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Encompassing measures including sustainable drainage systems (SuDS), rain gardens or green roofs to manage stormwater runoff, NbS support climate adaptation strategies through natural processes and ecosystems. They are also key to climate change mitigation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and storing CO2 while supporting flood prevention and biodiversity protection.

While NbS are not mandated in the UK, the Environment Act 2021 sets legally binding environmental targets, such as a 10% increase in biodiversity for developments in England, and government policies are designed to encourage NbS for achieving the target of net zero emissions by 2050. NbS are also attracting growing interest from the investment community due to their promise of long-term value creation, as they provide a buffer against the financial risks posed by climate change.

Despite this demand, their delivery has met challenges, from understanding when and where to implement NbS, to a lack of integrated approaches to financing, limited evidence of effectiveness and blockers to scaling up small, localised interventions to cover entire catchments and systems.

Digital tools and AI
Digital tools and AI are evolving to address these challenges, according to a report published by NCE. NCE Examines Nature-based Solutions + digital technology – in partnership with Arup, states that until now, major projects have typically only added ecological measures into late-stage designs.

However, Arup global digital nature leader Damien McCloud notes that increasingly, digital models, earth observation data, machine learning algorithms and AI are enabling teams to assess and integrate natural assets from the outset of projects.Arup nature leader Tom Butterworth adds that digital technology is playing a growing role in measuring the outcomes of NbS, noting that “if we’re going to work with our landscapes in this way, we need to be able to understand the benefits that these landscapes provide”.

Arup digital tools include NatureInsight, which features mapping and data analysis capabilities to identify optimal sites for nature-based interventions, assess their costs and benefits, and provide intelligence for decision-makers. “NatureInsight can pixelate an entire catchment project area and map the most suitable NbS opportunities, based on the different land types, terrain and hydrological flow dynamics,” McCloud explains.

“Each pixel uses a host of underlying datasets to identify the range of nature-based solutions available in a pixel alongside the various environmental benefits they can deliver, enabling informative decision-making to be applied to NbS business case development.”

Other Arup tools include Terrain, which analyses land use and can test future scenarios for sustainable land planning. WeatherShift uses climate projection data to collate data that supports design and the analysis of long-term performance, while UHeat identifies the materials and urban areas contributing to urban heat, enabling better integration of green spaces and cooling solutions.

These technologies have been used to capture satellite imagery on a city-wide scale and – via machine learning – analyse the urban typologies from that data. This provides information for understanding how to turn a city into a “sponge city” that can absorb water across its natural assets to mitigate against flooding.

Arup has also used its Earth observation expertise to understand biodiversity on a county-wide scale. For example, on the East West Rail (EWR) scheme, Earth observation data was used to classify habitats across the entire Oxford to Cambridge route early in the project.

Nature as a service 
“As digital tools enable the identification of optimal solutions, as well as facilitating the delivery of NbS at scale and supporting the benchmarking of their performance, it’s possible to envisage a longer-term ambition: the widespread, even nationwide, adoption of these approaches,” the report says.

From there, a vision for “nature as a service” is not that far away; one in which the benefits of nature are delivered and viewed as essential services, vital to economies and the environment.

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