Approved by the Energy, Environment, and Water Policy Committee on April 29, 2024
Approved by the Public Policy Committee on June 5, 2024
Adopted by the Board of Direction on July 18, 2024

Policy

Nature-based solutions (NbS) align natural and engineering processes to deliver infrastructure that provides economic, environmental, and social benefits. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) supports:

  • Expanding infrastructure and community resilience through protection, restoration, prioritization, and implementation of NbS and processes to achieve societal, environmental, and economic benefits.
  • Addressing the threat of climate change in part through nature-based infrastructure planning, design, construction, and funding for post-project monitoring and adaptive management.
  • Avoiding harm to natural land and seascapes by using NbS where possible and appropriate.
  • Updating policies and guidance to facilitate planning, design, retrofitting, permitting, and implementation of nature-based infrastructure and conventional infrastructure.
  • Education and training programs to inform engineers of the full range of possible engineered options, including nature-based, hybrid, and conventional features.
  • Global collaboration to accelerate research, development, and demonstration projects to advance engineering practices and standards for NbS.

Issue

The degradation of natural systems, biodiversity, and infrastructure systems continues to accelerate due to the compounding effects of climate change and human development. There is a critical need to find preemptive, innovative, and scalable solutions that sustain natural systems and their services.

Nature-based solutions use, restore, or emulate natural processes to achieve engineering objectives and provide co-benefits. In contrast to conventional infrastructure, which can be narrowly purposed and comprised of “hard” structures built of man-made materials, nature-based infrastructure uses natural materials and/or processes to meet engineering objectives and to provide societal, environmental, and economic benefits. NBS can be integrated with conventional infrastructure in hybrid designs that strengthen the overall resilience of infrastructure systems.

Effective application of NbS supports sustainable development by:

  • Reducing risks to existing infrastructure systems while increasing their functional life span. 
  • Increasing regulatory efficiency through effective resolution and inclusion of environmental considerations in permitting and other project review processes. 
  • Incorporating natural recovery potential (self-repair after disturbance) into infrastructure systems and reducing the harm done to natural ecosystems by structural interventions.

Rationale

NbS can play a critical role in enhancing the resilience of built and natural systems in a changing operating environment (e.g., natural hazards and climate change). Evidence indicates that nature-based approaches can be more cost-effective than conventional approaches for some situations, particularly considering maintenance costs and the full range of benefits provided over a project’s lifetime. Nature-based infrastructure is often more resilient and has the capacity to recover from extreme weather and climate-related hazards and adapt to ongoing environmental changes without human intervention.

The use of NbS has gained global attention as a potential solution that helps humanity create desirable conditions for future generations over long time scales by improving the ability of sustainable system components to absorb, recover from, and adapt to adverse events over the short- and long-term. However, NbS are far from achieving their full potential. While NbS can fulfill a wide range of engineering objectives, they work differently than conventional solutions. The body of research evaluating and quantifying the performance and benefits of NbS has increased significantly since the early 2000’s, but further development of design guidance, performance standards, and long-term monitoring and management strategies are needed to ensure effective application and to scale and expand best practices. Rigorous and consistent evaluation and monitoring of NbS projects in a wide range of real-world contexts is needed to assess performance, adaptively manage dynamic infrastructure systems over time, and translate new data and information into general knowledge to inform future practice.

Civil engineers are responsible for designing infrastructure systems to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public while balancing societal, environmental, and economic impacts. Utilization of NbS can help civil engineers adhere to the principles of sustainable development, mitigate adverse effects, and use resources wisely while minimizing resource depletion and protecting the public. 

This policy has worldwide application.
ASCE Policy Statement 575 
First Approved in 2024