Nature Based Solutions (VIVES)
Summary
TLDRThe video script introduces nature-based solutions as sustainable and cost-effective alternatives to traditional infrastructure for combating climate change impacts, particularly coastal floods. It highlights the historical context of the 1953 North Sea flood, discusses the challenges of rising sea levels and stronger storms, and explores the benefits of integrating natural elements like dunes and reefs into coastal protection strategies. The script emphasizes the adaptability, biodiversity support, and additional socio-economic advantages of nature-based solutions.
Takeaways
- 🌊 Nature-based solutions (NBS) are strategies that use or mimic natural processes to address environmental challenges, such as climate change and coastal flooding.
- 🏠 The example of protecting against coastal floods in Belgium highlights the importance of NBS in the context of rising sea levels and potential superstorm impacts.
- 📚 The 1953 North Sea flood disaster in the Netherlands serves as a historical benchmark for policy changes and the implementation of protective measures against extreme weather events.
- 🛠 Traditional 'gray' infrastructure like sea walls and dikes, while effective, can be costly and require constant adaptation to rising sea levels.
- 💡 The concept of NBS emerged as an alternative to gray infrastructure, offering a more sustainable and cost-effective approach to climate adaptation.
- 🌳 Constructed sand dunes and dike-and-dune systems are examples of NBS that provide protection against flooding while also supporting natural ecosystems.
- 🌿 Nature-based solutions can grow naturally with sea level rise, reducing the need for human intervention and long-term maintenance costs.
- 💰 NBS are economically advantageous, potentially saving billions in maintenance and adaptation costs compared to traditional infrastructure.
- 🌍 The added benefits of NBS include supporting biodiversity, enhancing cultural amenities, improving public health through increased green spaces, and aiding in environmental regulation, such as CO2 reduction.
- 🔍 The script challenges the audience to observe and identify NBS in their own environments, emphasizing their wide applicability beyond coastal areas to urban issues like heat islands and heavy rainfall.
- 📈 The effectiveness of NBS is underscored by their adaptability to unpredictable climate changes, positioning them as a key strategy in comprehensive climate adaptation planning.
Q & A
What are nature-based solutions and why are they important?
-Nature-based solutions are strategies inspired by and working with nature to address environmental challenges, such as climate change. They are important because they offer cost-effective, sustainable, and flexible ways to protect against climate change effects like sea level rise and storms, while also providing additional benefits to the environment and human well-being.
What is the significance of the 1953 storm event in the Netherlands in the context of climate policy?
-The 1953 storm was a pivotal event that caused extensive flooding and loss of life in the Netherlands. It led to a significant shift in policy agendas, prompting the first historical debates about climate change and the implementation of extensive flood protection measures, such as the construction of dikes and other infrastructures.
How do dikes and sand embankments protect coastal areas from storms?
-Dikes and sand embankments serve as physical barriers that prevent sea water from flooding inland during storms. They are constructed along coastlines to withstand the force of waves and high water levels, thus protecting coastal communities and infrastructure.
What is a 'return period' in the context of storms, and how is it used to predict storm impacts?
-The 'return period' of a storm refers to the average interval of time between occurrences of storms of a certain intensity. It is used in frequency analysis to predict the likelihood and potential impacts of storms, including how high sea levels might rise during such events.
How does sea level rise affect the impact of storms on coastal areas?
-Sea level rise provides storms with a higher starting point when they reach the coast, which can amplify the impact of storm surges and lead to more severe flooding. This necessitates the reevaluation and strengthening of existing coastal protection measures.
What are the disadvantages of traditional 'gray' infrastructure like concrete sea walls and dikes?
-Traditional 'gray' infrastructure, such as concrete sea walls and dikes, can be expensive to construct and maintain, especially as they need to be continually raised to accommodate sea level rise. They may also lack the flexibility to adapt to the unpredictable nature of climate change and do not provide additional environmental or social benefits.
