This website brings together the experiences of the City Blues partner cities in planning, implementing, and mainstreaming catchment-fit nature-based solutions (NBS) for stormwater management.

Nature-based solutions are multifunctional and cost-effective measures that protect, restore, or create ecosystems while addressing societal challenges such as flooding, water pollution, climate adaptation, biodiversity loss, and urban liveability. This website focuses on their role in stormwater management at the catchment scale.

To deliver meaningful impacts, NBS should be planned as part of a coordinated catchment-wide system rather than as isolated interventions. Catchment-fit NBS can reduce runoff and flood risk, improve water quality, strengthen urban resilience, and provide wider environmental and social benefits.

The City Blues NBS Model synthesises the experiences of partner cities into a practical framework that helps municipalities interested in replicating the approach understand where they are today, identify opportunities for improvement, and strengthen the conditions needed for successful catchment-fit NBS implementation.

The website is organised into three sections:

• NBS Model explains the concept, key principles and success factors for the governance model, its shared implementation logic, and key elements that enable cities to mainstream catchment-fit NBS.
• Catalogue of Practices showcases practical examples, tools, and approaches used by partner cities that have different capacities, operational setups and local stormwater management challenges. While the governance settings differ, there are different approaches how to handle the same challenges and tasks.
• Transition Stories presents real-world experiences of cities, highlighting challenges, lessons learned, and pathways towards more integrated and effective NBS governance.

Join us to make the use of nature-based solutions mainstream!