Nature-Based Solutions and Water Security: An Action Agenda for the 21st Century

Nature-Based Solutions and Water Security: An Action Agenda for the 21st Century presents an action agenda for natural infrastructure on topics of standards and principles, technical evaluation and design tools, capacity building and innovative finance. Chapters introduce the topic and concepts of natural infrastructure, or nature-based solutions (NBS) and water security, with important background on the urgency of the global water crisis and the role that NBS can, and should play, in addressing this crisis. Sections also present the community of practice’s collective thinking on a prioritized action agenda to guide more rapid progress in mainstreaming NBS.

With contributions from global authors, including key individuals and organizations active in developing NBS solutions, users will also find important conclusions and recommendations, thus presenting a collaboratively developed, consensus roadmap to scaling NBS.

• Covers all issues of water security and natural infrastructures
• Presents a comprehensive state of synthesis, providing readers with a solid grounding in the field of natural infrastructures and water security
• Includes a fully workable and intuitive roadmap for action that is presented as a guide to the most important actions for practitioners, research questions for academics, and information on promising careers for students entering the field

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Release date: Jul 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9780128198988

Book preview

Section 1

Introduction to nature-based solutions and water security

Chapter 1: Setting the scene: Nature-based solutions and water security

Jan Cassina; John H. Matthewsb    a Forest Trends, Washington, DC, United States

b Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, Corvallis, OR, United States

Abstract

For the past 10 years, water-related risks have led the World Economic Forum’s global risk assessment in terms of both likelihood and severity of impact (World Economic Forum, 2019). Between 2009 and 2019, water supply crises and water hazards related to extreme weather have routinely been in the top five risks in terms of likelihood and severity of impact. Past approaches to water security through predominantly gray infrastructure solutions are no longer adequate given the impacts of climate change and the negative environmental impacts gray water infrastructure can have. Nature-based solutions (NBS) are inherently flexible and represent an additional set of options for politicians, communities, and planners that we have largely neglected to date, while our gray designs reflect an overconfidence in our ability to know the future. While NBS are cross-cutting solutions that address a range of societal challenges, we focus here on water as an enabler of solutions across multiple challenges. This volume supports decision-makers and practitioners in this growing field by: (1) synthesizing the accumulating, collective global experience with NBS to provide a practical reference on the current state of knowledge, policy, and practice; and (2) presenting a consensus reflection to guide the kind of strategic actions that are needed for implementation of NBS at scale.

Keywords

climate change; green infrastructure; natural infrastructure; sustainable development; water crisis; water security

But then, when the land was still pristine, today’s mountains supported high hills, and what we call the Stony Plains were full of rich earth, and in the mountains, there was a good deal of timber, of which there are clear indications even now. Some of the mountains can sustain only bees these days, but it was not long ago that they were wooded and even now the roofs of some of our largest buildings have rafters cut from these areas and these rafters are still sound. There were also many tall, cultivated trees, and the land offered a vast amount of pasture for animals. What is more, the land enjoyed the annual rain from Zeus, not lost, as now, when it flows off of the bare earth into the sea. Rather, much of it was retained, since the earth took it in within itself, storing it up in the earth’s retentive clay, releasing water from the high country into the hollows, and supplying all regions with generous amounts of springs and flowing rivers. That what we are now saying about the land is true is indicated by the holy sanctuaries, which are situated where this water used to spring up.

(Plato, 2008, Timaeus and Critias, 111a–d).

A global water crisis and water insecurity

The connection between water security and natural systems such as forests, wetlands, and rivers, has long been recognized. History is replete with examples of how ecosystem degradation and loss have impacted people and civilizations through water. Throughout recorded history, local water-related crises have followed deforestation, with erosion and accumulation of sediment in rivers resulting in increased flooding as well as the loss of soil fertility and declining agricultural production (Marsh, 1864; Montgomery, 2007). The world, however, now has a global water crisis and successfully addressing it will require a radical transformation of the way water is managed, by prioritizing working with the natural systems on which water security ultimately depends.

