Naturescapes Scorecard
As policy-makers and the private sector increasingly fund nature-based solutions (NBS), there is a need for a way to rapidly assess sets of hundreds or thousands of NBS, in a variety of diverse political, social, and ecological contexts. As part of the Naturescapes collaboration, we have developed a scoring methodology that is designed to close this knowledge gap.
The overall Naturescapes project studies NBS from a landscape perspective, asking the question as to whether and how multiple NBS at a landscape scale can create synergistic outcomes that address long-standing socio-economic challenges, enhance biodiversity and respond to climate change.
We study diverse social, cultural, economic and geographical settings across 30 functional urban areas (FUAs) with a specific focus on 12 case studies in the European Union, Latin America and the United States of America. As part of that work, Naturescapes researchers have mapped and characterized 390 NBS across these 30 FUAs.
The Naturescapes project uses the concept of a functional urban area (FUA) as the macro scale spatial unit of analysis. As a joint development concept by the EC and the OECD, a FUA is composed of a given densely inhabited city and its surrounding area and commuting zone, thus encompassing both the functional and economic character of cities based on their population movements.
The Naturescapes scorecard aims to serve as a simple starting point for understanding individual NBS impacts and the impacts across NBS assemblages (which we call “naturescapes”) in specific thematic domains or areas.
Our scoring methodology considers four interrelated thematic areas: Climate, Biodiversity, Social Justice, and Transformative Potential. Under each theme, we identified a set of indicators to illustrate spatially explicit environmental outcomes and broader socio-economic and strategic results of NBS implementation.
Climate
The Climate theme assesses the contribution of NBSs to climate change mitigation and adaptation through impacts on land surface temperature reduction, carbon storage, and stormwater retention and compare the contributions with climate-related ambitions.
Biodiversity
The Biodiversity theme evaluates potential NBS impacts on biodiversity in terms of habitat protection and ecosystem connectivity, as well as comparing performance against declared biodiversity goals.
Social Justice
The Social Justice theme focuses on the accessibility and equitable distribution of NBS benefits, including the proximity of people to green and blue spaces, recreational opportunities, and inclusion. It also evaluates these impacts related to social justice-related ambitions.
Transformative Potential
Lastly, the Transformative Potential theme considers the long-term sustainability and systemic impact of NBS by assessing the quality of project design, integration of long-term and cross-cutting perspectives, and considerations given to stakeholder diversity.