What is a 'dike and dune system' and how does it combine natural and man-made elements for coastal protection?
-A 'dike and dune system' is a hybrid nature-based solution that combines a concrete dike with a natural sand dune built on top. This approach provides the necessary protection against sea level rise and storms while also benefiting from the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of natural systems.
How do nature-based solutions like constructed sand dunes offer protection against coastal floods?
-Constructed sand dunes act as natural barriers that can absorb the impact of waves and reduce flooding. They can grow over time with sea level rise, eliminating the need for human intervention to maintain their protective capacity.
What are the additional benefits of nature-based solutions beyond coastal protection?
-Nature-based solutions offer a range of additional benefits, including supporting biodiversity, enhancing cultural values and amenities, providing provisioning services such as recreation, and offering regulatory benefits like CO2 reduction through plant growth.
Can you provide an example of a nature-based solution from New Zealand?
-An example from New Zealand is the use of a man-made reef made of concrete, designed to encourage the growth of species like oysters. These organisms help to break waves and reduce the impact of storms on the shoreline.
How can nature-based solutions be applied to other climate change problems besides coastal protection?
-Nature-based solutions can be adapted to address various climate change issues, such as urban heat island effects, heavy rainfall in cities, and droughts. They can include green roofs, rain gardens, and other urban greening initiatives that provide environmental and social benefits.
Outlines
🌊 Introduction to Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Protection
The script introduces the concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) as a means to protect against climate change effects, specifically coastal floods. It uses the example of the 1953 North Sea flood in the Netherlands, which caused extensive damage and loss of life due to inadequate dikes. The event prompted policy changes and construction of new protective infrastructures. The script also discusses more recent storms, like Storm Odette in 2020, and the need for continuous adaptation to stronger storms and rising sea levels. The importance of understanding the probability and impact of storms through frequency analysis and return periods is highlighted.
📊 Understanding Storm Impacts and Sea Level Rise
This paragraph delves into the methodology of assessing storm impacts on sea levels through graphs that represent the relationship between storm return periods and potential sea level heights. It explains how scientists predict water levels during storms of varying return periods, from 100 to 10,000 years, and the significant rise in sea levels due to thermal expansion and melting ice sheets. The script also visualizes potential flooding in cities like London if protective measures were absent, emphasizing the necessity for coastal protection against both sea level rise and increasingly severe storms.
🏗️ The Limitations of Traditional 'Gray' Infrastructures
The script discusses the drawbacks of traditional 'gray' infrastructures, such as sea walls and dikes, which are costly to maintain and adapt as sea levels rise. It presents the financial burden of these structures, estimating the costs to European countries and projecting future expenses. The paragraph highlights the need for alternative, more sustainable, and cost-effective solutions to coastal protection, leading into the discussion of nature-based solutions as a promising alternative.
🌳 Exploring Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Resilience
The final paragraph introduces nature-based solutions as an alternative to conventional coastal defenses. It describes how these solutions, such as constructed sand dunes and dike-and-dune systems, are designed to work with natural processes and can adapt more flexibly to climate change. The script provides examples of such solutions, including a hybrid approach using both concrete and natural elements, and a man-made reef in New Zealand that promotes biodiversity and wave reduction. The benefits of nature-based solutions are outlined, including cost-effectiveness, sustainability, flexibility, and additional environmental and societal advantages.
🌐 Broader Applications and Conclusions on Nature-Based Solutions
The concluding paragraph summarizes the advantages of nature-based solutions, emphasizing their cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and flexibility in the face of unpredictable climate change. It also mentions the additional benefits of these solutions, such as increased biodiversity, cultural amenities, reduced mortality rates due to healthier lifestyles, and environmental regulation through CO2 capture. The script encourages the audience to explore and identify nature-based solutions in their own environments and acknowledges the potential of these solutions for a wide range of climate challenges beyond coastal protection.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Nature-based solutions
💡Coastal floods
💡Sea level rise
💡Superstorm
💡Dikes
💡Frequency analysis
💡Return period
💡Gray infrastructure
💡Hybrid systems
💡Added benefits
Highlights
Nature-based solutions are essential for protecting people and adapting to climate change impacts.
