Climate change will have dramatic consequences for the quantity, quality, and seasonal distribution of water in cities. One result will be increased flash-flooding and soil erosion in urban areas. Water-based nature-based solutions (“aquaNBS”) such as wetlands, streams or stormwater ponds are implemented in many European cities, but their role in improving the climate resilience of cities and simultaneously enhancing local biodiversity are understudied.
The project “Bringing nature back – biodiversity-friendly nature-based solutions in cities (BiNatUr)” will analyze the role of biodiversity and its linkages with regulation ecosystem services (ES) in urban aquatic nature-based solutions. We employ a social, ecological, and technological system (SETS) framework to study complex interactions of aquatic nature-based solutions at three spatial scales in five European cities (Antwerpen, Berlin, Helsinki, Lisbon and Poznań). We have selected 12 research sites in each city. Discover their locations here. The overall aim of the project is to improve biodiversity-friendly planning, building, restoration, and management of water-based nature-based solutions. Read more about our project:
Research news
How Do We Sample Aquatic Invertebrates at Sites with Aquatic Nature-based Solutions?
By Vladimíra Dekanová Aquatic invertebrates are involved in many important processes in aquatic ecosystems, since they contribute significantly to nutrient cycling and the turnover of organic material. From this…
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Understanding Changes in Macroinvertebrate Communities Across Europe Through Six Diversity Metrics and Indexes
By Vladimíra Dekanová and Silvia Martín Muñoz Biodiversity indexes are used to quantitatively estimate the biological variability of a space in order to be able to compare this diversity…
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Social-Ecological-Technological Framework for Studying Urban Aquatic Nature-Based Solutions in Cities
By Kati Vierikko and Pedro Pinho BiNatUr team published a book chapter in 2023 focusing on the use of a holistic framework to encompass the functioning of aquatic nature-based solutions…
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This research was funded through the 2020-2021 Biodiversa and Water JPI joint call for research projects, under the BiodivRestore ERA-NET Cofund (GA N°101003777), with the EU and the funding organisations The Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), Belgium; Academy of Finland (AKA), VDI/VDE-IT, Germany; National Science Center (NCN), Poland and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal
