Project Information

Principal Investigators: Katharine Jacobs, University of Arizona, Richard Moss, University of Arizona
Project Completion: June 2023
Implements Science Plan Theme: Adaptation

Overview

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are approaches that use nature and natural processes to address societal and environmental challenges. More specifically for US coasts, they provide interlinked benefits in hazard risk reduction, natural habitat, and social needs. NbS are part of a suite of adaptation options to meet increasingly dire coastal adaptation needs. NbS encompass a wide range of interventions with design lives spanning from decades to centuries: they include projects from marshes, living shorelines, and “horizontal levees”, to coral reefs and clam gardens, and they can integrate gray infrastructure such as breakwaters and groins. However, no comprehensive effort to understand the state of knowledge and practice has been made to identify the effectiveness of NbS to meet these growing coastal adaptation needs. Consequently, we addressed three research questions that structure this report using qualitative social science methods: (Q1) what knowledge and capacity already exist for NbS implementation; (Q2) what makes NbS “effective”; and (Q3) can we use practitioner-based learning to better integrate multiple knowledges into a sustained national approach to assessing effectiveness.
(Note: this project was jointly supported by the SW, NE, SE, SC, AK, PI, and National CASC)