Political commitment
Catchment-fit NBS require long-term political commitment because their benefits often extend across departments, administrative boundaries, and political cycles. Therefore, it must be seen as support from all relevant actors not only as priorities of elected politicians.
Catchment-fit NBS rarely emerge because of a single environmental objective. Political support is usually built by connecting NBS to existing priorities that already matter to decision-makers, such as flood prevention, infrastructure resilience, urban attractiveness, biodiversity, climate adaptation, public health, or quality of life. Successful cities do not present catchment-fit NBS as a new agenda competing for attention, but as a solution that helps deliver multiple existing goals simultaneously.
Building political commitment can be seen as a shared mission that can be understood and supported by different departments and stakeholders. This involves translating technical stormwater challenges and catchment goals into broader societal benefits, demonstrating successful examples, and creating a common narrative that explains why coordinated action is needed at catchment scale.
Political support becomes stronger when responsibilities are clear, benefits are visible, and the mission survives changes in personnel and political leadership.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged to gain, build and widen political support?
Political commitment is carried by the municipal departments closest to catchment level interventions. These departments are urban planning, public works, or environmental services, or they can also be represented by a coordinator who brings the case to leadership and decision makers. Other stakeholders are engaged at a level matching their roles. City councils and elected officials sit outside the ladder, as they are not a group to consult.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Municipal finance department | Own budget lines | Mission holder |
| Water utilities and drainage operators | Co-finance and co-own delivery via tariffs/drainage budgets | Involve |
| Infrastructure, public works & environmental depts. | Integrate NBS into own programmes, while sharing costs and benefits | Involve |
| City development agencies | Coordinate developer contributions | Consult |
| Private investors & institutions | Supplementary source in financing | Inform, Consult |
How can cities build and maintain political support for catchment-fit NBS across different governance and spatial scales?
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Typically EU countries have good rationale in place both for sustainable stormwater management, urban biodiversity enhancement as well as NBS deployment. Exploit the national (and global) rationale as resources and inputs for gaining policy support in the city level.
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Integrate catchment-fit NBS deployment rationale in:
Critical:
- City Strategies & mayoral programmes: prioritize NBS deployment as multibenefit solutions for stormwater management and placemaking, prove NBS as cost-optimal solutions that need to be integrated across different construction and reconstruction projects. Assign resources for catchment planning, NBS planning & maintenance capacity as well as for stable funding of NBS deployment.
- City masterplan: integrate catchment thinking in spatial planning. Show flow routes, define green-blue ratio and stormwater detention goals for new developed sites;
- City Stormwater strategy: integrate catchment planning, analyze flood risk of catchments, define runoff detention goals for developed sites. Prioritize NBS deployment for optimization of urban drainage network.
- Secure long-term commitment through strategies, budgets, programmes, and institutional responsibilities.
Recommended:
- Build a shared city-wide mission around catchment-fit NBS. Ensure that political leaders understand NBS as strategic investments rather than isolated environmental projects. Connect NBS to priorities that matter to decision-makers, such as flood prevention, urban quality, economic development, infrastructure costs, climate adaptation, and citizen wellbeing.
- Integrate catchment-fit NBS in different aligning policy documents, like climate plan, biodiversity strategy, mobility plan etc.
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Formalize catchment planning in municipality. Show how sewage separation, stormwater quality, flood prevention and mitigation goals can be supported with sustainable landuse planning in the catchments as well as systemic NBS deployment in right areas.
Critical:
- Compile catchment plans for urban watersheds. Understand the hierarchy of the urban catchments (interconnected system of river basins, catchments, sewersheds and subcatchments). Analyze existing and future flood risk, existing natural drainage pathways, sewage separation need, drainage optimization. Show both the needs (stormwater challenges) and opportunities (sites where it is possible to implement interventions) and simulate the effect of implementation with modelling tools. Define catchment level runoff detention goals for each new developed area.
- When deciding on investments prioritize interventions according to their catchment-wide benefits rather than site-specific opportunities alone.
