Rivers to the Rescue! Understanding the Benefits of Ecosystems in Adaptation (Part 2)

The ClimateReady Podcast: Adapting to Climate Change & Uncertainty

Can ecosystem services and biodiversity improve climate resilience? Water management has historically been viewed through a narrow, results-driven engineering lens that tends to undervalue the contributions of the very natural systems being modified. However, there is growing recognition that so-called green infrastructure and the ecosystem services they produce - such as floodplains for flood control or mangrove forests for carbon sequestration and coastal zone buffers - can provide more effective and less expensive water management than traditional solutions. Perhaps new problems can lead to new solutions. If that’s the case, how can we better integrate ecosystems into the planning and design processes for water management? In this special two-part episode of the ClimateReady Podcast, we examine the role of nature-based solutions in climate adaptation in Mexico. An international team has been working to change both the practice and policy of water management at a national scale, fueled by mutual concern over climate change and the risks of losing ecosystems as well as their natural capital. Using a new framework known as Eco-Engineering Decision Scaling (EEDS), this method helps to assess tradeoffs and guide practitioners through Mexico’s National Water Reserves Program. We’ll feature interviews with Dr. Ted Grantham of UC Berkeley and Ninel Escobar of World Wildlife Fund Mexico.