TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantifying the effects of nature-based solutions in reducing risks from hydrometeorological hazards: examples from Europe
AU - Shah, Mohammad Aminur Rahman
AU - Xu, Jiren
AU - Carisi, Francesca
AU - De Paola, Francesco
AU - Di Sabatino, Silvana
AU - Domeneghetti, Alessio
AU - Gerundo, Carlo
AU - Gonzalez-Ollauri, Alejandro
AU - Nadim, Farrokh
AU - Petruccelli, Natasha
AU - Polderman, Annemarie
AU - Pugliese, Francesco
AU - Pulvirenti, Beatrice
AU - Ruggieri, Paolo
AU - Speranza, Giuseppe
AU - Toth, Elena
AU - Zieher, Thomas
AU - Renaud, Fabrice G.
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - The combination of climate change and social and ecological factors will increase risks societies face from hydrometeorological hazards (HMH). Reducing these risks is typically achieved through the deployment of engineered (or grey) infrastructure but increasingly, nature-based solutions (NBS) are being considered. Most risk assessment frameworks do not allow capturing well the role NBS can play in addressing all components of risk, i.e., the hazard characteristics and the exposure and vulnerability of social-ecological systems. Recently, the Vulnerability and Risk assessment framework developed to allow the assessment of risks in the context of NBS implementation (VR-NBS framework) was proposed. Here, we carry out the first implementation of this framework using five case study areas in Europe which are exposed to various HMH. Our results show that we can demonstrate the effect NBS have in terms of risk reduction and that this can be achieved by using a flexible library of indicators that allows to capture the specificities of each case study hazard, social and ecological circumstances. The approach appears to be more effective for larger case study areas, but further testing is required in a broader variety of contexts.
AB - The combination of climate change and social and ecological factors will increase risks societies face from hydrometeorological hazards (HMH). Reducing these risks is typically achieved through the deployment of engineered (or grey) infrastructure but increasingly, nature-based solutions (NBS) are being considered. Most risk assessment frameworks do not allow capturing well the role NBS can play in addressing all components of risk, i.e., the hazard characteristics and the exposure and vulnerability of social-ecological systems. Recently, the Vulnerability and Risk assessment framework developed to allow the assessment of risks in the context of NBS implementation (VR-NBS framework) was proposed. Here, we carry out the first implementation of this framework using five case study areas in Europe which are exposed to various HMH. Our results show that we can demonstrate the effect NBS have in terms of risk reduction and that this can be achieved by using a flexible library of indicators that allows to capture the specificities of each case study hazard, social and ecological circumstances. The approach appears to be more effective for larger case study areas, but further testing is required in a broader variety of contexts.
KW - Hydrometeorological hazards
KW - Nature-based solutions
KW - Risk assessment
KW - Social-ecological systems
KW - Scenarios
KW - OPERANDUM
KW - PHUSICOS
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103771
DO - 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103771
M3 - Article
SN - 2212-4209
VL - 93
JO - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction
M1 - 103771
ER -