HORIZON 2020

Coordination and support actions

Development of a multi-stakeholder

dialogue platform and Think tank to

promote innovation with Nature based

solutions

WP 8: Dissemination and Communication

Deliverable 8.13

Final publishable report

Authors: N. Nikolaidis (TUC)

November 2019

Executive Summary

Deliverable 8.13 presents the final publishable report produced by the ThinkNature

project. The final publishable report was written by TUC, the project leader, with the

support of the project partners. The final publishable report was written as an article

(see section 1 of this report) which was published at the Project Repository Journal

(Oct/ Nov 2019 – Volume 3, pages 56-59). The article summarizes all the

achievements of the ThinkNature project with links on the exploitable results and the

deliverables that can be found on the ThinkNature Platform.

The URL of the Journal that contains the article is http://edition.pagesuite-

professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=58bd730d-3355-

4b8e-8272-5b4ee828ace9&pnum=56.

In addition, the ThinkNature partners produced a policy brief on the science case of

NBS where the status of the science case of NbS is outlined as well as strategic

recommendations for the future of NbS that are based on the exploitable results of the

ThinkNature project.

Version history

Distribution

Name Organization

Nikolaos P. Nikolaidis TUC

Denia Kolokotsa TUC

Maria Lilli TUC

Dionissis Efstathiou TUC

Katerina Lilli TUC

Kostas Gobakis TUC

Sonia Stamatoulaki TUC

Georgia Douloufaki TUC

Steven A. Banwart UNIVLEEDS

Natasha Mortimer UNIVLEEDS

Victoria Samir UNIVLEEDS

Sarah Dennis UNIVLEEDS

Susanna Lehvävirta UH

Marja Mesimäki UH

Elina Laurén UH

Nektarios Chrysoulakis FORTH

Zina Mitraka FORTH

Giorgos Somarakis FORTH

Stavros Stagakis FORTH

Papatheodorou Zinovia FORTH

Adriana Bernardi CNR-ISAC

Francesca Becherini CNR-ISAC

Silvia Enzi CNR-ISAC

Version Comment

1.1 First release to all partners

1.2 Submission of deliverable

Name Organization

Katharina Schneider-Roos GIB

Juraj Jurik GIB

Sylvie Corrado ECTP

Alexis David ECTP

Sara Van Rompaey E²ARC

Eleni Gkoni E²ARC

Pier Domenico Baccalario BOT

Clara Marrone BOT

Stefano Marrone BOT

Lorenzo Rulfo BOT

Didier Vancutsem ISOCARP

Federico Aili ISOCARP

David Struik ISOCARP

Emeline Bailly CSTB

Liz Faucher CSTB

Dorothée Marchand CSTB

Paris Sansoglou EuDA

Isabelle Gourdin EuDA

Heather Elgar WENP

Eleni Hatziyanni KRITI

Jonathan Porter OPPLA

Jemma Simpson OPPLA

James Atkinson OPPLA

Xavier Le Roux FRB

Claire Blery FRB

Frédéric Lemaitre FRB

Contents

1. PROJECT REPOSITORY JOURNAL ARTICLE .........................................................2

2. POLICY BRIEF ........................................................................................................ 11

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1. Project Repository Journal Article

You can view the article of the ThinkNature project on the Project Repository Journal (Oct/

Nov 2019 – Volume 3) directly by the following link:

http://edition.pagesuite-

professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=58bd730d-3355-4b8e-

8272-5b4ee828ace9&pnum=56

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Think Nature-Based Solutions

Overview

Humanity’s impact on the planet becomes increasing global in character. As we transition into the Anthropocene Era, we approach natural limits and planetary boundaries beyond which the planetary ecological cycles and environmental processes destabilize, leading to the significant erosion of Earth’s resilience, reducing its capacity for self-repair and mitigation of human activities. Humanity is in urgent need to identify promising alternatives to address global challenges linked to climate change, sustainable energy, food security, and economic and social development. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have been identified as such alternatives with very high potential. Nature based Solutions are living solutions inspired and supported by nature that simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help to build resilience. They are solutions that bring more nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions. ThinkNature is an H2020 Coordination Support Action project designed to coordinate and support the uptake of nature-based solution and in this way contribute towards the European Commission's double goal of economic growth and sustainability. It aims to synthesize evidence to support the science and business case of NbS, showing that are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social, and economic benefits and help build resilience.