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Formalize catchment planning in municipality in new developed areas and large reconstruction projects.
Critical:
- Require developers to demonstrate how projects comply with catchment-level runoff, water quality, and flood mitigation objectives. Secure that the city policies allow to control and regulate the designs of new developed areas in accordance with catchment goals.
- Set policy goals to coordinate multiple developments within the same sub-catchment to avoid cumulative impacts.
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Build acceptance among property owners and project implementers. Demonstrate practical benefits such as reduced flooding, improved environmental quality, enhanced property value, lower infrastructure costs, and improved liveability. Clarify responsibilities for implementation and maintenance.
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Build confidence through successful implementation and visible results. Well-functioning NBS create evidence that supports future investment and policy decisions. Monitoring, maintenance, demonstration projects, and communication of benefits help strengthen trust in the approach.
Financing
Successful NBS implementation depends on stable and coordinated financing throughout the entire lifecycle of interventions. Financing catchment-fit NBS is not primarily about finding grants. It is about aligning investments that are already taking place in cities. Streets are reconstructed, parks are renewed, drainage systems are upgraded, and new developments are built every year. The challenge is to ensure that these investments contribute to catchment objectives rather than undermine them.
Successful cities build financial support by demonstrating that NBS can reduce long-term costs, avoid future flood damages, postpone expensive grey infrastructure upgrades, and generate additional benefits for biodiversity and public space quality. Financing becomes more stable when NBS are integrated into regular investment programmes and when different departments recognize that they share both the costs and benefits of implementation. Special stormwater tariff that is exploited for drainage system investments and maintenance is a good practice many cities implement.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged to establish a solid financing model?
Financing is carried out by the municipal finance department in collaboration with city leadership and budget committees, who own the budget and decide whether NBS become a part of investments. Their task is to align spending already happening, while others are engaged at the level that secures that alignment, as seen in the table below.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Municipal finance department | Own budget lines | Mission holder |
| Water utilities and drainage operators | Co-finance and co-own delivery via tariffs/drainage budgets | Involve |
| Infrastructure, public works & environmental depts. | Integrate NBS into own programmes, while sharing costs and benefits | Involve |
| City development agencies | Coordinate developer contributions | Consult |
| Private investors & institutions | Supplementary source in financing | Inform, Consult |
How can cities mobilize and coordinate investments to maximize catchment-wide benefits from NBS?
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National and EU funding programmes create important opportunities for accelerating NBS deployment and building municipal capacity. Monitor available funding instruments and use national priorities related to climate adaptation, biodiversity, water quality, and resilience to justify investments in catchment-fit NBS. Never rely solely on grants.
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Establish a long-term financing framework that treats catchment-fit NBS as a core component of urban infrastructure investment. Rather than depending on grants for investments, find solutions to finance NBS from municipal budgets, development fees or other stable funding sources.
Critical:
- Secure stable municipal funding for catchment planning, project preparation, implementation, monitoring, and maintenance.
- Enforce policies that require catchment integration, establish permitting system which enables control and assurance of its implementation.
- Integrate NBS into capital investment programmes for streets, parks, public spaces, utilities, urban regeneration projects, and climate adaptation measures.
- Develop financial justification for NBS by demonstrating avoided flood damages, deferred drainage investments, biodiversity gains, and public realm improvements.
- Define institutional responsibilities for financing NBS across municipal departments and utilities.
Recommended:
- Develop blended financing models combining municipal budgets, utility investments, development contributions, grants, and external funding programmes.
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Prioritize investments based on catchment-wide performance rather than individual project opportunities.
Critical:
- Use catchment plans to identify where investments generate the highest benefits for flood mitigation, water quality improvement, biodiversity enhancement, and drainage optimization. Compare NBS investments against conventional grey infrastructure alternatives at catchment scale.
- Develop investment priorities based on modelling and evidence rather than administrative boundaries or land availability alone.
