Nature-based solutions can vary based on scale, location and type of hazard. Nature-based solutions can be applied to small or localized projects at a neighborhood or site scale, larger community projects up to a watershed or landscape scale, or to projects that protect coastal areas. Nature-based solutions can be implemented in many different ecosystems to address different hazard types. The list below identifies some examples of nature-based solutions at different scales for different hazard types. For more examples and information on nature-based solutions, see Building Community Resilience with Nature-Based Solutions.
- Neighborhood or site scale: These smaller approaches are adapted to provide localized, site-specific mitigation within the existing built environment. These nature-based solutions can often be built into a site, corridor or neighborhood without requiring additional space and can be combined with larger mitigation projects. Projects at this scale can mitigate a variety of natural hazards. Example approaches include, but are not limited to:
- Wildfire: Creation of defensible space using native and/or fire-resistant vegetation, post-fire soil stabilization using earthen materials and native and/or fire-resistant vegetation.
- Drought: Replacing existing vegetation with drought-tolerant vegetation (xeriscaping), clearing invasive plants that use more water than native species.
- Extreme Temperatures (Heat): Green roofs, increasing the tree canopy, adding urban trees in strategic locations such as around buildings and/or shading pavement, urban forests, green streets.
- Stormwater/urban flooding: Green roofs, rain gardens, bioswales, urban trees and forests, constructed wetlands.
- Flooding and Erosion: Property acquisition and structure demolition/relocation projects that deed-restrict the property for green open space, low-impact development on scale of entire site or project, riparian buffers, greenways, waterfront parks, geotextiles, stabilizing sod, vegetative buffer strips, preservation of mature vegetation, decreasing slope angles, permeable pavement
- Watershed or landscape scale: These approaches consist of interconnected systems of natural areas and open space. These are large-scale approaches that require long-term planning and coordination, as these projects can affect multiple jurisdictions and fall into the purview of more than one government agency. Examples of different approaches include, but are not limited to:
- Wildfire: Natural wildlife buffer zone that uses earthen materials and native and/or fire-resistant vegetation; ecological forest management/fuel reduction that addresses wildfire mitigation and includes restoration to natural conditions; greenbelts of diverse vegetation including trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers, ideally native to the area, that act as natural buffers to create separation from wildlands
- Drought: Aquifer recharge, improved storage and recovery, floodplain and stream restoration, and improved surface infiltration.
- Flooding and Erosion: Floodplain reconnection and restoration; bank stabilization that mimics the natural channel and/or improves natural conditions or uses natural structures; floodplain and stream restoration to return natural flows to a riverine system.
- Coastal areas: These approaches are nature-based solutions that stabilize or protect the shoreline, reducing erosion and buffering the coast from storm impacts. While many watershed and neighborhood-scale solutions work in coastal areas, these systems are specifically designed to support coastal resilience. Example approaches include, but are not limited to:
- Living shorelines, dune restoration or stabilization, reef restoration, creation or expansion of mangroves, wetlands, freshwater marshes, and/or salt marshes.