ThinkNature exploitable results

The main objective of ThinkNature is the development of a multi-stakeholder communication platform that supports the understanding and promotion of nature-based solutions in local, regional, EU and International level. The ThinkNature Platform brings together multi-disciplinary scientific expertise, policy, business and society, as well as citizens.

The ThinkNature Platform

The ThinkNature platform is an integrated multi-stakeholder web solution designed to stir dialogue and interaction on NbS through discussion forums and debates in order to identify regulatory, economic and technical barriers and to communicate and promote successful

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NbS (https://platform.think-nature.eu/). The platform has private and public accessible sections. The public section of the platform is the NbS Knowledge Hub which includes:

NbS Projects, a one place stop linking to NbS Project sites and Platforms

Case Studies, a hub where one can explore exemplary NbS case studies worldwide and

Resources, a Knowledge Repository for online resources on NbS state-of-the-art practise.

The private section of the platform is used to foster the dialogue on issues related to NbS, stakeholder networking and the capability of hosting sections with restricted access. The user has all the necessary functionalities to share documents, tasks and events. The users are encouraged to participate in online brainstorming forums and debates and enhance their knowledge on NbS. The Networking Hub brings together multi-disciplinary NbS expertise. More than 673 users have been registered on the platform. The Platform also hosts the “Task Forces” section used for the EU NbS Demonstration projects clustering activities on data management, impact evaluation framework, governance, business models and financial mechanisms and communication. The Platform is widely accessed by NbS Stakeholders and has more than 1500 unique visits on a monthly basis.

Platform homepage (https://platform.think-nature.eu/)

Stakeholder Engagement

The ThinkNature strategy for stakeholder engagement has a three-prong approach:

1. Establishment of the regional stakeholder networks - Four Regional Think and Do Tanks covering the Mediterranean, Oceanic, Temperate Continental and Northern

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Temperate regions have been established with their respective networks of Local Representatives. The role of the Regional Think and Do Tanks is to influence policy ideas and decisions concerning NbS as well as provide new ideas on how to tackle regional problems. The Local Representatives participate in the Regional Think and Do Tanks by providing input area concerning NbS technologies, market aspects, policy and regulatory framework. Their role is to make sure ThinkNature has a right focus in the respective regions in order to have the strongest possible impact towards NBS uptake.

2. Brainstorming Forums – ThinkNature organized two brainstorming forums to engage stakeholders in the uptake of NbS at the regional and local levels. The first Brainstorming Forum took place on 16-18 May, 2018 in a Coruna. It was co-organized with the project Connecting Nature and it was titled: Transforming Cities, Enhancing Well-Being: Innovating with Nature-based Solutions. This forum was a key ThinkNature event that addressed the two priority areas: “Sustainable Urbanisation in Cities” and “Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems”. The second brainstorming, the PARIS FORUM on NBS - Addressing major societal challenges: Climate change adaptation-mitigation, risk management and resilience. It was co-organized by the City of Paris and ThinkNature and took place in Paris on April 4th and 5th, 2019. The presentations are available on the ThinkNature platform at the following link: https://platform.think-nature.eu/nbs-knowledge-hub/paris-nbs-forum-

presentations. The results of the two Forums have been synthesized in six ThinkNature reports that are available on-line https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-deliverables (reports D4.1 through D4.6). More than 300 stakeholders participated in the two Forums and dialogue steering sessions have identified typical barriers impeding the implementation of NbS, knowledge gaps and financial and governance roadblocks that need to be overcome to have successful NbS uptake. The two Forum have made a significant contribution to the science-policy-business-society multi-stakeholder dialogue on NbS.

