Nature‐Based Solutions for Europe's Sustainable Development

By Joachim Maes, S. Jacobs. 2017

515 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Pursuing economic targets of job creation, growth, and innovation while tackling global environmental challenges, has long been seen as impossible. However, any long‐term economic competitiveness and security depends on the extent to which natural resources are used sustainably. Therefore, the European Union is investing in nature‐based solutions to achieve this double goal. The difference between the prevailing economic model and a sustainable resource use has long seemed insurmountable. While many debates are paralyzed or radicalized, nature‐based solutions could offer a transition path with realistic, incremental steps toward a sustainable economy as envisaged by the EU Horizon 2020 vision. This paper outlines the basics of a nature‐based scenario for Europe, and proposes criteria to focus, guide, and evaluate the implementation of nature‐based solutions, geared at production of wide socioeconomic benefits, provision of jobs, and low‐carbon technology innovations.

Subfields: Ecology, Economics and Econometrics, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/06daa8a60365e15deaf75e59fc61f31402985fdd

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. Katharina Sartison
2. Martina Artmann

In Economics and Econometrics

1. João Romão
2. C. Liquete
3. Bart Neuts
4. Bruna Grizzetti

In Global and Planetary Change

1. Katharina Sartison
2. Martina Artmann

Citations in the corpus

• The Role of Urban Agriculture as a Nature-Based Solution: A Review for Developing a Systemic Assessment Framework (2018, background): “, by high input of nutrients and chemicals) [171].”
• Territorial capital, smart tourism specialization and sustainable regional development: experiences from Europe. (2017, background): “…of territorial management and design in order to promote processes of sustainable development, recent works analysed the possible connections between natural resources, economic growth and social benefits (e.g. Redclift & Woodgate, 2013), in particular for the case of Europe (Maes & Jacobs, 2017).”
• Soil-Related Sustainable Development Goals: Four Concepts to Make Land Degradation Neutrality and Restoration Work (2018, background): “Some essential aspects to consider when designing NBS are: the level of intervention and its ‘naturalness’ (from minimal interventions to designing artificial ecosystems), the scale of the intervention (from plot scale to whole landscapes), and the complexities this brings in both the natural and so”
• Integrated valuation of a nature-based solution for water pollution control. Highlighting hidden benefits (2016, background): “For instance, Maes and Jacobs (2015) define nature-based solutions as any transition to a use of ecosystem services with decreased input of non-renewable natural capital and increased investment in renewable natural processes.”