Nature-Based Solutions Deliver Cost-Effective Risk Reduction and Other Benefits for Communities, Ecosystems

To address mounting and varied disaster risks, resilience planners are increasingly turning to nature-based solutions that rely on natural processes and ecosystem services—ecological processes or functions that have value to people—to build resilience to floods, wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat. These innovative approaches include living shorelines buffering coastal communities from waves and storm surge, fire-adapted community development practices, tree plantings to cool urban neighborhoods that are subject to extreme heat, and constructed wetlands that retain water and combat drought.

The resources collected here reflect the efforts of The Pew Charitable Trusts to promote the use of nature-based solutions by state and local governments to help fortify communities in the face of more frequent and severe disasters.