Greening water resources plans with nature-based solutions: the role of co-benefits and their assessment

Inclusion of NBS in the planning process and implementing NBS for flood management is relatively less as compared to Grey solutions. This reality exists despite strategies, policies from the European Union which are directed towards living with nature. Assessment of cost and benefit of a measure is considered as a rationale behind the selection of any measure. This paper presents the relationship between assessment methodologies adopted and NBS measures selected in the FRMP of EU member states. Two cases, Zenne river, Belgium and Room for the River, The Netherlands were studied to unfold the contextual factors that impact the planning of NBS and assessment of cost and benefit of any measure. An extensive review of FRMP of EU member states and qualitative research through interviews and literature review on two cases was adopted to test the hypothesis that the “Institutionalization of assessment methodologies ensures the adaptation of NBS measures in Water Resource Planning”. Findings of this research show that there is no direct relationship between the assessment methodologies adopted and NBS measures selected in FRMP. This reveals that the presence of NBS in FRMP of EU member states is not entirely a function of cost and benefit assessment of measures. The investigation of two cases Zenne River, Belgium and Room for the River, The Netherlands shows that assessment methodologies in currently adopted projects have failed to incorporate co-benefits of selected NBS measures. This research argues that the intangible benefits (for e.g.: benefits from environmental services, political benefits, and social acceptance) were taken into account during decision making despite lack in positive results from formal cost and benefit analysis. The role of contextual factors was evident in two cases where they act as enabler or barrier in the planning process for the implementation of NBS. This research reflects that it is pivotal to investigate the influence of contextual factors along with the inclusion of intangible benefits into the assessment methodologies to ensure NBS in Water Management Plan