Coastal floods are a significant concern, exacerbated by sea level rise and superstorm impacts.
The 1953 North Sea flood disaster in the Netherlands resulted in extensive damage and 1800 deaths.
The 1953 flood marked a pivotal moment in climate change and flood policy discussions in Europe.
Storm Odette in 2020 showcased the ongoing threat of extreme weather events to coastal regions.
Frequency analysis and return period concepts are crucial for predicting storm impacts.
Sea level rise due to thermal expansion and melting ice contributes to higher storm surges.
Hard infrastructure like sea walls and dikes, while effective, have significant drawbacks.
The cost of maintaining and adapting gray infrastructure is substantial and increasing.
Nature-based solutions offer a more sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional coastal defenses.
Constructed sand dunes can provide natural protection against sea level rise and storms.
Hybrid solutions combining natural elements with concrete structures offer flexibility and cost benefits.
Artificial reefs can support marine life and contribute to wave breaking during storms.
Nature-based solutions provide additional benefits such as biodiversity, amenity, and CO2 reduction.
These solutions are adaptable and can help address unpredictable climate change effects.
Nature-based solutions are not limited to coastal areas but can also address urban climate challenges.
The speaker encourages attendees to explore and identify nature-based solutions in their environments.
Transcripts
and I'm going to introduce to you the
concept of nature-based solutions
these are very important solutions to
protect people and to adapt countries
against the consequences of climate
change
to explain to you what these exactly are
I'm going to use the example of
solutions which are used to protect us
against Coastal floods
in Belgium they predict that these can
be induced by sea level rise on the one
hand and on the other hand by the impact
of a superstorm heading from the sea
towards the mainland
but before I dive into the topic let me
start with the story
here do you see Ria and Riya as a woman
from the Netherlands
she was a keynote speaker on a
conference which which I attended and
she had a remarkable story after which
the conference room became completely
silent
she began her story with a quilt
she mentioned that
it all happened on the 9th of the 31st
January
I was six years old and at the time and
spent a frightened night on the roof of
her parents house
I saw my dog who was floating away
so the event that Ria was talking about
is the event of 1953 where Europe was
hit by an extreme storm coming from the
North Sea
storm caused an extra water level of
plus 4.55 meter above the reference
level of at low tide
and because of this the dike system
broke on 100 places and 2 000 square
kilometers of the Netherlands was
flooded by Seaworld
sadly
1800 deaths were counted and thousands
of animals were drunk
so in this map the white striped areas
represent the areas that were hit by the
coastal floods and also in Belgium a
small piece north of antropos flood
on this picture you see how the disaster
actually looked like
you can see here a dike that was broken
and will consequently sea water was
entering the country
and on this picture you can see the
results after the sea water entered the
country
many villages disappeared and many
people were drunk while they were asleep
already before 1953 scientists were
already aware that this could happen
however in that period politicians never
took action
this event can really be seen as a
benchmark in policy agendas of the
Netherlands and many other countries in
Europe like Belgium and the UK
in 1953 it was the first time in history
that people began to debate about
climate change and floods
and as a result many diets and other
constructions were built in the
Netherlands to protect the country and
case a new storm would pass by
also in Belgium we yearly face some
extreme weather events not that extreme
of the one in 1953 but still pretty
strong ones
for example the storm Odette which
happened in September 2020
this storm reached very big wind speeds
and took a lot of sand from the beach
into the sea causing sand cliffs in
Austin like you can see on this picture
this storm also burned many parked cars
with sand which was blown away from the
beach to the mainland
however even though this was a very
strong storm we are already very well
protected against these storms and we
are able to stop the water at the
coastline
because we have dikes and sand
embankments
nevertheless it's only a matter of time
before we will receive even stronger
storms that will hit our coastline
and against these we are not able to
protect us
consequency a disaster like in the
Netherlands can easily happen
so predictions of storm are based on
historic data over an extended period
through a process that is called a
frequency analysis
this is the probability of the
occurrence of a given event
so in climate models they talk about the
return period of a storm
this is represented in here
this is the time and years between two
storms with the same identity and wind
power
the higher the return period
stronger the store
for example a storm with a return period
of 100 years has one percentage chance
per year it will happen
so this is already a very strong storm
and to know what the effect of a storm
is on the water level of the sea we need
to make a graph
so now we are going to make the graph
so I will draw for you a y axis
and as well as a x axis
so the y-axis it represents the height
that the sea level can get compared to
the average level at low tides
so for example we have six meter higher
than normal or seven meters
or 8 meters
and on the x-axis I will represent for
you the return period of a storm
so for example we have a return period
of 100 years
we have a return period of Thousand
Years
or we have a return period of 10 000.
