An assessment framework for climate-proof nature-based solutions

Raising inlerest in 'nature-based solulions' (NBS) has inspired allempislo organise their principles and qualthes within comprehensive and internally consistent evaluation frameworks, so as Lo demonstrate Lhe superior performance of working with nature'. However, the proposed frameworks slop short of raking into account the changing conclilions in which NBS are set to operate. Climate change, in particular, can after ecosyslems and their services, and may undermine the performance of green solutions tha l rely on them. We presera here a dynamic' assessment framework that explicitly accounts for Lhe impact of climate change on the effectiveness of the proposed NBS. The framework is based on an innovalive approach Lha L inlegrales system analysis and backcasting. Although it has not yet been applied to the NBS context, backcasting is well-suited to seize the transformational character of NBS, as it encourages breakthrough' leaps rather than incremental improvements. Our framework factors in the multifunctional character of NBS and is designed to capture associated direct benefits/costs and co-benefits/costs. It is meant to be applied ex ante to ideally support the choice between innovative NBS and traditional options, in an effort to respond to the societal challenges identified by the Ell Research 8i Innovation agenda on the environment. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.