Unlocking Nature for Disaster Resilience : A Policy Guide to Enable Nature-Based Solutions

Overview & Synopsis

Coastal zones are increasingly at risk from the combined effects of climate change, sea-level rise, intensifying storms, ecosystem degradation, and rapid coastal development. While traditional gray infrastructure has long been used for coastal protection, it is often costly, environmentally damaging, and increasingly insufficient under growing hazard conditions. Nature-based solutions (NBS) such as mangroves, dunes, reefs, and marshes offer a complementary and cost-effective approach to coastal resilience, reducing risks while benefitting biodiversity, livelihoods, and carbon storage. However, NBS are not universally applicable and must be tailored to local ecological, social, and exposure conditions, often in combination with gray infrastructure. The Coastal Catalogue is designed to support the identification of investment opportunities and the integration of NBS into coastal risk management and planning processes, while enabling more informed, scalable, and context-specific decision-making for coastal resilience investments. The Coastal Catalogue organizes solutions into 9 key typologies and provides practical information on benefits, costs, case studies, site suitability, and design and maintenance considerations to help policy makers, planners, and stakeholders identify, prioritize, and integrate coastal NBS into climate and disaster risk management strategies.