While we would expect normal winter weather in our region in February, extreme climate events are showing their strength more and more often. A prime example is storm Nils, which hit southwest France in an uncharacteristically mild and rainy It literally ripped the roof off a house on February 1, lifting it seven meters into the air and throwing it ten meters away. At the same time, heavy rains and flooding in Portugal led to 16 deaths and forced 3,000 people to evacuate after the Mondego River burst its banks.

Global temperatures have already risen by around 1.1°C compared to pre-industrial times, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded with high certainty will lead to increased frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events in Europe. In some regions, extreme precipitation events have increased by up to 22 % over the past 50 years, radically increasing the risk of flooding in vulnerable areas. In the face of these changes, traditional concrete and engineering defence systems are beginning to reach their limits. The solution to this problem, which uses nature’s own strength instead of fighting it, is the so-called Nature-based Solutions (NbS). According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), these are measures that protect, sustainably manage and restore ecosystems in a way that effectively addresses societal challenges while also delivering benefits for human well-being and supporting biodiversity.

The Limits of Concrete: Why We Need to Make Space for Nature

„The earth and nature always win,“ says Hans Brouwer of the Dutch agency Rijkswaterstaat, reminding us that it is futile to resist the forces of nature where they are strongest. The Netherlands, a country historically vulnerable to flooding, experienced this awakening in the 1990s. After massive floods in 1993 and 1995, which displaced 220,000 people, engineers realized that the strategy of constantly raising dikes on soft peat soils was technically and environmentally unsustainable. Moreover, a potential breach of such high barriers would cause even more catastrophic damage.

The Netherlands' response was a massive national program Room for the River, in which the government invested 2.3 billion euros between 2006 and 2019. The 34 selected projects on the Rhine, Meuse, Waal and IJssel rivers were designed to safely accommodate flows of up to 16,000 m³ per second. Thanks to the creation of retention areas and around 2,000 hectares of new natural areas, the country has gained flood protection predicted until around 2050. Although experts are now preparing a „2.0“ version to deal with the unexpected drop in water levels and the deteriorating ecological quality of floodplains due to climate change, the approach of relying on nature itself is considered to be correct and self-sufficient.

City protection and irreplaceable additional benefits

NbS are of great importance in protecting urban infrastructure, as the European project NBSINFRA is investigating. In Cologne, Germany, researchers Ali Barrett and Christopher Munschauer document the success of integrating natural solutions. After the devastating floods of the 1990s, the city implemented a series of measures that now protect it from the so-called 200-year flood. Floodplains have been preserved and restored in the city, allowing minor floods to pass through without significant disruption to the city.

However, the key importance of NbS is their additional year-round benefits (co-benefits). These solutions act as natural filters for pollution, create refuges for animals, preserve local biodiversity and provide urban residents with attractive spaces for running, walking and relaxing. In addition, trees and vegetation provide a valuable cooling effect that mitigates high temperatures in overheated cities. According to researchers, this is not a battle between grey and green infrastructure, but rather a necessity for prevention. Natural solutions literally serve as climate protection, which protects property from sudden disasters and improves the quality of life of fauna, flora and people themselves throughout the year.

The role of the community: Shared design and local memory

As we discussed in more detail in our previous conversation, none of these solutions can work in the long term without the support of the population. In the Irish city of Swords, which is struggling with rapid population growth and the threat of flooding, they are testing the establishment of a green belt around the city. Preliminary findings show that well-designed NbS can significantly reduce the volume of flood waters in this location and minimize the need for civil engineering structures.

However, the cornerstone of success here is community participation and co-design and co-creation. Many residents subconsciously distrust natural solutions and fear that they are not robust enough compared to concrete. It is true that the greater the threat, the greater the fear of people. Local history and collective memory play a key role in shaping these attitudes – if a city wants to succeed, it must engage citizens in dialogue and connect modern solutions with their historical experience and culture.

It won't work without systemic change.

Despite its enormous importance, fragmented governance and institutional barriers prevent the wider deployment of NbS in Europe. As an expert from Berlin points out, natural solutions are often perceived by politicians today as just a „nice to have“. Although the tools to build them technically exist, the institutions are not built for the necessary interdepartmental cooperation between environmental funds, urban planners and climate authorities.

If we want to avoid the work of civil servants being a Sisyphean effort thwarted by short-term funding, it is necessary to adopt binding national and European legislative framework, which would support the implementation of NbS. At a time when winter storms are tearing roofs off homes, the cost of our inaction is no longer just an abstract number on paper. The question today is not whether nature-based solutions work, but whether our authorities and institutions can keep up with a rapidly changing climate. JRi&CO2AI