Exploring Nature-Based Solutions

Nature-based solutions - what are they exactly? Is there a standard definition? And even though the term is new to us, are the practices themselves actually something new? In this episode we speak with Dr. Laura Norman, a Research Physical Scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, to answer these questions and more.

Relevant links:

IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions
Opportunities to Accelerate Nature-Based Solutions (2022)
Nature-Based Solutions Resource Guide 2.0 (2023)

The Science That Transformed A Dry Streambed Into An Oasis

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Transcript

Emile: Welcome to Come Rain or Shine, podcast of the USDA Southwest Climate Hub 

Sarah: and the DOI Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, or Southwest CASC, operated by the USGS. I'm Sarah LeRoy, Research Coordinator for the Southwest CASC. 

Emile: And I'm Emile Elias, Director of the Southwest Climate Hub. Here we highlight stories to share the most recent advances in climate science, weather, and climate adaptation and innovative practices to support resilient landscapes and communities.

Sarah: We believe that sharing some of the most innovative, forward thinking, and creative climate science and adaptation will strengthen our collective ability to respond to even the most challenging impacts of climate change in one of the hottest and driest regions of the world.

The contents of this podcast are for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as endorsement for any of the products, technologies, or strategies discussed. 

I'll be on my own for this episode as Emile is enjoying a well-earned vacation. She'll be joining us again for next month's episode.

In recent years, the term nature-based solutions has been appearing more and more in the literature, the news, and even in documents coming out of the White House. In 2022, the White House released a report titled Opportunities to Accelerate Nature Based Solutions and in 2023 released a Research Guide to Nature Based Solutions containing tools, examples, and other resources.

But what is this new term we keep hearing? Are these in fact a novel way of mitigating or adapting to climate change, or just a new term to describe existing practices and climate solutions? To discuss nature based solutions, we're talking with Dr. Laura Norman, a research physical scientist with the U. S.Geological Survey. Laura has conducted international research for decades with a focus on transboundary watersheds of the U. S. Mexico border and tribal lands, where environmental and socioeconomic stressors disproportionately affect human health, well being, and quality of life. Most recently, her research is being used to help establish best management practices in arid lands, where she has been implementing and researching nature based solutions.

Laura, thank you for joining us today. It's really nice to see you again. 

Laura: Thank you. Nice to see you too. 

Sarah: So I'd just like to start us off just with an overview. So what are Nature-based solutions? Is there a standard definition? 

Laura: There is a standard definition that the International Union for Conservation of Nature defines nature-based solutions as, and I'm gonna read this off, “actions addressing key societal challenges through the protection, sustainable management and restoration of both natural and modified ecosystems, benefiting both biodiversity and human well being.”

And that can be interpreted in multiple ways. 

Sarah: So there is a standard definition. Do you, is that how you would define nature based solutions in your work? 

Laura: Most of the deeper understanding about how to work with ecosystems, comes from studying vulnerable communities that have been having to deal with climatic variability and natural disasters for a long time.

So we've learned that nature, like the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features, has the power to heal itself. So if humans were removed from the planet, halting all our disturbances, it's likely that natural systems would reset and restore themselves over time.

So natural succession occurs in ecosystems when the source of disturbance is removed. So humans can acknowledge this and allow eco-hydrological processes to occur by getting out of the way and or by studying the restorative mechanisms at work and assisting those processes. So using some degree of intervention within complex socio ecological systems, obviously this requires a good understanding prior to implementation, but my research has been using scientific means to examine before and after nature based solution treatments are implemented in order to provide quantifiable metrics for decision makers.

Sarah: Excellent, that's very exciting. So getting at this question of if nature based solutions are really a new thing, how are these projects different from the conservation and ecological restoration work that land managers have done in the past, or are they? 

Laura: Some nature based solutions are not very different at all, but the humans have been trying to implement efforts that might have changed over time.

