.e., pre-feasibility stage) and compared to conventional grey solutions, using credible tools and approaches; and More evidence is needed in terms of the effectiveness in terms of impacts now and in the future in terms of resilience in view of climate change at both urban and regional levels.

Thus, in NATALIE these become the 6 Levers for systemic impact driven ecosystem-based adaptation for climate resilient development, where we have targeted an Innovation Package for regions spanning most of the bio-geological regions in the EU.

Integration of local knowledge for the co-creation of solutions adapted to each DS is conducted in the transformation labs. This is the purpose of these labs, i.e. to mobilize local knowledge and involve all local actors in a co-creation process. Solutions that are co-created and co-designed have the best chances of being implemented in the field and being embraced by all stakeholders, which is the only way to bring about transformative change and contribute towards a just transition and climate resilience.

Booster Pack of 25 solutions to help mainstream the adoption of NBS for climate change adaptation at regional or  community level, with a three-step concept:

Step 1: NBS on the ground: biophysical and socio-economic context
First, NATALIE has the benefit of 8 DSs and 4 FLs, serving as our testing sites, to speed up the development of our Booster Pack of 25 solutions.
All DSs and FLs are exposed and vulnerable to key climate change hazards like floods, droughts, heatwaves, world spells, storm surges and wildfires. This will ensure the value added to other EU regions from our findings. Here we will bring nature into the innovation helix, with academia, industry, SMEs, government, and society in an innovation ecosystem focused on Innovation Packages for the regions with concrete NBS measures boosted with our 25 solutions In line with the focus of Horizon Europe and the EU Climate Pact, we will give a special attention to citizen science and the engagement of citizens and communities in our innovation ecosystem, to really understand the socioeconomic impacts of our solutions, particularly when considering current pressures from urbanization, population and economic trends.

Step 2: Multiple NBS purposes: assessment of impact on adaptation, mitigation and society
Second, we will bring our 6 Levers into action, to take these risks into opportunities for deep transformative solutions, through ecosystem based adaptation. Our transformation labs are grounded on stakeholder engagement and co-creation of solutions, at the pre-feasibility stage, but also on the clear monitoring and modelling of the impacts from NBS on adaptation and mitigation, while we keep on track with climate resilient development in our 12 CS (DS and FL) regions. Here we will put value in nature with adequate financing asset valuation tools, and strong social engagement to monitor societal impact. We will be especially mindful of the commitments for effort sharing in our 12 CS (DS and FL) towards meeting the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 °C, and of how nature is critical to meet this objective.