Resources
For more information on natural and nature-based solutions, check out these resources.
What are Natural and Nature-Based Solutions?
Webinars
Paradise, Parking Lot… or Both? Restoring SC’s Natural Defenses by Elizabeth Fly, PhD (The Nature Conservancy) and Joshua Robinson, PE (Robinson Design Engineers)
Articles
Now We Are Asking Nature to Solve the Problems We Created by Anushuya Thapa
Guidebooks
NOAA Climate Resilience & Adaptation Guidebooks
Ready-to-Fund Resilience supports practitioners’ work within the climate resilience funding and finance system.
Centering Equity in Climate Resilience Planning and Action: a Practitioner’s Guide recommends equity principles to apply during adaptation and resilience planning.
Moving from Faith-based to Tested Adaptation Process and Approach: How Will We Know We’re Adapting? emphasizes evaluation and measurement of adaptation practices.
Incorporating Nature-based Solutions into Community Climate Adaptation Planning uses the “Steps to Resilience” framework to explore nature-based adaptation.
Implementing the Steps to Resilience: A Practitioner's Guide, a handbook for national climate resilience. The resource is designed to help climate adaptation practitioners work with local governments and community organizations to incorporate climate risk and equity into their long-term decision making.
Reports
Benefits, Applications, and Opportunities of Natural Infrastructure: Proceedings of a Workshop in Brief (2022) highlights the benefits of natural infrastructure across geographic scale and multiple objectives.
Nature Based Solutions in New Orleans: Opportunities and limitations (Testing, Observing Discussing) aims to deliver groundwater and subsurface insights and data which will help the planning of initiatives that increase flood resilience
State of the Coast: A Review of Coastal Management Policies for Six States analyzes coastal habitat policy in six US states—California, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington—and aims to identify promising policy approaches for improved protection and restoration of oyster reefs, mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass.
Websites & Other Resources
EcoShape develops and shares knowledge about Building with Nature: a new approach to hydraulic engineering that harnesses the forces of nature to benefit environment, economy and society.
Engineering with Nature: Nature-Based Solutions Literature offers a list of publications on “research efforts, field-level observations, and design/construction practices.”
The University of Georgia and Sea Grant have created a Native Plant Search Engine that provides information on more than 900 native plants found within the upper and lower coastal plain of Georgia. Many of these plants can also be found in coastal South Carolina.
The Digital Coast Academy (created by NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management) offers coastal management training - including trainings about nature-based solutions - and other tools useful for coastal management.
The first National Nature-Based Solutions Policy Forum was held in February 2024 in Washington, D.C. and was a place for conversations on financing, permitting, and equitable project execution strategies. A recap from the event and summaries from the panel discussions can be found online.
Communicating NNBS
Planning for NNBS
Plans for Reference
Webinars
NOAA (Webinar Series) - Funding and Financing Coastal Resilience
NOAA (Webinar) - Funding and Financing Coastal Resilience: Building Capacity in Communities to Access Funding
Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability (Webinar) - How Does Nature Measure Up? Innovative Examples of Cost-Benefit Analysis of Nature-Based Solutions
Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability (Webinar) - Financing Mechanisms for Nature-Based Solutions Projects
National Academies summit - Measuring What Matters: Towards a More Comprehensive and Equitable Evaluation of Benefits
Funding NNBS
Toolkits
American Society of Adaptation Professionals (Toolkit) - Ready-to-Fund Resilience Toolkit
Quick Reference
NOAA (Quick Reference) - Funding and Financing: Options and Considerations for Coastal Resilience Projects
NOAA (Quick Reference) - Nature-Based Solutions: Benefits, Costs, and Economic Assessments
Reports
The Nature Conservancy, Southern Environmental Law Center & Climate Adaptation Partners - Disaster Recovery & Mitigation in South Carolina
The Nature Conservancy-California and FEMA (Webpage with Report Links): Contains links to multiple reports and resources that have been developed to support communities in seeking funding from FEMA for nature-based solutions.
Databases
National Wildlife Federation - Nature-based Solutions Funding Database
Equity in NNBS
Maps
The Food Access Map is a detailed, extensive resource, but it is by no means complete. It will remain a work in progress as more sites are added and the resource is kept up to date. Any agencies not currently represented on the map that would like to provide their information for inclusion should email foodaccessmap@clemson.edu.
Design Standards for NNBS
Design Guidance
Stability Design
Geometry Calculations
Other Resources