Evaluation of Publicly Accessible Nature-Based Solutions Databases as Sources for Evidence of Effectiveness
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2024-07-24
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Abstract
Nature-based solutions (NBS) are “actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment” (White House Council on Environmental Quality, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House Domestic Climate Policy Office 2022). They present opportunities to tackle both the climate and biodiversity crises simultaneously by supporting carbon sequestration by ecosystems, enhancing community resilience to climate hazards, and providing high-quality habitats for diverse species. However, uncertainty around the performance and reliability of NBS continues to be raised by engineers, local decision-makers, grant-makers, and the insurance industry as an obstacle for widespread implementation of NBS at scale. This uncertainty indicates the need for comprehensive and accessible data on NBS projects and outcomes that could be used to develop engineering standards, assess projects’ cost-benefit ratio, and incorporate NBS into insurance premium pricing.
This report evaluates the NBS data currently available through publicly available databases relative to the information needs described above. In total, 27 databases with publicly available, structured information on NBS research studies (6 databases) or individual projects (21 databases) were assessed for their utility as well as geographic and topical coverage.
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Warnell, Katie, and Lydia Olander (2024). Evaluation of Publicly Accessible Nature-Based Solutions Databases as Sources for Evidence of Effectiveness. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/31682.
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Katie Warnell
Katie Warnell is a senior policy associate for the Ecosystem Services Program. She is a graduate of Duke University’s Master of Environment Management program with a concentration in ecosystem science and conservation and was awarded a geospatial analysis certificate. She has served as an intern at the Triangle Land Conservancy and as a research tech with the Duke University Superfund Research Center. She has conducted research on South Africa’s bats with the Organization for Tropical Studies and was involved in a DukeEngage project on fish farming in Ecuador.
Lydia Olander
Lydia Olander is a program director at the Nicholas Institute for Energy Environment & Sustainability at Duke University and adjunct professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment. She works on improving evidence-based policy and accelerating implementation of climate resilience, nature-based solutions, natural capital accounting, and environmental markets. She leads the National Ecosystem Services Partnership and sits on Duke’s Climate Commitment action team. She recently spent two years with the Biden administration at the Council on Environmental Quality as Director of Nature based Resilience and before that spent five years on the Environmental Advisory Board for the US Army Corps of Engineers. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and widely published researcher. Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, she spent a year as an AAAS Congressional Science and Technology Fellow working with Senator Joseph Lieberman on environmental and energy issues. She was a college scholar at Cornell University and earned her Master of Forest Science from Yale University and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
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