Nature-Based Solutions Tools Catalogue

The Adaptive Cities Through Integrated Nature-Based Solutions (ACT on NBS), EIT Climate KIC project made an inventory and assessment of NBS tools for climate resilient cities. The objectives of the catalogue are: 1) to increase organizational accessibility to data on NBS and climate resilience tools that have been developed and used in Europe and worldwide; 2) that different end-users become aware of  several tools that already exist to plan, design, and implement NBS and make use of them to address specific environmental challenges and adaptation measures in their cities, neighborhoods or even regions.

The NBS tools catalogue contains 70 tools collected. For this research, a “tool” is understood to be either a methodology, software, catalogue, repository, e-platform, guideline or handbook. The tools were identified through interviews with EU municipalities and workshops organized by ACT on NBS, and by additional desk research.

The desk study entailed a combination of reviewing the websites from international organizations and EU granted projects related to cities dealing with NBSs, ecosystem services (ESs), green infrastructure, urban resilience and climate change, and reviewing peer-reviewed scientific journals, reports and grey literature.

The latter search was implemented through Google search, Google scholar and Scopus in August 2020. This implies that tools that were developed and published before that date were collected. The search strategy was implemented using combinations of search terms such as: nature-based solutions, NBS, ecosystem-based adaptation, green infrastructure, climate adaptation, climate resilience, ecosystem services, climate hazards, urban biodiversity, urban nature, water and land management “AND” urban areas, cities “AND” tools, software, methodology, catalogue, repository, platform, handbook and guideline.

For the assessment, tools were labeled on their descriptive characteristics and potential fields of application. The use of pre-defined indicators was chosen to support the characterization of the tools and to allow for their comparison. The categories and indicators were formulated based on the current literature and refined through expert judgements. The indicators were also, in some cases, further adapted through an iterative process of tools’ analysis.

For more information on the NBS tools analysis please read our academic publication on “Nature-Based Solutions Tools for Planning Urban Climate Adaptation:  State of the Art”.

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116381