NATURE THRIVES

Urban environments and water infrastructure are influenced by future uncertainties like climate change, urbanization and aging infrastructure. The paradigm shift towards sustainability and circularity is needed to maintain the high quality of urban water services supported by the innovation in technological, social, governmental and communication sphere. Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions for urban water management has been proposed as a cure-for-all no-regret alternative to solely pipe-based urban infrastructure. The transformation and integration of these solutions has been hindered by the lack of standardization, well tested and monitored solutions and positive communication of the successful transitions.

NATURE THRIVES has set its activities around four simple questions to support the transition towards the sustainable and efficient water management that is robust enough to encounter the future uncertainties. The project will use qualitative and quantitative research methods to define the state of the art in NBS planning, design and integrated management to propose what if narratives that will be explored with the stakeholders in co-design and co-creation events. Modelling, experimentation and co-creation will be used to define what works and what wows considering both technical and social aspects in the pathways. This means novel technical solutions for multipurpose NBS and integrated asset management approaches for ensuring the cascading positive effect of the blue-green-grey interaction. The feedforward and feedback loops will be used throughout the project to ensure the bidirectional science to stakeholder transfer. The pathways for NBS mainstreaming and upscaling (what is) will be co-created with the stakeholders to support the sustainability in urban water transitions.