And so that's been changing because there's a lack of applied environmental science that can be used to monitor impacts. So no measure of success or failure has been available for people. So there's been a misunderstanding about direct and indirect landscape hydrological connections. And a lot of the science hasn't been interdisciplinary.

So restoration should be designed and informed by geomorphic, hydrological, and ecological theory. And finally, that being said, Natural resources are not yet properly accounted for economically. So, nature based solutions have been used for millennium, along with industrial, high tech, and expensive investments in infrastructure.

For example, improved land management might be switching away from more industrial farming to more sustainable methods like permaculture. Increasing soil carbon content through the use of cover crops is becoming pretty popular internationally and promoting soil health by lessening the amount of chemical fertilizers being used.

So some are very different and some are not very different at all. 

Sarah: Great. So what are the benefits of nature based solutions? 

Laura: Nature based solutions have a very important and currently underutilized potential to help address global challenges such as climate change, human health, food and water security, natural disasters, and biodiversity loss.

These interventions use nature and natural functions of healthy ecosystems to tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our time. However, the cyclic response of nature engaged to heal itself not only makes so much sense because swimming with the current is so easier than swimming against it. But once enacted, it's free.

So just let nature do the work. 

Sarah: So you mentioned briefly some projects that you've been involved in. So I just, could you describe some examples of nature based solutions projects that you have been a part of? 

Laura: My research using nature based solutions began before the term itself, but I began studying the impacts of rock detention structures as a tool to alleviate extreme flood events and found their ability to slow water, which culminated in many other benefits, including the development of soil, water, carbon sponges, and otherwise dry land streams.

So now I am working with land and water resource managers, restoration practitioners, to establish experiments at multiple sites throughout the North American Southwest to quantify impacts of rock detention structures and other natural infrastructure on hydrology, ecology, and soil productivity. One thing that I have named those types of structures Whether they are made from rock, wood, or other debris, as natural infrastructure in dryland streams, which I call NIDS.

And they're installed to detain water for a short period of time, rather than retain water permanently like a dam would be. So NIDS are low tech, low cost, nature based solutions that can address mitigation and adaptation at the same time. So they increase draw-down of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, giving increased vegetation, and also providing cooling effects, given that increased residence time of water and shade. So NIDS can set biophysical cycles into motion that persist through centuries. 

Sarah: So why do you think that these types of solutions, or, you know, at least describing them now as nature based solutions, you mentioned you, you know, a lot of your research started before we started calling them nature based solutions.

Why do you think they've become so popular in recent years? 

Laura: I think people are starting to recognize a crisis in global environmental realms. And while most humans are dazzled by technological advances and fixes, there's been a recent acknowledgement that these nature based solutions are often extremely feasible and cost effective.

So, I think, you know, that is one of the main drivers of the popularity. So, various Opinions and beliefs exist about different nature based solutions often applied by private landowners or managers, consulting agencies, nonprofits, but with little scientific evidence to validate what they're seeing on the ground.

So these are, you know, as we talked about already, the potential for persistence through millennium. But there's been not that much documented material for people to use and, and get funding to support without having formally quantified through field research or scientific study. So there's kind of a scientific knowledge gap in efficacy that's just now, I think, getting pieced together.

And again, just based on the fact that our planet needs some qualified solutions to mitigate the impacts of rapid growth and changing climates. 

Sarah: And you mentioned that the efficacy of these and studying that is something that you're working on as well, is that correct? 

Laura: Yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I mentioned that I had started working on the impacts of NIDS for flood detention, but that kind of has spiraled into multiple different ecosystem services as far as increasing soil productivity and, and, and storing carbon and promoting plant growth and water availability over time.

So, it's, you know, interdisciplinary research kind of unraveled itself. 

Sarah: That's great. So just like any other strategy, I imagine that implementing nature based solutions is just one piece of the puzzle. So what else needs to happen to make these efforts truly successful in the long term? 

Laura: Yeah, that's a really big, big deal because there's not just, you know, this one single bullet that we can put all of our you know, all of our energy into just doing one thing.