3. Barrier landscape and policy analysis - ThinkNature aimed to develop strategies to overcome existing barriers and decision-making hierarchy coupled with the engagement of local stakeholders in addressing NbS as part of EU, regional and local strategies. It carried out technical, market, legislative and policy landscape assessment to identify the factors that discourage large scale nature-based solutions ‘deployment’. A variety of methodologies such as questionnaires and structured interviews, literature reviews and the dialogue with the stakeholders both at the two forums and on the platform were deployed and analyzed to identify the barriers for the successful implementation of NbS. The results have been synthesized in four ThinkNature deliverables that are available on-line https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-deliverables (reports D5.1 through D5.4). Through the Forums and debates users' needs, market potential and potential barriers have been identified and this information is contributing to the development a coherent strategy for the promotion of a sustainable market on NbS and ways to overcome the barriers.

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NBS Capacity Building

The ThinkNature strategy for Capacity Building on NbS followed a six-prong approach:

1. Development of the NbS Case Study Portfolio - The user can explore exemplary NbS case studies worldwide (https://platform.think-nature.eu/case-studies). All case studies are using the newly developed ThinkNature case study template that contains significant information on the design, description and impact of the NbS. Currently we are hosting 111 NbS case studies on the platform. All case studies are geolocated and displayed on a map where the user can refine her/his search on a specific area. Also, the included case studies were classified based on the: a) degree of intervention/level and type of engineering, b) used approaches, c) addressed challenges, and d) provided ecosystem services. Finally, the completeness and usefulness of the available case study information was assessed using specific quality indices concerning case study template, planning, implementation and impact information. The results are available on-line https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-deliverables (report D6.1)

NbS Case Study Portfolio (https://platform.think-nature.eu/case-studies)

2. The ThinkNature Handbook on NbS - The main objective of this Handbook is to gather and promote state-of-the-art knowledge regarding NbS, comprising a comprehensive guide to all relevant actors. To this end, each aspect of NbS is investigated, from project development to financing and policy making, and is presented in a concise and comprehensive way, in order to be easily understandable. The Handbook is highly recommended to all stakeholder groups that use NbS in their work, but it can also be useful for other organizations and individuals that can comprise potential NbS stakeholders. Additionally, many

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chapters can contribute to increasing public awareness about NbS. The ThinkNature Handbook is available at https://platform.think-nature.eu/NbS-handbook

The ThinkNature Handbook on NbS (https://platform.think-nature.eu/NbS-handbook)

3. Expert Interview videos - The ThinkNature project organized a series of short video recorded interviews with conference participants during the H2020 Clustering Action "Transforming Cities, Enhancing Well-being: innovating with nature-based solutions". The interviewees are NBS experts of different background and expertise (policy makers, market actors, scientists, end users/authorities), providing a range of perspectives and different insights into the present and the future of NBS. These interviews are available at https://platform.think-nature.eu/nbs-knowledge-hub/interviews

4. ThinkNature Webinars - ThinkNature organized a series of four webinars between January and June of 2019 that introduced and covered several aspects of Nbs to a wide audience. The objectives of this webinar series were to raise awareness and understanding on the concept of NbS and to support and promote knowledge on multiple aspects of NBS design and implementation. The webinars covered a wide range of NbS aspects regarding design and implementation: 1. NbS: Concept, Practices and Benefits, 2. Technology and Practice of NbS, 3. Financing and Business Models for NbS, and 4. Governance Models for NbS: Policies, Strategies and Decision-Making Mechanisms. Resources of ThinkNature webinar series such as presentations, recordings and polls' results are available online at https://platform.think-nature.eu/content/thinknature-webinars

5. ThinkNature Summer School -The ThinkNature project organized a week-long, hand-on summer school focused on NbS. The training program consisted of two days of inspirational talks and discussions covering the following topics:

Introduction to NbS Classification of NbS and multiple and multiscale benefits

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Knowledge base and emerging innovative NbS Transferability and upscaling of NbS Impact evaluation framework Financing and business models Policy and decision-making mechanisms Future perspectives

Participants are also introduced to two case studies on urban regeneration and ecosystem restoration through a long field trip in the city of Chania and at the Koiliaris Critical Zone Observatory and two days of hand-on training. The training was a “hands-on, co-design workshops” that includes: training on tools for the design of the NBS, identifying their benefits and co-benefits, including stakeholders for co-design of alternatives, and evaluation of the impacts, and overcoming the barriers. All material developed for the summer school is available online at https://platform.think-nature.eu/content/thinknature-summer-school

