TY - JOUR

T1 - Locating Spatial Opportunities for Nature-Based Solutions: A River Landscape Application

AU - Guerrero, Paulina

AU - Haase, Dagmar

AU - Albert, Christian

N1 - Funding information: The authors are grateful for the funding support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the Junior Research Group PlanSmart (funding code: 01UU1601A), the BiodivERsA project ENABLE (COFUND 2015-16), and the Horizon 2020 innovation action CONNECTING (COproductioN with NaturE for City Transitioning, Innovation and Governance; No 730222-2) for fruitful discussions and comments about NBS in wetlands. The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Fund of the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

PY - 2018/12/17

Y1 - 2018/12/17

N2 - Compared to technical infrastructure, nature-based solutions (NBS) strive to work with nature and to move beyond business-as-usual practices. Despite decades of research from various academia fields and a commencing mainstreaming of the term, a lack of cohesiveness and pertinent methods regarding the subject matter hinders further implementation. Using a functional landscape approach, this paper aims to identify the spatial extent of existing and potential NBS locations and applies it across a case study in Germany. Inspired by hydrological models, which work with delineated hydrological response units, this research instead defines hydromorphological landscape units (HLU) based on biophysical spatial criteria to identify the potential areas that could function as NBS. This approach was tested for floodplain-based NBS. The identified HLU were then compared with historical floodplain and land-use data to differentiate between active or potential NBS. The spatial delineation identified 3.6 million hectares of already active floodplains areas, for which we recommend continued or modified protection measures, and 0.4 million ha where the hydromorphological conditions are apt to support floodplains, yet are cut-offfrom the flooding regime and require rehabilitation measures. The identification of NBS through explicitly defined HLU serves as a spatial approach to support NBS implementation. Taken together, our research can provide an essential contribution to systemize the emerging scholarship on NBS in river landscapes and to help in selecting and planning appropriate NBS in practice.

AB - Compared to technical infrastructure, nature-based solutions (NBS) strive to work with nature and to move beyond business-as-usual practices. Despite decades of research from various academia fields and a commencing mainstreaming of the term, a lack of cohesiveness and pertinent methods regarding the subject matter hinders further implementation. Using a functional landscape approach, this paper aims to identify the spatial extent of existing and potential NBS locations and applies it across a case study in Germany. Inspired by hydrological models, which work with delineated hydrological response units, this research instead defines hydromorphological landscape units (HLU) based on biophysical spatial criteria to identify the potential areas that could function as NBS. This approach was tested for floodplain-based NBS. The identified HLU were then compared with historical floodplain and land-use data to differentiate between active or potential NBS. The spatial delineation identified 3.6 million hectares of already active floodplains areas, for which we recommend continued or modified protection measures, and 0.4 million ha where the hydromorphological conditions are apt to support floodplains, yet are cut-offfrom the flooding regime and require rehabilitation measures. The identification of NBS through explicitly defined HLU serves as a spatial approach to support NBS implementation. Taken together, our research can provide an essential contribution to systemize the emerging scholarship on NBS in river landscapes and to help in selecting and planning appropriate NBS in practice.

KW - Floodplains

KW - Nature-based solutions

KW - River restoration

KW - Spatial analysis

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058994204&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/w10121869

DO - 10.3390/w10121869

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85058994204

VL - 10

JO - Water (Switzerland)

JF - Water (Switzerland)

SN - 2073-4441

IS - 12

M1 - 1869

ER -