So to protect the degradation of the planet, we have, you know, ongoing population growth and issues occurring. So the use of nature based solutions need to be employed alongside with mitigation actions. And it's really important as scientists, you know, to, to acknowledge that you know, this isn't a silver bullet, but there are, you know, multiple benefits I've already elaborated on a little bit, but for example, in hydrology, we often say that the solution to pollution is dilution.

And so that can be supported via nature based solutions. But before we even do that, the pollution needs to be addressed as well, to halt as much as possible so that we're not swimming upstream or, or battling something uphill, but so that the combination of natural resource conservation, restoration, and improving land and water management practices is what is, you know, really the, the catch all and what, what's required, I think to protect the planet.

So, I wanted to kind of get back to that in order for nature based solutions to garner support for their implementation, humans need to understand the ramifications and buy into it. So, I talked about that a little bit already, but locally, politically, and globally. So, there's, this is where unbiased scientific data is needed to resolve these issues, to educate land managers and inform policymakers.

So given the substantial financial investments that are being made in riparian and watershed restoration, the, I can't overemphasize that rigor in qualitative and quantitative research to support actions and decision making is imperative. A new generation and grassroots effort to forge a restoration stewardship economy can foster hope, nourish livelihoods, and establish valuable ecosystem services in vulnerable communities.

These low investment infrastructures are comparatively cheap and easy to install, coordinate, and operate, but require maintenance and periodic re establishment, so there is a little bit of a labor of love associated with them. But we're really just still learning what is most effective group of strategies for sustainable development.

And it's often place based, meaning that what works in one location may or may not work in another. So a lot of times people say, you know, well, what, how much percent can I increase recharge or, you know, how much carbon can we sequester at this location and, and while we see that those benefits are applicable in all of the study areas that we've got looking at NIDS, for example, it really is a very dependent on the soils and the temperature and the vegetation, all of those kind of things.

So you know, just trying to figure out how to share that kind of information is something that, that I think will promote more use of nature based solutions. 

Sarah: Excellent. Thanks for explaining that. So you're currently working on a tribal land vegetation and watershed modeling project. And so I'm curious, what role does Indigenous knowledge play in implementing nature based solutions?

Especially since you mentioned that nature based have been implemented for millennia. 

Laura: Yeah, the role of scientific expertise intertwined with traditional knowledge and helping properly implement nature based solutions can't be understated. Indigenous techniques have enhanced the sustainability and resilience of delicate dryland agro ecosystems in the North American Southwest for time immemorial through observation, cultural stewardship of the land, and innovation. So working with anthropologists, archaeologists, and tree ring experts, we recently documented that long term role of natural infrastructure and dryland streams, or NIDs, was used by all cultures in the North American Southwest.

This traditional knowledge and long term physical memory of pre colonial and historic agricultural systems can inform and be leveraged to address modern problems. So we're right now working with the Sky Island Restoration Collaborative, or the SIRC, which includes local tribes, most notably the San Carlos Apache tribe, who are part of this group.

We're working to better understand, utilize, and document the impacts of modern nature based solutions like NIDS. Share lessons learned and develop mutually beneficial projects for more implementation. 

Sarah: Great. So you a little bit ago mentioned that some projects have the added benefit of storing carbon.

But some people have criticized the recent interest in the use of nature based solutions with regard to carbon offsets. You know, they suggest that this practice is commodifying nature by turning natural processes into something that has a quantified value and can be essentially purchased and used as desired.

Do you have any thoughts about that? 

Laura: I do. I began studying ecosystem services in 2009 and was at that time trying to quantify the intrinsic and social and cultural values of nature that are normally not brought to the table when projects are being developed. So this approach doesn't take away the value of nature, but instead allows those environmental benefits to be considered when planning's being done.

So nature is essential for human existence and good quality of life. In arid and semi arid ecosystems where water supplies are difficult to measure and human footprints last a really long time, studies to quantify the impacts of management practices on the greater ecohydrology are invaluable, and quantifying some of those benefits is really helpful in communication.

