An innovative approach to environmental management: Nature-based Solutions (NbS)

The negative effects of human activities on nature are now at an unacceptable level. Thus, in recent years, studies have been carried out on a global scale in order to reduce these negative effects. Institutions, companies, and individuals are making a collective effort to tackle global challenges such as biodiversity degradation and global warming. Among these activities, nature-based solutions are a concept that is gaining more and more attention.

IUCN has defined nature-based solutions as actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems. Nature-based solutions offer a significant opportunity today due to their potential to contribute to all environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability at the same time.

Nature-based solutions show many successful examples. In particular, green cities are an innovative approach that stands out. Green cities include nature-based solutions approaches such as urban parks, green roofs, and green walls. These green infrastructure systems provide many ecological contributions from flow management to reducing the heat island effect in cities. A second example is the flooding protection. It has been observed that the risk of flooding is reduced with the applications made in the riverbeds or the coastal areas. These practices include activities such as the cultivation of suitable plants in flood zones.

Many good practice examples have shown that nature-based solutions are helpful for environmental management. However, it should be noted that nature-based solutions are not the only solution. Global warming and biodiversity loss are holistic problems that concern many interconnected areas. It is not possible for there to be a single and simple solution to solve such problems. For successful environmental management, nature-based solutions and other existing approaches should be applied together.

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*Cover Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash