Nidhi Nagabhatla delivered a Plenary Talk at the Congress on Sustainable and Climate Resilient Watershed Management through Ecosystem-based Approaches in the Asia-Pacific Region, Philippines
Nidhi Nagabhatla delivered a plenary talk at the Congress on Sustainable and Climate Resilient Watershed Management through Ecosystem-based Approaches in the Asia-Pacific Region this October 24-26, 2023, Philippines.
Theme 3: Nature-based Solutions in Watershed Management
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) encompass a wide array of sustainable actions aimed at safeguarding, nurturing, and rejuvenating both natural and human-altered ecosystems. These approaches offer substantial benefits to our environment and society by tapping into the innate capabilities of ecosystems to tackle pressing environmental and societal challenges. From mitigating climate change and reducing disaster risks to bolstering food and water security, conserving biodiversity, enhancing human well-being, and promoting economic development, NbS play a pivotal role. As such, they are gaining recognition as highly effective and cost-efficient strategies for building resilience. Nevertheless, the evidence and assessment of their effectiveness, especially in regions of the Global South, remain somewhat lacking.
The session is dedicated to sharing the outcomes of research and development efforts aimed at evaluating the strategies and impact of NbS. By addressing this critical gap in our current understanding with the four key priorities outlined in the Sendai Framework and enable to better grasp, manage, reduce, and recover from disasters, making communities and ecosystems more resilient.
Some of the topics to be discussed during the discussion include:
- NbS in watersheds
- Assessing the effectiveness of NbS
- Integrative and analytical tools and methodologies, such as eco-modelling
- The economic analysis of NbS adoption
- Our goal is to present these concepts and findings in a media-friendly manner to promote awareness and foster positive change for a more sustainable and resilient future.
Her Talk is Titled: Integrating Nature-Based Solutions for Water Security and Coastal Resilience
Abstract
Amidst the escalating environmental imperatives and escalating repercussions of climate perturbations, the potential of nature-based solutions (NBS) has attained eminence as an imperative methodology to efficaciously confront a confluence of intertwined predicaments that underpin the equilibrium of human-nature interactions. These solutions encompass an array of interventions that harness innate ecological processes and ecosystems to proffer sustainable remedies to pressing environmental and societal quandaries. In addition to conferring ecological dividends, these measures conduce to fortifying water security and facilitating astute governance of coastal perimeters through the preservation, rejuvenation, and judicious administration of habitats such as wetlands, mangroves, and woodlands. These interventions engender a regulatory framework for environmental flux, bolster resilience against inundation occurrences, ameliorate water purity, and fortify coastal fringes against the encroachments of attrition and cyclonic inundations.
This discourse will illuminate the harmonious nexus between nature-based solutions, water security, and the stewardship of coastal zones, particularly within the contextual precincts of the Asia Pacific Region. Plunging into the precincts of water security, an exigent trepidation in an increasingly arid world, the ascendancy of NBS solutions is progressively promulgated by erudite scholars and praxis architects. This entails the recalibration of existing management modalities and the articulation of NBS interventions that accentuate community resilience. These could entail the advocacy of infrastructure, such as engineered wetlands and arboreal buffers, to invigorate the natural filtration network and replenish subterranean aquifers, therefrom engendering sustained water provisioning for both anthropogenic and ecological requisites. Coastal ecologies, harbouring a substantial segment of the global/regional populace, are manifestly susceptible to climatic vulnerabilities, along with the pressure of burgeoning urbanization. In this vantage, NBS proffers a holistic template for the stewardship of coastal zones, by safeguarding coastal ecosystems, and mitigating and addressing challenges faced by coastal communities such as the elevating sea level. Natural barriers, such as mangrove thickets and other coastal vegetation buffer coastal storms, thereby affording a protective mantle to coastal hamlets against the surging perils precipitated by climatic extremities. Against this backdrop, the instance of the Seaweed system within the Asia Pacific will be expounded upon in meticulous detail. In summation, this presentation will underscore the pivotal imperative of inculcating NBS paradigms within the gamut of water security and coastal zone administration strategies, as a conduit to actualizing the edicts of sustainable development (SDGs ) objectives and resilience paradigms. The crux of the matter lies in harnessing the inherent robustness and operability of ecosystems, through the prism of NBS, as an innovative trajectory that integrates the interconnected conundrums, thereby forging a symbiotic concord between human society and the natural capital. As humanity globally aspires for all-encompassing strategies to grapple with environmental dilemmas, the adoption of nature-based solutions presents as a pivotal vector, endowing dividends towards a balanced approach.
More about the event at :https://sites.google.com/view/watershedcongress2023