So, for example, one approach I suggested for safeguarding ephemeral riparian areas in the Madrean Archipelago ecoregion is through assessing a payment mechanism for ecosystem services. And so that's, you know, a similar market based incentive as what you're talking about with the carbon offsets. But to offset footprints of groundwater pumping downstream, a complementary investment of NIDS installations could be made to harvest water.

So, you know, but again, you know, nature based solutions have to be employed alongside other mitigation actions. But there's definitely a demand for applied environmental science to be used in informing markets and, and creating more informed management for the restoration of ecosystem services, including carbon and water.

Sarah: Excellent. So the International Union for Conservation of Nature has developed a global standard for nature based solutions, what they call it. Are you familiar with this at all? And if so, do you find it to be beneficial and easy to use? 

Laura: I was not familiar with that until just recently when I looked it up, but I understand that the standard consists of this self assessment for ensuring the integrity of nature based solutions through different criteria of weighting economic, environmental, and societal benefits, and, and I feel that that is a, a very beneficial thing for people to be considering when going forward with, with projects that will impact larger societies, but my research has come from another angle for which we're trying to document the ecosystem services of rock detention structures and got retrofitted into the nomenclature of nature based solutions because they really translate hand in hand. 

Sarah: So we talked a lot about the benefits of nature based solutions and co benefits and how there's, you know, lots of things that need to happen at the same time.

So I was wondering if you could describe some of the barriers that people might run into when trying to implement nature based solutions. 

Laura: Yeah, barriers, you know, come up with, with everything that we're, we try to do. And, and I did see a recent report that, that suggested that nature based solutions weren't large enough in scale, did not sufficiently integrate into policy, and that more collaborative projects are needed for increased efficiency.

So, to me, that kind of translates to trying to get people to buy into the idea. So, you know, most of, of the efforts that I had talked about related to restoration haven't been monitored, documented, or quantified scientifically. And so there's been this, I mentioned the scientific knowledge gap, but there also has been some outdated and conflicting perceptions that have retarded the practice.

The management of installing NIDs, including permitting, planning, and funding, is currently largely based on opinions, anecdotal evidence, and perception about the impacts of structures. So the barrier, I think, is just a general lack of scientific study and sharing of knowledge in order to get this, you know, larger buy in.

Sarah: That's a great segue into my next question, actually. So I mentioned in the introduction that the White House has published reports and guidance on nature based solutions in recent years. Lots have been coming out, lots of things have been coming out of the White House recently. Have there been any recent changes in funding or practice that maybe make it easier or harder to implement nature based solutions?

Laura: Easier, definitely easier by far. Our projects were referenced in the White House report that you mentioned, the COP reports and in the White House reports describing nature based solutions and our advances in restoration ecohydrology with science based evidence that dispelled prior assumptions are now being acknowledged by partner agencies who are revising their management strategies to help bridge the disconnect.

So that adoption of and acknowledgement of understanding is definitely pushing forward the potential to do more projects and, and, and making it a lot easier for people. So adaptive management guided by theory and experimentation, as opposed to trial and error, can and has aided in the success of ecological restoration projects using NIDS. 

I have new projects working with private ranchers, state and federal agencies, tribes, and foreign countries now using NIDS as a nature based solution to improve their resilience and sustainable development. 

Sarah: So it sounds like the barriers are becoming less as more science is developed and at the same time it seems like nature based solutions are becoming more recognized in funding as well.Okay. 

Laura: Agreed. Yeah, definitely having, you know, federal acknowledgement and documentation has, has removed some of the barriers that were previously holding things up. 

Sarah: Great. So before we wrap up, is there anything that I haven't asked you that you wish I had? 

Laura: Well, pertaining specifically to my research on NIDs, or Natural Infrastructure in Dryland Streams, I often get asked how is it possible that NIDs can create more water?

