Planning nature-based solutions: Principles, steps, and insights

Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning: Co-define setting, Understand challenges, Create visions and scenarios, Assess potential impacts, Develop solution strategies, and Realize and monitor. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely Place-specificity, Evidence base, Integration, Equity, and Transdisciplinarity. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming. © 2020, The Author(s)

Working With Nature to Solve Societal Problems

Are you worried about the climate and biodiversity crises and related events like heavy rainfalls and floods, high carbon emissions, sudden heat waves, or loss of species? Are you already doing something to help solve these problems? To reduce flood risks, we can give rivers more space by reconnecting floodplains. To store carbon and help to slow down climate change, we can protect and establish wetlands or mangroves. To make cities cooler in summer, we can plant trees and install rooftop gardens. These efforts to help combat societal problems are known as nature-based solutions. To use nature-based solutions effectively, we need to understand how we can work with nature and the steps we must take to put these ideas into practice. In this article, we introduce you to the concept of nature-based solutions and how they can help solve the climate and biodiversity crises

Planung naturbasierter Lösungen in Flusslandschaften : Ein Handbuch für die Praxis

Deutschlands Flusslandschaften stehen vor großen Herausforderungen: Der Klimawandel erhöht das Risiko von Überschwemmungen und Wasserdefiziten, gleichzeitig greifen menschliche Baumaßnahmen wie Flussbegradigungen, Stauungen, Trockenlegungen von Feuchtgebieten oder der Bau von Deichen massiv in die komplexen Ökosysteme ein. Heutige Flusslandschaften sind den zunehmenden Extremereignissen, der Ressourcenknappheit und dem Biodiversitätsverlust kaum gewachsen. Naturbasierte Lösungen für Flusslandschaften bieten konkrete und langfristige Umgangsmöglichkeiten mit diesen gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen, indem sie natürliche ökologische Funktionen fördern und nutzen. Die Nachwuchsforschergruppe PlanSmart stellt in diesem Handbuch die Grundlagen der Planung naturbasierter Lösungen in Flusslandschaften vor. Das Buch regt dazu an, über Umsetzungsmöglichkeiten für naturbasierte Lösungen nachzudenken, und kann als Leitfaden für die Planung und Realisierung dieser Lösungen dienen. Es gibt Auskunft über die einzelnen Planungsschritte und enthält praktische Methodensteckbriefe für eine bessere Umsetzung der einzelnen Schritte

Impact of tissue transport on PET hypoxia quantification in pancreatic tumours

Abstract Background The clinical impact of hypoxia in solid tumours is indisputable and yet questions about the sensitivity of hypoxia-PET imaging have impeded its uptake into routine clinical practice. Notably, the binding rate of hypoxia-sensitive PET tracers is slow, comparable to the rate of diffusive equilibration in some tissue types, including mucinous and necrotic tissue. This means that tracer uptake on the scale of a PET imaging voxel—large enough to include such tissue and hypoxic cells—can be as much determined by tissue transport properties as it is by hypoxia. Dynamic PET imaging of 20 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was used to assess the impact of transport on surrogate metrics of hypoxia: the tumour-to-blood ratio [TBR(t)] at time t post-tracer injection and the trapping rate k 3 inferred from a two-tissue compartment model. Transport quantities obtained from this model included the vascular influx and efflux rate coefficients, k 1 and k 2, and the distribution volume v d ≡k 1/(k 2+k 3). Results Correlations between voxel- and whole tumour-scale k 3 and TBR values were weak to modest: the population average of the Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between voxel-scale k 3 and TBR (1 h) [TBR(2 h)] values was 0.10 [0.01] in the 20 patients, while the correlation between tumour-scale k 3 and TBR(2 h) values was 0.58. Using Patlak’s formula to correct uptake for the distribution volume, correlations became strong (r=0.80[0.52] and r=0.93, respectively). The distribution volume was substantially below unity for a large fraction of tumours studied, with v d ranging from 0.68 to 1 (population average, 0.85). Surprisingly, k 3 values were strongly correlated with v d in all patients. A model was proposed to explain this in which k 3 is a combination of the hypoxia-sensitive tracer binding rate k b and the rate k eq of equilibration in slow-equilibrating regions occupying a volume fraction 1−v d of the imaged tissue. This model was used to calculate the proposed hypoxia surrogate marker k b. Conclusions Hypoxia-sensitive PET tracers are slow to reach diffusive equilibrium in a substantial fraction of pancreatic tumours, confounding quantification of hypoxia using both static (TBR) and dynamic (k 3) PET imaging. TBR is reduced by distribution volume effects and k 3 is enhanced by slow equilibration. We proposed a novel model to quantify tissue transport properties and hypoxia-sensitive tracer binding in order to improve the sensitivity of hypoxia-PET imaging

Planning and developing sustainable river landscapes with nature-based solutions

Recommendations of the PlanSmart research group: Planners and decision-makers should increase the uptake of nature-based solutions in planning and implementing sustainable river landscapes

Zukunftsfähige Flusslandschaften mit naturbasierten Lösungen planen und entwickeln

Empfehlungen der Forschungsgruppe PlanSmart: Bei der Planung und Realisierung zukunftsfähiger Flusslandschaften sollten naturbasierte Lösungen stärker als bisher zum Einsatz kommen

Planning nature-based solutions

Nature-based solutions (NBS) find increasing attention as actions to address societal challenges through harnessing ecological processes, yet knowledge gaps exist regarding approaches to landscape planning with NBS. This paper aims to provide suggestions of how planning NBS can be conceptualized and applied in practice. We develop a framework for planning NBS by merging insights from literature and a case study in the Lahn river landscape, Germany. Our framework relates to three key criteria that define NBS, and consists of six steps of planning: $\textit{Co-define setting}$, $\textit{Understand challenges}$, $\textit{Create visions and scenarios}$, $\textit{Assess potential impacts}$, $\textit{Develop solution strategies}$, and $\textit{Realize and monitor}$. Its implementation is guided by five principles, namely $\textit{Place-specificity}$, $\textit{Evidence base}$, $\textit{Integration}$, $\textit{Equity}$, and $\textit{Transdisciplinarity}$. Drawing on the empirical insights from the case study, we suggest suitable methods and a checklist of supportive procedures for applying the framework in practice. Taken together, our framework can facilitate planning NBS and provides further steps towards mainstreaming

Le Courrier

19 janvier 18221822/01/19 (A0,N19)