Recommended:
Coordinate investments between municipalities, utilities, transport authorities, environmental agencies, and landowners where benefits are shared across the catchment.
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Ensure that new developments contribute fairly to catchment objectives and do not create future financial burdens for the municipality.
Critical:
- Require developers to finance site-level measures necessary to comply with catchment runoff and water quality objectives.
- Encourage developers to use NBS as value-adding features that improve attractiveness, property value, and place quality.
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Clarify responsibilities for financing implementation, operation, and maintenance of site-scale measures. Provide simple guidance on the economic benefits of source-control measures such as rain gardens, green roofs, permeable surfaces, and rainwater harvesting.
Critical:
Create incentives that encourage property owners to invest in stormwater management and NBS implementation.
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Ensure that individual NBS assets remain financially sustainable throughout their lifecycle. Prefer robust & cost-optimal solutions.
Catchment integration as part of spatial planning
Stormwater challenges emerge at catchment scale, yet decisions are often made at site scale. Catchment integration as part of spatial planning helps align planning, investments, and interventions so that individual actions contribute to wider water management objectives.
One of the greatest barriers to effective NBS deployment is that most decisions are made within administrative or project boundaries, while stormwater follows catchment boundaries. Catchment integration therefore begins by helping stakeholders understand how their actions influence the wider system.
Cities can build support for catchment thinking by making water flows visible, demonstrating how upstream and downstream areas are connected, and showing how local decisions affect flood risk, water quality, and ecosystem health elsewhere in the catchment.
Catchment plans provide a common reference point that allows planners, utilities, developers, and decision-makers to align their actions around shared objectives rather than individual projects. Trust develops when stakeholders see that catchment planning creates a fair and transparent basis for prioritizing interventions and investments.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged to establish an integrated catchment planning approach?
Integrated catchment planning is carried by the spatial planning and stormwater or drainage departments together. The catchment plan itself becomes the shared reference point; others are involved to the degree their actions shape catchment performance. The exact group of stakeholders that need to be engaged depend on the catchment character – especially existing and planned landuse. Since the catchment greening can not be achieved solely by the city, it is necessary to engage and empower private property owners, industries and businesses as well as farmers to take action. Catchment resilience can be achieved by joint effort.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Stormwater and drainage departments | Compile and align catchment plans across boundaries | Mission holder |
| Water utilities | Drainage network knowledge; discharge and detention targets | Collaborate |
| Environmental and climate adaptation teams | Water quality, biodiversity, climate objectives into the plan | Collaborate |
| Transport, mobility, parks and green space departments | Shape catchment performance | Collaborate |
| River basin organizations, relevant NGOs, private entities | Connect city catchments to the wider basin and RBMP measures | Collaborate |
| Neighboring municipalities | Coordinate where catchments cross municipal boundaries | Collaborate |
How can cities ensure that decisions at different spatial scales contribute to the performance of the entire catchment?
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National policies and regulations recognize catchments as the appropriate unit for managing stormwater, water quality, flood risk, and ecosystem health. Discharge permits, RBMP measures, national flood mitigation strategies and other policies enforce the catchment-fit NBS rationale.
Critical:
- Promote integrated water management principles that connect land use planning, urban development, drainage systems, biodiversity protection, and waterbody status objectives.
- Provide methodologies, datasets, modelling guidance, and regulatory frameworks that support catchment-based planning.
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Establish catchments as a recognized planning and decision-making unit across municipal departments.
Critical:
- Establish comprehensive understanding on the city blue-green infrastructures. Delineate catchments and map drainage networks, identify high flood risk catchments for which to compile catchment plans.
- Integrate catchment thinking into city masterplans, stormwater strategies, climate adaptation plans, biodiversity strategies, and infrastructure investment programmes. Develop a shared understanding of how urban development, transportation, parks, utilities, and public space investments influence catchment performance. Assign responsibility for coordinating catchment-level planning across departments.
- Ensure that city-wide objectives for flood risk reduction, water quality improvement, biodiversity enhancement, and climate adaptation are translated into catchment-specific targets.