years
so like I explained the higher the
return period the more severe a storm
can be so this means the level of the
water will be higher
so scientists they were able to predict
how what the effect is of a return
period on a certain worldly sea level
so they made a graph a line in this
graph so for example if we have
a return period of 100 years this means
that water level can be higher with 6.5
meters so that's really a lot heavy
compared with the present day situation
if we have a storm that will return once
in thousands years
this can mean that we have a sea level
rise of 7 meters
and lastly when we have a return period
of 10 000 here
it can mean that the sea level can be
higher with 7.5 meters so that's really
a lot
and if we now connect all the dots
together
this line can be used to also predict
other storms but another return level
so now we know how high sea level can
come together with a certain storm
but I can also visualize this on a map
so now we know how high sea level can
come you can see the effect of this on
this map
so you can see on this map of storm with
a return period of 1000 years if we
would not protect us
so this storm induces a water level rise
of 7 meters above reference level at low
tide
and like you can see if it would not
protect us against this many parts of
London would be flooded by sea water so
those are the areas indicated in light
and dark blue
also besides the stronger storms that we
are facing our coasts also need to cope
with sea level rise
on this graph you can see the evolution
of the sea level and from the year 2000
onwards it's rapidly Rising
and in the next 80 years sea level could
rise with 0.4 meters
so this is sea level rise
that's actually due to the thermal
expansion of the seawater on the one
side so the oceans they are heating up
and therefore water molecules need more
space which causes the expansion
and on the other side
there's another reason because of the
melting land ice that's coming from the
clutchers the green lines ice sheet and
the Antarctica ice sheet
so because of the higher sea levels
storms have a higher starting point when
they arrive at the coast
and consequently they have a bigger
impact on the shoreline
so
to conclude we have on the one hand the
sea level rise on the other hand
stronger storms and for these we need to
protect our Coast against flooding
currently the most common protections
that are built are hard concrete
constructions also known as gray
infrastructure
and in this slide you can see the two
examples
at the left you'll recognize a sea wall
which you can find around Harbors to
protect the boats and ships
and at the right you can find the most
common gray infrastructure at our
Belgian Coast namely the dike which was
built with red bricks so this picture
was actually taken in the city of
blancenberg
however there are a lot of disadvantages
linked to these types of reinforcements
for example they need to keep growing
with a higher sea level
which gives the situations like you can
see on these two pictures
so Engineers they are forced to hire the
existing dikes with concrete blocks
such as here and whose and in the
Netherlands
or they need to make an extra concrete
wall on an already existing diet such as
the dike at the right here and
blankenberg
consequently they are really expensive
when they need to be adapted so nowadays
they cost
1.25 billion years per year in Europe
and at the current rate this could grow
to
961 billion euros per year by the year
of 2100.
