NATURE BASED SOLUTIONS (nbs)

Historically, the focus in Chennai and India, as in most countries, has been on engineering-based solutions to mitigate the impacts of climate change. However, Nature Based Solutions are becoming increasingly recognised and implemented worldwide as a cost-effective solution with a large array of co-benefits environmentally, socially and economically. Nature Based Solutions are instruments such as constructed wetlands and bioswales that are specifically engineered to absorb and filter pollutants through various organic and mechanical devices. NBS is highly adaptive and builds the capacity of communities to be resilient to the changing climate. Through NBS, sustainable and low embedded carbon measures can be applied to dense urban situations, thereby overcoming the spatial constraints and avoiding heavy-construction approaches which would potentially involve steel and concrete. The CapEx costs of NBS are a quarter of its desalination counterpart while the OpEx costs are just a half. NBS are aesthetic and often solar powered, hence requiring less energy in comparison to conventional systems. On an operational level, NBS are self-managing systems with low labour operating costs. Essentially delivering ecosystem services, they have been proven to be better accepted by the public and communities and can lead to increased living quality.