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Use catchments as the primary scale for understanding stormwater management challenges and identifying solutions.
Critical:
- Map flow routes, drainage systems, receiving water bodies, flood-prone areas, ecological networks, and development pressures. Assess current and future flood risk, runoff generation, water quality issues, sewer overflow risks, and climate change impacts. Identify both challenges and opportunities for intervention and evaluate alternative scenarios using modelling tools.
- Compile catchment plans for urban watersheds and understand the hierarchy of river basins, catchments, sewersheds, and sub-catchments.
- Prioritize interventions according to their contribution to catchment-wide objectives.
- Define runoff detention, discharge, and water quality targets for different parts of the catchment based on the performance goals.
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Ensure that site level planning contributes positively to catchment objectives.
Critical:
- Require new developments and regeneration projects to demonstrate compliance with catchment-level runoff, flood mitigation, and water quality targets. Control and rreserve natural drainage pathways and integrate blue-green corridors into development plans.
- Where ever possible integrate NBS into reconstruction projects for public spaces, streets, utility corridors, and landscape design from the earliest planning stages.
Recommended:
Demonstrate that cumulative impacts of development do not compromise catchment performance.
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Ensure that site-scale interventions contribute to wider catchment objectives.
Critical:
- Control whether projects apply source-control measures that reduce runoff generation and improve water quality before water enters the drainage network.
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Ensure that individual NBS assets perform their intended role within the wider catchment system. Clearly define the hydraulic, water quality, biodiversity, and amenity functions of each NBS element to be met in design of actual solutions.
Design of NBS
Good NBS design translates catchment objectives into practical interventions that deliver hydraulic, ecological, and social benefits. Effective designs consider both local site conditions and the role of each intervention within the wider blue-green infrastructure network.
Design is where strategic ambitions become practical interventions. Good design requires bringing together expertise from different disciplines and ensuring that NBS are not treated as isolated landscape features but as components of a larger blue-green infrastructure network.
Cities can strengthen support for NBS through design processes that are collaborative, evidence-based, and transparent. Designers, engineers, planners, ecologists, and maintenance teams should jointly define how interventions contribute to catchment objectives and what functions they are expected to deliver. Communities and landowners must be engaged to maximize the benefits of NBS and grow ownership for the solutions. Trust grows when designs clearly demonstrate how NBS create multiple amenities while remaining feasible, maintainable, and cost-effective.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged for co-designing meaningful NBS?
Design is carried by the municipal urban design and stormwater specialists, who come together to an interdisciplinary process. This is the first function where engagement reaches genuine collaboration. Designers, engineers, ecologists, maintenance teams, and communities define what each intervention must deliver.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Urban designers, planners and stormwater specialists | Lead the interdisciplinary design | Mission holder |
| Consultants and designers (landscape architects, hydraulic/civil engineers) | Translate objectives into buildable, multifunctional design | Collaborate |
| Municipal ecologists, biodiversity and future maintenance teams | Embed ecological function and maintainability from the start | Collaborate |
| Local communities and end users | Co-design site; enhance benefits and ownership | Collaborate |
| Utility companies | Hydraulic interfaces, connections, performance requirements | Involve |
| Developers | Align site design with catchment and quality requirements | Consult |
| Procurement specialists | Quality assurance; compliant procurement of the design | Consult |
How can cities design NBS that function as interconnected elements of a catchment-wide system?
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Comprehensive design guidance for NBS have been developed in various projects as well as these have been adapted to different geographical contexts by lighthouse regions. Exploit these and promote interdisciplinary design approaches that combine hydrology, engineering, ecology, landscape architecture, and urban planning.
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Agree city-wide design principles that ensure NBS contribute to catchment objectives and urban quality goals.
Critical:
- Identify existing or develop local design guidelines that serve as proof of concept for designers.
