Global S&T Development Trend Analysis Platform of Resources and Environment
Working with Nature to reduce climate risk in Europe | |
admin | |
2020-01-22 | |
发布年 | 2020 |
语种 | 英语 |
国家 | 国际 |
领域 | 资源环境 |
正文(英文) | New WWF report outlines how investing in Nature-based Solutions can build resilience in the face of increasing water risks across the continent
Climate change is the greatest threat to the future of our societies and economies. All the science points to worsening risks from extreme floods, droughts, melting glaciers and rising sea levels. But the climate crisis is not just a future threat. Climate change is already affecting water resources and exacerbating water-related risks across the globe, with impacts being felt by communities, corporations and countries.In Europe, these rising risks are occurring on a landscape that has already been dramatically altered by people – including in ways that exacerbate these challenges, such as the loss of floodplains, channeling of rivers and rampant coastal development. All of these changes are part of a widespread loss of ecosystems and biodiversity on the continent, including the destruction of 56 per cent of its natural wetlands. Increasingly, it seems as if the forces of nature are arrayed against our homes, businesses and economies – and that traditional responses can no longer hold back the tide or the floods or the droughts. The answer involves a greater focus on harnessing the power of nature to help increase our resilience and reduce these risks – by investing in Nature-based Solutions (NbS). While we can only tackle Europe’s worsening water-related challenges by employing a diverse range of solutions with a basin perspective and in an integrated way, it is essential to prioritise NbS – solutions that use natural systems or processes to help achieve a societal goal, such as managing water supplies or reducing disaster risk for people. While conventional infrastructure approaches can often cause negative impacts on other resources and values, a hallmark of NBS is that they provide a range of other benefits to people and nature and thus can help tackle today’s other great global crisis – the loss of the biodiversity, including an 83 per cent collapse in freshwater species populations on average since 1970. NbS can also contribute to the achievement of other international objectives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Climate Agreement. Although most of Europe features extensive infrastructure and water-management systems, the continent still confronts a number of water-related challenges that are projected to intensify with climate change. Indeed, economic losses in Europe caused by extreme climate and weather-related events soared to around €14 billion per year between 2000 and 2015. Using NbS to address these challenges can also help restore nature across Europe – boosting efforts to achieve other critical policy objectives, including the attainment of good ecological status for all rivers and other waters under the Water Framework Directive (currently 60 per cent are in bad health) and helping Europe lead the transition to a healthy planet, as outlined in the European Commission’s new Green Deal. Nature-based solutions are key to planning for the following five objectives across Europe:
Along with non-structural measures, such as improved zoning and building codes, there needs to be much greater investment in NbS, which can reduce the impact of extreme floods by slowing runoff (i.e. by protecting natural forests, restoring wetlands and adopting best agricultural practice) and lowering flood levels (i.e. by preserving and restoring floodplains, dike setbacks and floodways), while also helping to restore floodplain ecosystems, which are among the most productive and diverse habitats on the planet. One case study in this report focusses on the Elbe river, which has experienced extreme flooding several times this century despite an array of dikes and floodwalls. Working in the Lödderitzer oak forest, WWF and partners removed the existing dike and built a new one further from the river. Along with restoring around 600 hectares of the most important floodplain habitat in Central Europe, this NbS is expected to reduce flood levels by nearly 30cm for a 100-year flood for 8km upstream of the project site, providing a considerable reduction in flood risk for the city of Aken.
This report details an NbS project in the Netherlands that created new oyster reefs, which reduced erosion rates behind them. Meanwhile, another Dutch project is encouraging the expansion of salt marshes in the Wadden See, which will reduce the need for repetitive dredging of harbours and protect coastal dikes from wave erosion – and create vital habitat for migratory birds and fish.
For example, the city of Milan is designing wetlands and urban gardens to manage runoff and connect people to nature, and a ‘vertical forest’ to showcase sustainable buildings through an EU Programme, Clever Cities, which promotes NbS and is supported by WWF-Italy and partners.
NbS that reduce extreme flooding by increasing natural water retention also help to mitigate droughts as they keep water flowing when the rains fail. In South Africa, another NbS – removing thirstier non-native plants and restoring native vegetation – has been used to improve the water supply, while boosting biodiversity. WWF-South Africa has been implementing this in the Riviersonderend watershed at a cost comparable, or lower, than many other alternatives.
WWF-Finland, with funding from the EU, constructed 30 wetlands in highly agricultural river basins. They were designed to increase water retention, reducing the runoff from fields and erosion of streambanks, and thus cutting the amount of sediment and agricultural nutrients being washed into streams, rivers and the Baltic Sea. As these examples show, Nature-based Solutions have considerable potential to improve land and water management and to reduce water-related risks. But despite the multiple benefits that NbS can provide, currently less than 1 per cent of total investments in water-management infrastructure is allocated toward NbS. European countries and companies must urgently increase investment in NbS to build more resilient societies, economies and ecosystems.
We do not suggest that NbS are the sole solution to water-related challenges, but they should be prioritized because they have the potential to restore some of the losses of the past, while reducing the risks of the future. NbS provide diverse benefits that will help communities, corporations and countries to increase resilience and adapt to climate change, especially when NbS are planned and implemented at a river basin scale and in an integrated way across sectors. Similar to advice on how to be a savvy investor, those managing rising climate risks should strive for a “diversified portfolio approach” that integrates NbS with more conventional solutions. In a warming world, we risk seeing nature’s power as only a threat. By investing in Nature-based solutions, we also get nature’s power on our side |
URL | 查看原文 |
来源平台 | World Wide Fund for Nature |
文献类型 | 新闻 |
条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/227622 |
专题 | 资源环境科学 |
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | admin. Working with Nature to reduce climate risk in Europe. 2020. |
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