Publication: The Gray, Green, Blue Continuum: Valuing the Benefit of Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Urban Flood Management in China
Abstract
Such solutions have the potential to
integrate natural habitats, processes, and services as part
of a coherent and holistic approach to water management,
particularly in the urban context. They can provide multiple
functions beyond conventional flood mitigation, generating a
range of benefits by restoring and conserving natural
capital, improving the live ability of urban spaces,
increasing resilience, and contributing to more sustainable
outcomes. In doing so, they can enhance overall water
security by improving water availability and water quality
while simultaneously reducing water-related risks and
generating additional social, economic, and environmental
co-benefits. Achieving these outcomes requires hybrid urban
infrastructure city-wide. Such infrastructure optimizes a
mix of blue, green, and gray corridors that can integrate
NbS into the built urban form at a range of scales and in
varying proportions. While the design and implementation of
these hybrid assets are relatively well considered, their
implementation at scale has been limited. This is due in
part to the challenges in realizing the values associated
with the full range of market and non-market benefits and
comprehending the distribution of these among diverse
beneficiaries. This situation makes it difficult to secure
sustainable revenue streams and to internalize future
returns that can be aggregated to leverage sufficient
financing. As a result, improved approaches are required to
identify the benefits derived from NbS, evaluate the value
of these benefits and to identify the range of potential
beneficiaries, to provide a framework that can facilitate
co-investment in hybrid infrastructure and ultimately
suitable financing models.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Wishart, Marcus; Wong, Tony; Furmage, Ben; Liao, Xiawei; Pannell, David; Wang, Jianbin. 2021. The Gray, Green, Blue Continuum: Valuing the Benefit of Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Urban Flood Management in China. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35687 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”