- Define performance requirements related to runoff reduction, water quality improvement, biodiversity enhancement, climate adaptation, and public space quality. Agree these with stormwater utility and different engaged departments (planning, urban design, maintenance etc).
- Ensure that NBS design requirements are integrated into planning regulations, procurement procedures, and development agreements.
- Promote interdisciplinary collaboration between planners, engineers, landscape architects, ecologists, and maintenance teams from the earliest design stages.
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Define design criteria based on catchment objectives (runoff control, water quality enhancement, biodiversity enhancement, restoration of historic flow paths or other). Ensure that NBS interventions form a connected system rather than a collection of isolated projects.
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Incorporate sufficient space for blue-green infrastructure in comprehensive plans before technical layouts become fixed. Preserve natural drainage pathways and landscape features that support stormwater management. Coordinate designs across multiple projects within the same sub-catchment.
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Ensure that site-level design supports both local and catchment-wide performance goals. Apply the source-control principle by managing stormwater as close as possible to where rainfall occurs.
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Ensure that individual NBS assets are fit for purpose and perform reliably throughout their lifecycle.
Critical:
- Select NBS types according to local soil conditions, groundwater levels, available space, hydraulic loading, maintenance capacity, and intended ecosystem services.
- Clearly define design objectives and performance criteria for each asset.
- Engage residents, community groups and possible end users to co-design of the solution, to amplify the impact of various benefits NBS sites can deliver.
- Incorporate maintenance requirements, accessibility, and monitoring needs into the design.
- Provide quality assurance throughout detailed design and construction.
- Instruct designs about maintenance access, lifecycle performance, and user safety.
Recommended:
Monitor performance and use lessons learned to continuously improve future designs and municipal design standards.
Construction of NBS
The benefits envisioned during planning and design can only be achieved through high-quality implementation. Construction processes must protect the intended function of NBS and ensure that assets are delivered according to design requirements.
Many NBS projects lose functionality during implementation because the original design intent is not fully understood by contractors, supervisors, or project managers. Construction should not be viewed as a purely technical phase, but as a process of safeguarding the mission and ensuring that strategic objectives are translated into physical reality.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged for actually deploying intended NBS?
Construction is carried out by the municipal project managers and procurement departments, whose task is to safeguard the design through delivery, ensuring that NBS is not losing function. The scope for stakeholder influence is deliberately narrow here, as most parties are informed of requirements and held to them.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Municipal project managers and procurement departments | Safeguard design intent; quality-based procurement and oversight | Mission holder |
| Construction companies | Build to approved design and performance requirements | Collaborate |
| Supervisors, QA and environmental inspectors | inspections; verify against acceptance criteria | Collaborate |
| Future maintenance operators | Receive handover, manuals, data | Collaborate |
| Utility companies | Coordinate connections and protect drainage functions | Inform |
| Developers | Protect allocated NBS space; meet construction milestones | Inform |
How can cities ensure that catchment objectives and design intentions are successfully delivered during implementation?
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National regulations, standards, and procurement frameworks should support high-quality implementation of NBS.
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Ensure that procurement regulations and procedures allow quality assurance and performance testing. Apply procurement criteria that consider environmental outcomes rather than lowest construction cost alone. Establish organizational capacity to ensure that NBS projects are delivered according to design intent.
Critical:
- Establish municipal construction requirements, inspection procedures, and acceptance criteria for NBS.
- Build internal expertise for supervising NBS construction and reviewing contractor performance.
- Allocate sufficient resources for construction oversight and quality assurance.
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Ensure that construction activities contribute to catchment objectives and do not compromise system performance. Coordinate construction activities between projects within the same catchment where possible.
Critical:
- Protect existing natural drainage pathways and ecosystem functions during construction works.
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Protect allocated space for NBS throughout the construction process and avoid decisions that reduce future functionality.
Critical:
- Integrate NBS construction milestones into broader project management and quality assurance processes.
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Deliver site-scale NBS according to approved designs and performance requirements.
Critical:
- Clearly define responsibilities for commissioning, handover, and maintenance.
