The International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for Flood Risk Management will be released at a virtual international launch event on Thursday, September 16 at 11 AM EDT. The new guidelines will inform strategies to reduce flood risk and improve the resilience of coastal and inland water systems. The keynote address at the event will feature Anita van Breda, senior director of environment and disaster management at WWF. Van Breda and WWF Senior Fellow Dr. Missaka Hettiarachchi were part of the team who wrote the guidance.
“We are looking forward to sharing these guidelines with the public,” said Dr. Todd Bridges, US Army Corps of Engineers’ lead for the effort. “Interest and experience using natural infrastructure as a part of flood risk management are growing in significant ways around the world. The guidelines are a way of sharing that information, experience and learning to support future practice.”
As a part of the Engineering With Nature approach, NNBF refers to landscape features in coastal and riverine settings like beaches, dunes, and wetlands, among others — either natural or nature-based — that can support flood risk management and other benefits. Natural features are those created by nature; nature-based features are engineered by people to mimic natural conditions.
NNBF projects provide multi-purpose functions related to flood and storm damage reduction and ecosystem restoration, while delivering other economic, social, and environmental benefits. The US Army Corps of Engineers led a team of 77 cross-sector organizations over the course of five years to create the guidelines. Authors and contributors established a common approach for organizing the guidelines, sharing and coordinating information, and integrating the chapters into the 1,017-page document.
“The publication is intended to inform and guide practitioners, organizations and communities seeking to enhance the performance of flood-risk management systems and achieve long-term risk mitigation,” Bridges said. “The approaches in The NNBF guidelines can be used to increase the value produced by flood-risk management infrastructure investments; increase water infrastructure resilience and sustainability; and reduce infrastructure maintenance and repair costs.”
Learn more about the event on the Engineering With Nature website, which will feature links to download the publication and its accompanying 150-page overview after the book launch event has concluded. The launch event will stream live on LinkedIn and on YouTube.
WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/sX5SjBjxits