The COVID-19 pandemic that began in late 2019 has also had an influence on how we envision water security. Certainly, many recommendations for reducing transmission such as handwashing assumed ample, clean, and accessible water. More broadly, the appearance of broader economic impacts and the shortage of basic household and essential medical supplies led to widespread discussion about vulnerabilities in supply chains, planning, and coordination, spanning local to international scales. As a result, the pandemic led many people to see transport, energy, utilities, manufacturing, and medical processes as systems that operate and interact in complex ways. Water is often the connecting element within and between these systems. For many groups, pandemic planning is now emerging as a new component of water security, while water security is also now seen as critical to responding to both the medical and economic impacts of major disease outbreaks. The linkages between water security, epidemics, and nature-based solutions (NBS) are more tenuous, but they are also appearing, such as the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (BMZ) program One Health,a which launched in May 2020 to coordinate policy and action between human health, ecological resilience, and climate change, with water explicitly identified as the connection between all three domains. Similar initiatives are reportedly under discussion in multilateral and bilateral aid and in national and intergovernmental policy initiatives (Matthews and Dela Cruz, 2020).

For the past 10 years, water-related risks have led the World Economic Forum’s global risk assessment in terms of both likelihood and severity of impact (World Economic Forum, 2019). Between 2009 and 2019, water supply crises and/or water hazards related to extreme weather have routinely been in the top five risks in terms of likelihood and severity of impact. In addition, both water and climate constitute risks that are overriding and increase the likelihood or impacts of other risks. Water and climate in particular are closely linked. People will feel the effects of climate change mostly through water. From more and longer or deeper droughts impacting food and energy production, loss of life and damages from more extreme storms and flooding, or the unpredictability of rainfall that can lead farmers to abandon land and spurs internal and international migration, fundamentally, climate is water (Nyugen and Hens, 2019; Jiménez Cisneros et al., 2014). Water provision is critical for economic development, underpinning agricultural production and fisheries, supporting biodiversity, energy generation, and water-based transportation, meaning that the water crisis is a systemic risk that affects all major global challenges (WWAP, 2016; World Economic Forum, 2011; World Economic Forum, 2019).

Water security and the contours of the water crisis

The water crisis comprises a constellation of global threats affecting supplies of available water, its quality, and the frequency and severity of water-related hazards, which all contribute to growing water insecurity for people and ecosystems. Water security as defined by the United Nations is the capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against water-borne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability (UN-Water, 2013). Water security is multidimensional and dynamic. Implicit in concepts around water security is the need to manage risk and uncertainty. An explicitly risk-based approach can capture these dynamic and multidimensional aspects, particularly in the context of uncertainty about shifting economic, political, social, and climate conditions. Indeed, some have even defined water security as an acceptable level of water-related risks (Grey and Sadoff, 2007; Grey et al., 2013) or a tolerable level of water-related risk to society regarding four categories of hazards: shortages or scarcity; inadequate quality; excess or flooding; and eroded or reduced resilience of freshwater systems (OECD, 2013a; Garrick and Hall, 2014).

Rather than being simply a function of the physical availability of water (too much, too little, poor quality), water security is an outcome of the dynamics of coupled social-ecological (human-water) systems. As such, human agency, expressed in aspects of water governance, social power, water infrastructure, and the political and social institutions influencing water management, is central to water security and the water crisis (Bakker and Morinville, 2013; Srinivasan et al., 2017; Staddon and Scott, 2018). This broader framing means that questions around equity, sustainability, and effectiveness over time need to be addressed. Whose security is important (which communities or sectors, people and ecosystems, present generation or future generations as well)? Who decides what levels of risk and uncertainty are acceptable? How will risks evolve with time? What management options (infrastructure, governance) are most likely to successfully address the multiple dimensions of water security across the greatest number of uncertain futures?

The contours of the water crisis

A growing human population and increasing resource demands are putting pressure on Earth’s critical systems, including the hydrological system, and threatening to breach planetary boundaries that constitute a safe operating space for humanity (Rockström et al., 2009; Steffen et al., 2015). The water crisis is directly related to a majority of the planetary boundaries originally identified by Rockström et al. (2009): climate change, interference in phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, global freshwater use, land-system change, rate of biodiversity loss, and chemical pollution. The water crisis, like water security, is thus multifaceted and driven by many evolving, interconnected