so Coastal engineers and policy makers
are just forced to think in another
Direction
so with this in mind we need to think
further and we need to be more creative
what is then a good alternative that can
be used to protect ourselves against sea
level rise and the big storms
and this is where the story of
nature-based solutions comes in the
picture
currently there is a lot of
experimentation going on right now with
these type of solutions and this because
they can cope with the disadvantages
that we are facing with the gray
concrete constructions
if you have a look at this
um so nature-based solutions they are
solutions that are inspired by Nature so
they need to be constructed by working
with nature
what you see here on this slide is a
great example of a nature-based solution
so in this photo you see probably a
random Sand Dune with some Maroon grass
on it
even though this Dune appears very
natural the reality is different
this Dune was namely constructed by
human
so this construction of the team effort
made by many experts such as Coastal
Engineers landscape designers
geographers biologists and so on
the aim is that this type of
construction can be placed the concrete
dikes made of red bricks that we know of
in Belgium
in other words this Dune should deliver
the same type of protection against
storms and sea level rise as the dike
which is made of concrete bricks
one of the reasons behind this choice is
that Dunes they can grow naturally along
with sea level rise
so this means that humans they do not
need to interfere and adapt to Dune in
the future
so the Dune is an independent and
flexible system
another example of a nature-based
solution is a dike and dune system
this is a hybrid form of a nature-based
solution
with hybrid I mean that it's a
combination of both a natural and
concrete components
first they built a dike of concrete and
on top of it a dune was planted
so this construction is not completely
natural
and the reason behind this is that in
some cases they do not have the space to
build a complete natural Dune because
nature needs space to grow
and in that case they sometimes decide
to go for a combination of both concrete
and nature-based elements
still this type of construction is on
the long term more cost effective and
cheaper and maintenance than purely a
Concrete Construction
a lost example of a nature-based
solution is again a hybrid one
in this case from the other side of the
world namely New Zealand
you can see here on this slide a
limitation of a natural Reef which is
made of concrete
so the purpose of this human made review
that it will be placed at the shoreline
and plenty of species can grow on this
like for example oysters
these oysters can break the waves coming
from sea when a storm occurs
so I explained to you that nature-based
Solutions are based on working with
nature
it's also important to mention that
these Solutions provide extra benefits
for human
besides the fact that they protect us
so to explain this to you I will make a
small drawing
so what are exactly the added benefits
of nature-based solutions
in the middle I will write down NBS what
stands for nature-based Solutions
and in total there exists four types of
added benefits
first of all we have the supporting ones
so supporting added benefits
what are supported and it benefits that
can be for example that we with nature
based solution create more nature and
this has as a consequence that we have
more biodiversity
a second type of added benefits is the
culture added benefits
so what is a cultural added benefit
an example of this is that we create for
example more amenity
a third type of added benefit is the
provisioning category
and an example of a provisioning added
benefit is that we for example create
less mortality
because
we create more nature people walk more
so the mortality
declines
lastly we have the regulating and
benefits
an example of this one is that we have
reduction
in CO2
because plants they capture CO2 so
that's good for the environment
so these are the four types of added
benefits that can be linked with
nature-based Solutions
so now we are coming to an end of this
lecture to summarize we can say that
nature-based Solutions have the
following advantages
first of all they are cost effective
second of all
they are sustainable
thirdly
another Advantage is that they are
flexible
so climate change is very unpredictable
but the developing field of the working
with nature can help us to cope on a
good manner with climate change effects
and lastly they also deliver many added
benefits like I explained in the drawing
so
this was my story for the nature-based
solutions that are linked to the coasts
which endure both sea level rise and big
storm
so lastly I wanted to share with you
that even though I only talked about
coastal areas that many nature-based
solutions exist as well for other
climate change problems
such as for example drops and Gardens
heavy rainfall in cities and the urban
heat Islands affect during summer
however this is not for this lecture and
therefore I challenge you to like to
take a look around and cities and
villages
and I am sure now that you know what
nature-based Solutions are that you will
definitely find some nice examples
so thank you for your attention and I
hope you know now what nature-based
Solutions are and what these can
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