- Ensure proper installation of soils, vegetation, drainage layers, infiltration systems, and hydraulic structures. Prevent compaction, contamination, or other construction practices that reduce long-term functionality.
- Conduct site inspections during key construction stages rather than relying solely on final acceptance checks.
Recommended:
Document lessons learned and construction challenges to improve future projects.
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Ensure that individual NBS assets are constructed as designed and ready for long-term operation. Use completed projects as demonstration sites to showcase good construction practices and build confidence among practitioners and decision-makers.
Critical:
- Verify dimensions, elevations, storage volumes, soil specifications, vegetation establishment, hydraulic controls, and connectivity with surrounding systems.
Recommended:
- Establish baseline monitoring data where appropriate.
- Conduct commissioning and functionality testing before handover.
Maintenance of NBS
NBS are living systems whose performance depends on long-term care and management. NBS only remain credible if they continue to function over time. Poorly maintained assets can quickly undermine confidence among politicians, practitioners, and citizens. Conversely, well-maintained NBS become powerful demonstrations of the long-term value of nature-based approaches.
Effective maintenance ensures that assets continue to provide stormwater, biodiversity, and public space benefits throughout their lifecycle. Successful cities establish clear responsibilities, provide adequate resources, and ensure that operators understand the intended functions of NBS. Trust is reinforced when assets remain attractive, functional, and visibly contribute to flood management and urban quality.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged for sustaining NBS maintenance?
Maintenance is carried out by the municipal maintenance and asset management departments, jointly with water utilities. NBS are living systems depending on continued function, the people who use and steward the sites are involved into ongoing care. Therefore, engagement reaches collaboration through local stewardship.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance and asset management departments | Own operation, budgets, inspection regimes | Mission holder |
| Landscape maintenance contractors | Routine care matched to NBS function | Collaborate |
| Ecologists and arborists | Guide care as vegetation and ecosystem mature | Collaborate |
| Housing associations and property owners | Maintain site-scale assets; understand their obligations | Collaborate |
| Community groups and volunteers | Local stewardship sustains function and visible value | Empower |
How can cities maintain NBS so that they continue to deliver their intended benefits over time?
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National frameworks should recognize maintenance as an essential component of NBS performance rather than an afterthought. Support professional education and capacity building for municipal staff, contractors, and landscape maintenance providers.
Promote lifecycle approaches that consider long-term functionality alongside implementation. It is encouraged to develop national maintenance manuals, benchmarking systems, and knowledge-sharing platforms that help municipalities learn from practical experiences.
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Establish organizational structures, responsibilities, and resources that support long-term NBS performance and adaptive management that considers the evolving nature of NBS. Build institutional expertise within municipal departments and service providers. Develop asset management systems that integrate NBS into existing infrastructure management processes.
Critical:
- Clearly assign responsibility for operation and maintenance of different NBS types according their functionality rather than aesthetical appearance.
- Secure stable budgets for routine maintenance, inspections, repairs, and renewal activities.
- Establish feedback loops that ensure that maintenance requirements are considered during planning, design, procurement, and construction.
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Manage NBS as components of a larger catchment system rather than as isolated assets.
Critical:
Coordinate maintenance activities across multiple assets and stakeholders within the same catchment.
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Ensure that responsibilities for long-term operation are established before project handover. Clearly define ownership, maintenance obligations, and funding arrangements for NBS assets in development agreements.
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Ensure that property owners and operators understand their role in maintaining NBS functionality. Communicate the environmental and economic benefits of maintenance to encourage long-term stewardship.
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Maintain individual NBS assets so that they continue to provide their intended hydraulic, ecological, and social functions.
Critical:
- Conduct regular inspections and maintenance activities appropriate to the NBS type and based on the maintenance plans integrated to the design.
- Monitor vegetation establishment, sediment accumulation, erosion, hydraulic performance, and structural condition. Respond promptly to signs of declining performance. Adapt maintenance practices as the ecosystem matures and site conditions change.
