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Despite the recognized potential of nature-based solutions (NBSs) to support climate adaptation, there are still wide barriers for a wider uptake of such NBS in urban areas. While tailored NBS tools could facilitate and accelerate this process, a comprehensive mapping of their availability and capacity to respond to cities’ challenges is missing. This research aims to provide an overview of tools that intend to facilitate the uptake of NBS for urban climate adaptation supporting cities in overcoming their challenges. To do so, this paper (i) presents the results of interviews and workshops with municipal officers and decision-makers from different European cities that identified the challenges they experience with NBS uptake; (ii) selects and reviews NBS tools and (iii) analyzes them on their capacity to address these implementation challenges. Our research revealed four key challenges that municipal officers experience: resources availability; level of expertise, know-how or competence; the institutional setting, and collaborative governance and planning. The results from the tools’ review show that existing tools can support overcoming a lack of expertise (31), but, to a smaller extent, can also be of use when experiencing the institutional setting (13), availability of resources (11), and collaborative governance and planning (10) as a challenge. This work provides researchers and tool developers with insights into potential market saturation as well as scarcity of certain types of tools that would match cities’ challenges, highlighting needs and opportunities for new tool development.
Ilse Voskamp; Claudia de Luca; Monserrat Polo-Ballinas; Helena Hulsman; Reinder Brolsma. Nature-Based Solutions Tools for Planning Urban Climate Adaptation: State of the Art. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6381 .
AMA StyleIlse Voskamp, Claudia de Luca, Monserrat Polo-Ballinas, Helena Hulsman, Reinder Brolsma. Nature-Based Solutions Tools for Planning Urban Climate Adaptation: State of the Art. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (11):6381.
Chicago/Turabian StyleIlse Voskamp; Claudia de Luca; Monserrat Polo-Ballinas; Helena Hulsman; Reinder Brolsma. 2021. "Nature-Based Solutions Tools for Planning Urban Climate Adaptation: State of the Art." Sustainability 13, no. 11: 6381.
Planning Support Systems (PSS) are increasingly used to support collaborative planning workshops in urban adaptation practice. Research has focused on developing such tools and evaluating their use in workshops but has not measured tools’ effects over time on real planning processes, on the participants involved, and on the final outcomes. The role that tools play in adaptation planning, therefore, remains unclear. A longitudinal case study was made to evaluate a PSS, the Adaptation Support Tool (AST), in a design workshop for sustainable urban water management, in Berlin, Germany. The case study also served to test the evaluation framework and generate insights regarding systematic evaluations of tools in planning processes. The case study was carried out over eighteen months, to capture both the details of the workshop and its longer-term effects on the project and participants. Our results show that the AST’s most evident effects were (1) contributory and less tangible in nature (e.g., supporting learning), than directly causal and concrete (e.g., affecting planning decisions), and (2) a function of the process and context in which the workshop took place. This study demonstrates that making systematic, longitudinal evaluations are valuable for studying the role of PSS in urban adaptation planning.
Sadie McEvoy; Frans H. M. Van De Ven; Reinder Brolsma; Jill H. Slinger. Evaluating a Planning Support System’s Use and Effects in Urban Adaptation: An Exploratory Case Study from Berlin, Germany. Sustainability 2019, 12, 173 .
AMA StyleSadie McEvoy, Frans H. M. Van De Ven, Reinder Brolsma, Jill H. Slinger. Evaluating a Planning Support System’s Use and Effects in Urban Adaptation: An Exploratory Case Study from Berlin, Germany. Sustainability. 2019; 12 (1):173.
Chicago/Turabian StyleSadie McEvoy; Frans H. M. Van De Ven; Reinder Brolsma; Jill H. Slinger. 2019. "Evaluating a Planning Support System’s Use and Effects in Urban Adaptation: An Exploratory Case Study from Berlin, Germany." Sustainability 12, no. 1: 173.