Public actor (e.g. municipality)

Ecuador is considered one of the most biodiverse countries in the world (one of the 17th most diverse), due to the high diversity of their natural species. The country has around 23.056 taxonomic species of animals and plants reported, which constitutes the 6,1% of all species reported worldwide. (6) Quito, the country's capital makes no exception and is considered a biodiversity hotspot. In recent years, urban expansion has had a detrimental effect on the environment and the city’s ecology. All of these actions exacerbate the stresses on the different ecosystems, contaminate water sources and networks, and put the city’s capacity to supply ecosystem services at risk. To respond to many of these challenges the municipality of Quito initiated in 2020 a nature-based solution program under the EU framework of Clever Cities. (1) The project intends to position nature-based solutions as a means to improving public health, social cohesion, citizen security and increasing economic opportunities in those areas. (3)

The Anderson Road Quarry, once a vacant 40-hectare site is getting transformed into a sustainable residential neighbourhood while ensuring climate resiliency and low environmental impact in Hong Kong. The site will supply housing for 25,000 people. In addition to this, the city is employing a wide array of adaptive and resilient approaches including saving around 3,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, helping the city live up to its 65% to 75% carbon reduction goal by 2030 set in Hong Kong Climate Action Plan. [1]

As of 2011, Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, has a population of approx. 330,000 people. By 2018, an estimated 40% of Namibia’s 2.4 million population were living in shacks and Windhoek makes no exception. Approximately 30% of the capital population lives in unplanned informal settlements struggling to access basic services such as water and sanitation. Worse than that informal settlements are especially vulnerable to environmental hazards: they are squeezed in next to each other on the slopes of mountainsides. When there's the occurrence of floods, they do so with such force and wash away people’s homes and their belongings. Even more distressing, people often lose their children due to rapid and unannounced flash floods. As a response to these threats and challenges the inhabitants of an informal settlement, Onyika (located in Okuryangava - which is a suburb of Windhoek, situated in the north of the capital city) paired with local authorities, donors and climate change experts to embark on a community-led process of creating a climate-resilient community. Being especially vulnerable to climate change, these forms of settlements require special attention in the development of climate resilience strategies. (1, 6)

Battambang is projected to experience significant effects of climate change that will have a range of impacts including changes to hydrology and the frequency and intensity of flooding and droughts. As part of an Asian Development Bank project, a technical Climate Change Core Group was established to ensure that representatives from key sectors and levels of government work together to build resilience for the town and prepare the residents for the inevitable climate change impacts in the future. Three infrastructure systems in Battambang were identified for detailed vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning by the climate change Core Group; a) a long canal system to the west of the town, b) the riverbanks near the Sor Kheng Bridge in the centre of town, c) the train station and surrounding wetlands and settlements in the centre of town. [1, 2]

Medellin is the second-largest city in Colombia. The city used to be one of the most dangerous in the world, as Pablo Escobar founded here the Medellin cartel. After the death of Escobar, the city's homicide rate has decreased by 95% and extreme poverty by 66%, thanks in part to a string of innovative mayors who laid out plans to integrate the poorest and most violent hillside neighbourhoods into the city centre in the valley below. The same innovative mayors realised that Columbia and its cities are very vulnerable to climate change being located in a tropical zone and is influenced by El Niño and the La Niña. In Medellin, the municipality has built upon a tradition of planning to become an urban lab for the construction of public life with the aim of inclusive, peaceful and sustainable development. As such starting in 2008 Medellin began implementing a green strategy whose goal was the creation of a green belt around the city as well as waste control. The intervention discussed in this case is one initiated in 2014 when the municipality carried out planting and reforestation projects for the protection of the eastern slopes of the city. (1,2,3)

Tongnan Dafosi Wetland Park is located on both sides of Fu River flowing through the central area of Chongqing Tongnan District. Its south side is right next to the national tourist spot – the Great Buddha Temple (Dafosi). Due to the increasing frequency and severity of extreme rainstorms, the area is prone to floods. To build an urban wetland park that is adaptive to floods, designers retained the original wetland environment along the river channel and set up pedestrian corridors to enable citizens’ close contact with wetland nature. [1, 3] This project excavates two important cultural elements of Tongnan: 1) the shipping culture with a long history; and 2) the Buddhist culture based on the Great Buddha Temple. [1]