6. Game App – ThinkNature project developed this Game App as part of demonstrators; which serve as introductory, explanatory and dissemination material towards all interested parties. In the game, the player takes on the role of the mayor of ‘Greentown’ and must tackle the big environmental challenges faced by the city. The player must use nature itself to tackle the problems of the city’s unsustainable growth. Throughout the game, the player is introduced to different NbS and how each of these can contribute to the support and protection of a city. The Game is online and playable at http://game.think-nature.eu/

The ThinkNature Game App (http://game.think-nature.eu/)

The Business Case for NBS

Implementation of NbS across urban and rural landscapes requires development of an infrastructure business case, inclusive of the complexity of living and ecosystem components of system functioning and performance, while delivering the required “triple

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bottom line” for economic, social and environmental benefits. The ThinkNature project developed the SITE4NBS and RISE4NBS methodologies that together illustrate a strategic process framework used for identifying the key elements of a project needed to develop an NbS business case and highlight the case specific data needs, and includes, Risk Analysis, Investment Options, Stakeholder Collaboration, and Environmental and Socio-Economic benefits, RISE4NBS. The presented finance mechanisms, business case development framework, business model canvas (BMC) and CBA methods are used in tandem to identify the key elements for building project-specific business cases. The methodology addresses several challenges including a paucity of existing data on NbS performance assessment compared to traditional solutions, the need for a much greater range of disciplinary expertise and a wider mix of stakeholders in option selection, design, implementation and maintenance, and the need to consider the novel methods of financing due to perceived investment risks as determined traditionally by metrics such as the expected return on investment. The business case for NbS methodology is available on-line https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-deliverables (report D7.2).

ThinkNature has established α list of 126 International partners and organizations for potential synergy to promote NbS dialogue and create market synergies for Europe. A significant number of activities are under way to facilitate the development of a global market in NbS. A global market-oriented research and innovation policy agenda for nature-based solutions will be formulated.

ThinkNature has established continuous dialogue and interaction on NbS to: steer dialogue and debates on issues related to NbS identify, communicate & promote successful NbS identify regulatory, economic & technical barriers foster collaboration at local, regional, national & EU levels develop synergy with other projects on NbS

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2. Policy Brief

Policy Brief: The Science Case of NbS

ThinkNature is an H2020 Coordination Support Action project designed to coordinate and

support the uptake of nature-based solution and in this way contribute towards the

European Commission's double goal of economic growth and sustainability. Nature-based

solutions are promising alternatives to address global challenges linked to climate change,

sustainable energy, food security, and economic and social development. Nature-based

solutions (NbS) are actions inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature, that deploy

various natural features and processes, are resource efficient and adapted to systems in

diverse spatial areas, facing social, environmental, and economic challenges. The main

goals of NbS are the enhancement of sustainable urbanisation, the restoration of degraded

ecosystems, the development of climate change adaptation and mitigation, and the

improvement of risk management and resilience. Moreover, NbS address global challenges,

directly connected to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). NbS provide multiple

benefits and have been identified as critical for the regeneration and improvement of

wellbeing in urban areas, coastal resilience, multifunctional watershed management, and

ecosystem restoration. They also increase the sustainability of matter and energy use,

enhance the insurance value of ecosystems, and increase carbon sequestration.

ThinkNature aims to synthesise evidence to support the science and business case of NbS,

showing that they are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social, and

economic benefits and help build resilience.

Finishing in 2019, ThinkNature achieved its main objective and developed a multi-

stakeholder communication platform that supports the understanding and the promotion

of nature-based solutions in local, regional, EU and International level. The ThinkNature

Platform brings together multi-disciplinary scientific expertise, policy, business and

society, as well as citizens.

Establishing the Science case for NbS

The ThinkNature Project has developed key recommendations regarding the Science Case

of NbS, the existing knowledge gaps and barriers, on the community of practice and what

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needs to be done to enhance the uptake of NbS. This policy brief summarises these

recommendations.

