Full Title: Evaluation of Publicly Accessible Nature-Based Solutions Databases as Sources for Evidence of Effectiveness
Author(s): Katie Warnell and Lydia Olander
Publisher(s): Duke Nicholas Institute
Publication Date: July 13, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are “actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment” (White House Council on Environmental Quality, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House Domestic Climate Policy Office, 2022). They present opportunities to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crises simultaneously by supporting carbon sequestration by ecosystems, enhancing community resilience to climate hazards, and providing high-quality habitats for diverse species. However, uncertainty around the performance and reliability of NBS continues to be raised by engineers, local decision-makers, grant-makers, and the insurance industry as an obstacle for widespread implementation of NBS at scale. This uncertainty indicates the need for comprehensive and accessible data on NBS projects and outcomes that could be used to develop engineering standards, assess projects’ cost-benefit ratio, and incorporate NBS into insurance premium pricing.
This report evaluates the NBS data currently available through publicly available databases relative to the information needs described above. In total, 27 databases with publicly available, structured information on NBS research studies (6 databases) or individual projects (21 databases) were assessed for their utility as well as geographic and topical coverage.