Coastal NFM measures typically are used to increase the natural resilience of the shoreline and improve flood and erosion protection. They do this by improving the volume, altitude and health of natural buffers, thus helping absorb wave and tidal energy. Measures can be applied to coastal or intertidal areas, or sometimes both. Sand dunes, for example, can be restored to improve the stability of the dune and increase its ability to dissipate wave energy and protect landward areas. Dissipation of wave and tidal energy can also be improved by replacing sediment eroded from beaches or restoring intertidal habitats such as saltmarsh and mudflats.
The Building with Nature (BwN) project, funded by Interreg, demonstrated BwN solutions that utilise natural processes to deliver flood risk and coastal erosion management whilst enhancing ecosystem services. The Scottish Government led the 'catchments' work package and the Eddleston catchment was the Scottish case study example. The project has developed an extensive list of outputs which are available from the link below.
Scotland's Flood Risk Management Conference 2021 was held from the 1st - 5th February 2021. The conference was virtual this year and covered a range of topics such as finance and green recovery, science and policy updates and communication and engagement. The conference organisers (Sniffer) have now published the conference outputs on their website. It is possible to see the virtual presentations or view them on a Vimeo channel. All outputs can be access via the link below.
A conference report highlighting key messages from the Scottish Flood Risk Management Conference 2020 has been published by Sniffer. The conference included a session on Natural Flood Management. The report contains links to audio sound recordings and video interviews.
The Tweed Forum, Scottish Government and SEPA are partners in the EU Interreg Building with Nature project. The project’s Policy Learning Group (PLG) has produced a series of country specific policy briefs. You may be interested in these Scottish policy papers written by Prof. Jim Hansom and Dr Alistair Rennie (coastal) and Prof.
The Interreg BwN (Building with Nature)/FAIR /C5a end event 'Be Adaptive to Become Resilient' was held on the 4th June 2020. Over 150 people attended the online event. The recordings and presentations from the webinars and workshops are now available online (see link below). The event included keynote speeches by Kerstin Brunnström (President of the CPMR North Sea Commission) and Steve Mathies (Global practice leader on Coastal Restorations at Stantec).
A co-organised event in Edinburgh (May 2019) brought together international experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities for delivering Nature-Based Solutions. The goal of the event was to facilitate the knowledge exchange and share best practices between international researchers, practitioners and policymakers. One of the project partners involved in the event, LAND4FLOOD, have produced a short report on the event (link below).
A handbook on Nature-Based Solutions has been published by "ThinkNature" (https://platform.think-nature.eu/). The handbook was developed as part of the ThinkNature project which recieved funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The main purpose of the handbook is to gather and promote current knowledge surrounding Nature-Based Solutions . The handbook looks at different aspects of Nature-Based Solutions (e.g. project devlopment, financing, policy making) through a number of informative chapters.
The World Bank have published a report on Nature-Based Solutions for Disaster Risk Management. More on this report and background to the work can be found at the link below.
Innovation award for project highlighting the huge value of existing natural flood protection features in Scotland
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have recently published a book entitled "Engineering With Nature: An Atlas". The Atlas showcases 56 international projects, which includes one Scottish case study (the Bowmont Catchment). The atlas is organised into eight sections (Beaches and Dunes, Wetlands, Islands, Reefs, Riverine Systems, Levee setbacks and floodplains, use of vegetation and natural materials and environment enhancements of infrastructure).