NbS Classification - There is a general confusion of what is and what is not an NbS

by the general public and local administration officials. ThinkNature has made a first

attempt to NbS classification and typology. It is imperative to have consensus on

this classification from all the demo projects and official acceptance by the

Commission and then to widely publicise it.

Case Study Portfolio – ThinkNature has developed a portfolio of 112 case studies

with a methodology to evaluate the degree of documentation completeness. It is

important to encourage the Demo projects to upload case studies with complete

documentation, have an independent taskforce to evaluate the degree of

completeness of each case study to avoid biases and develop a completeness

meter on the platform to indicate the level of documentation completeness. It is

also important to develop a forum where you give emphasis on the NbS applications

that did not work so one learns from the mistakes of the others.

Barriers to NbS Implementations – - ThinkNature aimed to develop strategies to

overcome existing barriers and decision-making hierarchy coupled with the

engagement of local stakeholders in addressing NbS as part of EU, regional and local

strategies. It carried out technical, market, legislative and policy landscape

assessment to identify the factors that discourage large scale nature-based

solutions ‘deployment’. The results have been synthesised in four ThinkNature

deliverables that are available on-line https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-

deliverables. The main roadblocks for NbS uptake are:

NbS Design Standards – It is important to develop NbS standards that should

be adapted for different regions. ThinkNature has developed a design

methodology that was derived from the review of the case studies. It is

important to identify the most used NbS and develop such standards.

NbS Professionals and contractors - there is a need for more professionals with

the capacity and vision to conceptualise the NbS project. It is urgent to develop

education and training material for the creation of the next generation of the

NbS professionals. To this end, it is important to develop separate material

targeting the community of practice, city/regional administrators and

contractors. ThinkNature has developed the Handbook on NbS in order to

gather and promote state-of-the-art knowledge regarding NbS, comprising a

comprehensive guide to all relevant actors. To this end, each aspect of NbS is

investigated, from project development to financing and policy making, and is

presented in a concise and comprehensive way, in order to be easily

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understandable. The Handbook is highly recommended to all stakeholder

groups that use NbS in their work, but it can also be useful for other

organisations and individuals that can comprise potential NbS stakeholders. The

ThinkNature Handbook is available at https://platform.think-nature.eu/NbS-

handbook

Permitting tools - there is a need to develop tools to overcome the permitting

“valley of death”. Typically, NbS projects do not have exclusive legislation that

address issues of design and implementation and thus permitting by local and

regional boards is not straight forward and it is major stamping block for NbS

uptake.

NbS Effectiveness Evaluation – The evaluation of the effectiveness of NbS is key

ingredient to establishing its science case. It is important to identify KPIs that

can be used to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of NbS as well as provide

the means for comparison among applications. To this end, it is important to

complete the work of Taskforce 2 on KPIs.

Design tools for mixed solutions – In reality, depending on their scale, many

environmental problems require solutions with both green and grey

components. There is an abundance of tools to design grey solutions, but we

have limited number of tools for green solutions and NbS. It is important to

develop design tools that will incorporate NbS components in grey solutions

and grey components in NbS solutions.

Synthesise knowledge from NbS Projects – The Commission has funded a large

number of NbS demonstration projects in the past 4 years that are expected to

make a significant impact to bridge the knowledge gap and advance the uptake

of NbS., The knowledge derived from the different NbS Demo Projects should

be synthesised in order to maximise the outcome from these projects and

accelerate the development of business case of NbS.

Develop Financing Tools - The ThinkNature project developed the SITE4NBS and

RISE4NBS methodologies that together illustrate a strategic process framework

used for identifying the key elements of a project needed to develop an NbS

business case and highlight the case specific data needs. The methodology

addresses several challenges including a paucity of existing data on NbS

performance assessment compared to traditional solutions, the need for a

much greater range of disciplinary expertise and a wider mix of stakeholders in

option selection, design, implementation and maintenance, and the need to

consider the novel methods of financing due to perceived investment risks as

determined traditionally by metrics such as the expected return on investment.

The business case for NbS methodology is available on-line

https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-deliverables. It is important to apply

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such methodologies to exemplary case studies to illustrate the business case

for NbS.

