Nature-based Infrastructure Solutions (NbIS), including green and blue infrastructure, leverage natural systems to deliver essential services including flood control, water purification, and climate adaptation. NbIS offers multiple social, environmental, and economic benefits. For example, mangrove conservation can protect coastal areas while supporting biodiversity, reducing erosion, and improving water quality.

This DRI dialogue will bring together engineers and nature experts to explore the critical role of NbIS in enhancing systemic resilience to climate change. Through real-world showcases, the session will highlight how NbIS delivers cost-effective solutions that not only outperform traditional grey infrastructure but also enhance the sustainability and resilience of the infrastructure itself, as well as that of the communities and natural systems that interact with it.

The dialogue will discuss:

• How NbIS can address pressing global issues like biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation while bolstering long-term resilience.
• How NbIS infrastructure decisions today impact future carbon trajectories and contribute to a sustainable, adaptive built environment.
• Barriers and opportunities to large-scale implementation, including the need for better valuation of ecosystem services, standardisation, and data to build compelling business cases for NbIS.
• The need for capacity-building efforts to develop the global professional knowledge base of NbIS.
• The role of engineers in advocating for NbIS and demonstrating their financial viability