Green Walls, Green Roofs, and Urban City Landscapes as Nature-Based Ecological Solutions

With growing awareness of how dependent humans are on nature and how ecosystems can address societal issues at all scales, the concept of “Nature-based Solutions” (NbS) has emerged. NbS is viewed as a more promising strategy for increasing city sustainability and resilience over typical gray solutions globally. There are numerous spatial scales and settings in and around cities where nature-based solutions for urban resilience can be implemented. Examples include smaller green areas on buildings, bioswales, and green corridors beside streets and bodies of water; urban parks and forests with wetlands inside city limits, which protect cities from flooding and enhance the quantity and quality of water available. NbS are becoming more popular in business and international policy discussions. Additionally, incorporating NbS as a solution to both the climate and biodiversity problems necessitates a systems-thinking paradigm that considers numerous ecosystem services. It requires shifting from a dependence on never-ending economic growth to an understanding that the energy and material flows required for human well-being must remain within safe biophysical limits. This chapter focuses on various NbS for adaptation into planning and policy, looks at the financing options for these initiatives, and highlights implementation progress and lessons discovered.