Establishing a community of practice for NbS

The ThinkNature strategy for stakeholder engagement has a three-prong approach:

ThinkNature Platform - The ThinkNature platform is an integrated multi-stakeholder

web solution designed to stir dialogue and interaction on NbS through discussion

forums and debates in order to identify regulatory, economic and technical barriers and

to communicate and promote successful NbS (https://platform.think-nature.eu/). The

platform has private and public accessible sections. The public section is the NbS

Knowledge Hub which includes: a) NbS Projects, a one place stop linking to NbS Project

sites and Platforms, b) Case Studies, a hub where one can explore exemplary NbS case

studies worldwide and c) Resources, a Knowledge Repository for online resources on

NbS state-of-the-art practise. The ThinkNature capacity building modules (case studies

portfolio, handbook, webinars, summer school and demonstrators) are important tools

towards enlarging and empowering the community of practice for NBS. The private

section of the platform is used to foster the dialogue on issues related to NbS,

stakeholder networking. The Networking Hub brings together multi-disciplinary NbS

expertise. More than 700 users have been registered. The Platform is widely accessed

and has more than 1500 unique visits on a monthly basis.

Establishment of the regional stakeholder networks - Four Regional Think and Do

Tanks covering the Mediterranean, Oceanic, Temperate Continental and Northern

Temperate regions have been established with their respective networks of Local

Representatives. The role of the Regional Think and Do Tanks is to influence policy

ideas and decisions concerning NbS as well as provide new ideas on how to tackle

regional problems. The Local Representatives participate in the Regional Think and Do

Tanks by providing input area concerning NbS technologies, market aspects, policy and

regulatory framework.

Brainstorming Forums – ThinkNature organised two brainstorming forums to engage

stakeholders in the uptake of NbS. The results have been synthesised in six ThinkNature

reports that are available on-line https://platform.think-nature.eu/project-deliverables

. More than 300 stakeholders participated in the two Forums and dialogue steering

sessions have identified typical barriers impeding the implementation of NbS,

knowledge gaps and financial and governance roadblocks that need to be overcome to

have successful NbS uptake.

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To continue on the ThinkNature advancements on stakeholder engagement we

recommend that the ThinkNature Platform is established as the main NbS knowledge hub

and a place for stakeholder engagement. The fact that every demonstration project has

developed a platform which claims also to have an NbS knowledge hub has created

confusion among the stakeholders and the role of the ThinkNature platform has to be

clarified and actively linked with the other projects. It is also extremely important to have

active engagement in the dialogue section of the platform of the demo project partners

and the EC officials in order to maximise its impacts and acceptance by the stakeholders.

Finally, we recommend that the structure of the Think-and-Do tanks and the Local

Representatives is continued in order to develop the regional networks that can identify

local adaptations for the uptake of NbS.

We recommend that the Commission considers, as part of the continuation of the

ThinkNature Platform, the creation of an “on-line helpdesk for NBS”. The concept of an

NbS helpdesk provides a unique contact/entry point for a variety of questions/problems.

In this way, the ThinkNature Platform will both efficiently disseminate NbS knowledge as

well as effectively transfer NbS knowledge.

As a conclusion

In the Handbook for NbS, we have elaborated 8 key recommendations for the enhanced

uptake of NbS. Of particular importance is the operationalisation of existing knowledge,

the harmonisation of policies and the means for innovative collaborations.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENHANCED NbS UPTAKE

1. Enhancement and harmonisation of the knowledge and evidence base on NbS

towards the formulation of global NbS standards

2. Development of adapted indicators for monitoring and evaluation

3. Interaction across disciplines and adoption of participatory approaches

4. Efficient dissemination of knowledge

5. Creation of funding opportunities and efficient business models

6. Harmonisation of policies and facilitation of synergies across scales and across

multiple agendas

7. Innovative collaborations and governance systems

8. Operationalisation of existing and new knowledge

This Policy Brief has been produced by the H2020 ThinkNature Project (Development of a multi-stakeholder

dialogue platform and Think tank to promote innovation with Nature based solutions - Project 730338)