What Are Nature-Based Solutions?

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are actions that work with and enhance natural systems to address societal challenges—including climate change, water security, disaster risk, food security, and biodiversity loss. They encompass the protection, restoration, and sustainable management of ecosystems to deliver benefits for both people and nature.

Rather than replacing natural systems with engineered alternatives, nature-based solutions leverage ecosystem functions. Wetlands filter water and absorb floods. Urban forests cool cities and capture stormwater. Coastal marshes buffer storm surge. Healthy soils sequester carbon and retain moisture. These natural processes, properly stewarded, provide services that would otherwise require expensive infrastructure.

The concept has gained prominence as decision-makers recognize that gray infrastructure alone—concrete, steel, pumps, pipes—often falls short. Nature-based solutions complement and sometimes replace conventional approaches, frequently delivering multiple benefits at lower lifecycle cost while supporting biodiversity and community well-being.

Why Nature-Based Solutions Matter for Decision-Makers

The infrastructure challenge is immense. Aging systems require replacement. Climate change demands new capacity. Conventional infrastructure costs continue rising. Budgets don't keep pace. Nature-based solutions offer a different value equation—often lower construction costs, lower maintenance burdens, and multiple co-benefits that conventional infrastructure can't match.

Consider stormwater management. A conventional approach might install underground pipes and detention basins—single-purpose infrastructure requiring ongoing maintenance. A nature-based approach might restore urban wetlands, install green roofs, and expand tree canopy—managing stormwater while also reducing heat island effects, improving air quality, creating habitat, and enhancing neighborhood character. The nature-based approach often costs less while delivering more.

Federal and state funding increasingly prioritizes nature-based solutions. Infrastructure programs include green infrastructure eligibility. Climate adaptation funding emphasizes natural solutions. Grant competitiveness improves when projects incorporate ecosystem benefits.

For foundations and impact-focused investors, nature-based solutions offer high-leverage opportunities. Investments protect and restore ecosystems while addressing community challenges—generating environmental, social, and economic returns simultaneously.

How Nature-Based Solutions Work

1. Identify Challenges and Opportunities Clarify which challenges you're addressing—flood risk, water quality, urban heat, coastal erosion, carbon sequestration—and where natural systems could contribute. Map existing ecosystems and degraded lands that restoration could enhance.

2. Assess Ecosystem Services Potential Evaluate what benefits natural systems can provide. Healthy forests absorb how much stormwater? Restored wetlands attenuate what flood volumes? Urban tree canopy reduces temperatures by how many degrees? Quantify benefits where possible to support comparison with conventional alternatives.

3. Design Integrated Solutions Nature-based solutions work best integrated with broader systems:

• Hybrid approaches: Combine green and gray infrastructure for optimal performance

• Connectivity: Link natural areas to create functioning corridors and networks

• Multi-functionality: Design for multiple benefits simultaneously

• Adaptive management: Build in monitoring and adjustment capacity

4. Engage Communities Community engagement is essential—for project acceptance, design input, stewardship capacity, and equitable benefit distribution. Nature-based solutions in public spaces affect how communities experience their environment. Early and meaningful engagement improves outcomes.

5. Implement and Steward Construction may be simpler than conventional infrastructure, but establishment requires care. Plantings need maintenance until established. Restored wetlands need protection during development. Monitoring tracks performance and informs management adjustments.

6. Monitor and Communicate Benefits Track ecosystem service delivery over time. Communicate benefits to stakeholders and funders. Build evidence base that supports future nature-based investments.

Nature-Based Solutions vs. Related Terms

Common Misconceptions About Nature-Based Solutions

"Nature-based solutions can't match engineered performance." For many applications, nature-based solutions equal or exceed gray infrastructure performance—particularly when multiple benefits are considered. Hybrid approaches that combine natural and engineered elements often outperform either alone.

"Nature-based solutions are just nice-to-have amenities." These are functional infrastructure investments delivering quantifiable services. Wetlands store specific flood volumes. Trees provide measurable cooling. Marshes buffer calculated wave heights. The benefits are real and often monetizable.

"Natural systems are too unpredictable for infrastructure applications." Natural systems vary, but so do engineered systems under changing climate conditions. Good design accounts for variability. Monitoring and adaptive management address performance uncertainty. The predictability critique often reflects unfamiliarity rather than inherent limitation.

"We don't have space for nature-based solutions in urban areas." Urban nature-based solutions work at multiple scales—green roofs on individual buildings, bioswales along streets, pocket parks in neighborhoods, restored streams through corridors. Space constraints require creativity but rarely preclude nature-based approaches entirely.

"Nature-based solutions take too long to establish." Establishment periods vary but are often shorter than assumed. Many plantings provide substantial function within 2-5 years. Design can phase implementation so early elements function while later phases establish. And conventional infrastructure projects also have multi-year timelines.

When Nature-Based Solutions May Not Be the Right Fit

For highly constrained sites with no space for vegetation or natural systems, conventional infrastructure may be necessary. Nature-based solutions require physical footprint that some contexts can't accommodate.

Where regulatory requirements specify performance standards based on conventional infrastructure design, nature-based alternatives may face approval challenges. Regulatory innovation often lags technical capability.

For acute, immediate hazards requiring urgent response, nature-based solutions' establishment periods may not fit timelines. Emergency contexts may require rapid conventional interventions, with nature-based solutions incorporated in subsequent phases.

Some applications genuinely favor engineered approaches. Deep flood tunnels, major dams, and certain water treatment processes can't be replicated by natural systems. Nature-based solutions complement but don't replace all conventional infrastructure.

How Nature-Based Solutions Connect to Broader Systems

Nature-based solutions integrate with climate adaptation strategy. They offer adaptation approaches that provide mitigation co-benefits—sequestering carbon while building resilience. Comprehensive climate strategies increasingly emphasize nature-based components.

Land use planning shapes nature-based solution opportunities. Protecting open space, requiring green infrastructure in development, and incorporating ecosystem connectivity into comprehensive plans expand what's possible. Fragmented development patterns limit nature-based options.

Stormwater management is transforming around nature-based approaches. MS4 permits increasingly accept or require green infrastructure. Combined sewer communities find nature-based solutions cost-effective for reducing overflows. The shift is regulatory as well as practical.

Parks and recreation systems are recognizing their infrastructure function. Urban forests and green spaces deliver services beyond recreation—cooling, air quality, mental health, stormwater management. Managing parks as green infrastructure elevates their strategic importance.

For foundations and impact investors, nature-based solutions offer compelling investment opportunities—measurable environmental benefits, community resilience contributions, and potential for sustainable revenue models through ecosystem service payments.

Related Definitions

→ What Is Green Infrastructure?

→ What Is Climate Adaptation?

→ What Is Climate Resilience?

→ What Is Stakeholder Engagement?

→ What Is Just Transition?