The Ningbo Ecological Corridor is a post-industrial landscape ecological reconstruction project. It is located in the middle of the Eastern New Town in Ningbo, with a total area of 90 hectares [4]. Built upon a typical post-industrial site with degraded ecologies that needs to be healed and would soon become part of a new urbanized district, this project is holistic ecosystem services-oriented, introducing terraced wetland to manage elevation change of the site to slow the flows of urban runoffs from the street down to the river and remove the nutrients [1]. “Before being designed, the site and surrounding areas were fragmented farmland, villages and factories that were planned to be relocated - a typical brownfield in the rural-urban fringe of the southern region of China”[1]. With the implementation of the project, "the original channelized river is transformed into a meandering eco-friendly waterway dotted with tree isles to increase the interface between organisms and water bodies to empower the river’s purification capacity. The project uses productive crops and annual flowers that are rotated to bring seasonal surprise and agricultural vitality to the growing city. Boardwalks are designed to allow visitors to have intimate experience of nature and the nostalgic pastoral landscape. Pavilions made of corten steel floats on wetlands and terraces, giving the ecological corridor a touch of contemporary urban life and art. [1] "As a result, this project demonstrated landscape as an ecological infrastructure that heals the degraded ecological system meanwhile provides social and cultural services to the establishing communities." [1]

St Inez creek was an ecologically functional tidal waterbody in Panaji, Goa. Panaji has been identified as one of the most vulnerable coastal cities from floods due to the predicted sea-level rise. St Inez creek is one of the very important freshwater bodies in the city because of its cultural, social and biodiversity value. Recently, the ecological functionality of the creek was severely compromised through a combination of natural degradation and anthropogenic influences, which includes sedimentation, collapsed embankments, eutrophication, weed growth, pollution, the release of raw sewerage from neighbouring informal settlements and dumping of construction debris. The current intervention is about the restoration of the creek to conserve the urban nature and ecological systems and to increase the resilience of the city. [1, 2]

Touted as a long-term solution to flooding of Mandaue City, establishment of a mangrove eco-park has begun, having received funding from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) (Ref. 1). Through establishment of mangroves, the eco-park will "perform a significant role in shoreline protection, acting as a buffer against strong winds and waves", which is considered particularly important in light of the anticipated effects of climate change (Ref. 6).

A total 17-hectare plot is to be rehabilitated, as identified in the Mandaue City Government's Comprehensive Land Use Plan (Ref. 3). At present, it is unclear whether nature-based solutions (including mangrove restoration) are to be implemented across the entire 17ha of the site, but initial efforts have been focused on the restoration of a 5-ha section of mangrove forest (Ref. 2). Due to the lack of data on how exactly the remainder of the 17-ha area will be restored, the total NBS area for this project has only been recorded as 5-ha (5000m2) within this case study, rather than the entire 17,000m2 which is encompassed within the site.

The site is situated at the outfall of the Butuanon River which frequently overtops as a result of heavy rain and has been considered "biologically dead" since 1992 (Ref. 7). The site itself comprises a former dumpsite which had been "left derelict and filled with piles of trash", hence in addition to reducing flood risk, its rehabilitation will serve as green space in which "the residents of Mandaue City [can] gather and enjoy a breath of fresh air" (Ref. 2). The eco-park is considered to bring the added benefit of filtering water as it enters the Mactan Channel, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through carbon dioxide absorption (Refs. 1 & 6).

The Porsuk Stream divides the city of Eskişehir into two with a green corridor running along the shores of the stream. The Porsuk Stream served provisioning services and acted as a recreational area in the first half of the 20th century, however with increased industrial activities discharging untreated wastewater into the river, rapid urbanisation in the city and other settlements, and increased fertilisers and pesticides in the groundwater originated from agricultural practices (upstream of the Porsuk River), it became highly polluted and its ecosystem degraded severely (1,2,4,5). The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) identified the stream as one of the highly dangerous rivers in terms of pollution and health, where no living beings except viruses live (1).
Within the framework of the 'Eskişehir Urban Development Project' the 'Natural Disaster Loss Reduction Project (Porsuk Project)' has been initiated focusing on the ecological restoration of the stream, improving water quality, increasing the resilience of the city against natural disasters (as earthquakes and floods) while also reestablishing the stream's environmental and social role in the city (1). A network of natural infrastructure was created along the Porsuk by expanding public green spaces and link the entire corridor with a sustainable public transport network. (4,5)