So I did want to describe that for the audience if they're interested. So as we all know, creating water is impossible. However, the installation of NIDs can cause the water budget to get reallocated. In the desert, we get precious little rainfall that is received by barren impervious soils due to one reason or another, and the rainfall runs off the surface, exposed to atmosphere, quite hot and dry, causing the immediate evaporation on the landscape.

However, when NIDs get installed, water is slowed down, sediment accumulates, developing those water soil carbon sponges that further slow flows, enhance vegetation response, groundwater recharge and carbon storage. And that decreases the water lost to evaporation and can increase downstream water availability.

So that's where that new water is being seen on the surface and being utilized by vegetation. NIDS protect water from being lost in the desert with our recent 110 degree temperatures by providing alluvial storage where it would not exist otherwise. This water can be utilized by plants and animals, results in excess lateral flows that enhance recharge, pooling, and downstream discharge.

Sarah: Excellent. And so I like to ask everyone on, on the podcast what gives you hope? I see a lot of hope personally through nature based solutions and everything you just described, but I would like to know what gives you hope for the future. 

Laura: Yeah, getting emails from people around this country and in developing countries that are reaching out with their experiences, ideas, and questions encourages me to keep going on this path to continue investigations and sharing my findings.

So, you know, creating this community and working within the community that's pre existing gives me a lot of hope. I've also recently been involved with some events geared toward middle and high school age students. Reflecting on watching young people learning about my research on arid land water harvesting gives me a lot of sense of accomplishment and hope for the future.

So, you know, the young kids, the practice of water harvesting with NIDs, something many were very skeptical about is being embraced to the extent that it's rippled into the foundational lessons that young people are learning about the world around them, you know, in elementary school, so they don't have to go through all of this, you know, to get there and now it's these lessons now lay the groundwork for the future for nature and people can strive together. So our science at the USGS is helping expand the understanding of and engagement with the natural world and build the future that we want for our kids and their kids, their kids. 

Sarah: Well, my daughter is entering middle school in just a few weeks and so I might be asking you about coming to talk to them. I think she would really enjoy that. Also, I want to ask, you just mentioned you get a lot of emails from people around the country and around the world. Would, do you mind just kind of just that intrigued me, what kind of emails do you receive from people? 

Laura: I have received emails from like restoration practitioners that are, you know, putting structures in different landscapes in California or Utah or New Mexico.

And you know, outside of my little Madrean Archipelago ecoregion and starting to learn, you know, more about why they're doing it and the successes they are finding. And just, you know, they people will say, Oh, we found the same thing. And, you know, we're so excited that there's a scientist that's, you know, studying, you know, these types of things that we've been putting in for 20 years.

And, you know, we know that they're making a big difference by having those numbers. It’s very helpful in getting funding to do the stuff and, and just to kind of, you know, reinvigorate their enthusiasm, their own enthusiasm. So I, I get emails like that. And then I also hear from people in, in developing countries and talking about community efforts to increase portable water supplies that are using the lessons from our science to, you know, create new efforts that, you know, will be pivotal to their livelihoods and lives. So that's exciting. 

Sarah: Yeah, that's very exciting. That would give me hope too, receiving emails like that. So one more question before we end today. What is one thing that you'd like people to remember from this conversation? 

Laura: Okay. So I want your listeners to remember that nature based solutions can provide a lot of benefits, are often very easy to do and very inexpensive, and they can help as sustainable long term solutions to the increasing water management challenges we're facing. 

Sarah: Perfect. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Laura Norman, for talking with us today. I appreciate it.

Laura: Thank you.

Emile: Thanks for listening to Come Rain or Shine, USDA Southwest Climate Hub 

Sarah: and the USGS Southwest CASC. If you liked this podcast, don't forget to rate or review it and subscribe for more great episodes. A special thanks to our production crew, Skye Aney and Reanna Burnett. If you want more information, have any questions for the speakers, or would like to offer feedback, please reach out to us via our website.