- Document maintenance actions and observed performance.
Learning and adapting
No city starts with a perfect model for catchment-fit NBS. Learning and adaptation acknowledge that implementation takes place under uncertainty and that both urban systems and ecosystems evolve over time. Successful cities therefore treat NBS deployment and catchment integration as a continuous learning process rather than a fixed programme.
Cities operate in changing environmental, social, and institutional conditions. Learning and adaptation enable municipalities to improve their practices, update priorities, and strengthen NBS performance based on experience and evidence gained from monitoring. Ultimately, learning and adaptation are what transform individual projects into a long-term municipal capability for delivering catchment-fit NBS.
Which stakeholders need to be engaged for building the learning culture?
Start with learning and adapting internally and expand the learnings across all stakeholders listed under previous functions.
Learning is carried by the city itself. There is no single owner. The goal is to build an organisational culture. It begins internally, in cross-departmental learning forums, then expands to every stakeholder listed under the previous functions. The function of reaching empowerment lies in the definition of what success means and carrying the mission forward. This is what turns individual projects into lasting municipal capabilities.
| Stakeholder | Role | Engagement |
|---|---|---|
| City | Owns the learning culture; turns monitoring into decisions | Mission holder |
| Planners, engineers, ecologists and maintenance teams | Feed practical experience back into standards and design | Collaborate |
| Researchers and monitoring partners | Generate evidence on performance and governance | Collaborate |
| Property owners, developers, housing associations | Peer learning; site-scale monitoring obligations | Involve, collaborate |
| Community groups and volunteers | Demonstration sites build confidence; help define success | Empower |
How can cities use monitoring, experience, and collaboration to continuously improve catchment-fit NBS implementation?
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National institutions should support the generation, sharing, and transfer of knowledge on NBS performance and governance. Develop national monitoring frameworks, research programmes, and knowledge-sharing platforms for NBS. Support long-term studies on stormwater management, biodiversity, climate adaptation, and ecosystem services. Facilitate exchange of experiences between cities, regions, practitioners, and researchers.
Recommended:
Develop national databases, case study repositories, and performance benchmarks that help municipalities learn from previous projects.
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Create an organizational culture that values evidence-based decision-making and continuous improvement. Ensure that monitoring results influence future strategies, budgets, standards, and investment priorities. Allocate resources and responsibilities for knowledge management and organizational learning.
Recommended:
- Establish monitoring frameworks that evaluate progress towards city-wide objectives.
- Create cross-departmental learning forums that bring together planners, engineers, landscape architects, environmental specialists, and maintenance teams.
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Monitor whether catchment objectives related to flood mitigation, runoff reduction, water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem connectivity are being achieved.
Critical:
- Periodically review catchment plans based on monitoring results, urban development trends, and climate change projections.
- Evaluate whether interventions are delivering expected benefits at catchment scale rather than only at individual sites.
Recommended:
Compare outcomes across catchments to identify effective practices and transferable solutions.
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Ensure that lessons from completed projects improve future developments.
Critical:
Define and ensure implementation of monitoring obligations of developers and property owners.
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Support learning among property owners, developers, and site managers. Monitor performance of site-scale measures and identify common implementation and maintenance challenges. Provide feedback and guidance that helps site owners improve long-term performance.
Recommended:
Promote peer learning between property owners, housing associations, developers, and community groups.
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Learn from the performance of individual NBS assets and use this knowledge to improve future practice.
Critical:
- Monitor hydraulic performance, water quality impacts, biodiversity outcomes, maintenance requirements, and user experiences where appropriate.
- Identify causes of both successful and underperforming assets.
- Use monitoring results to improve design standards, construction practices, maintenance procedures, and investment decisions.
- Recognize that adaptation may involve modifying, upgrading, repurposing, or replacing NBS as conditions change over time.
Recommended:
Use demonstration sites to communicate lessons learned and build confidence among practitioners, decision-makers, and citizens.