What is water management?

Water management involves the processes of planning, developing, distributing, and managing the use of water resources. It involves a range of practices to control water availability, quality, and distribution to meet human and environmental needs, balancing competing demands such as domestic use, agriculture, industry, and ecosystem conservation.  

NbS are increasingly recognized as integral to a sustainable water management, as they address multiple objectives such as flood and drought mitigation, water quality improvement, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience that will create a more resilient and balanced water cycle. Sound water management can therefore support and provide a wide range of ecosystem services including provisioning services (food, fuel, genetic material), regulating services (flood regulation, water purification, erosion regulation), supporting services (nutrient cycling) and cultural services (recreational, educational and aesthetic). 

Addressing water management with NbS

Water management and NbS are closely linked, as NbS leverages natural processes to address water-related challenges in sustainable ways. By using or restoring natural ecosystems, NbS offer alternative or complementary solutions to traditional, engineered approaches in water management. These methods enhance resilience, promote biodiversity, and provide cost-effective, adaptable solutions to water-related issues. For example, NbS like restoring wetlands and floodplains absorb and slow floodwaters, reducing the risk of floods in downstream areas and enhance the infiltration of water to the groundwater thereby increasing the recharging of aquifers.  At the same time these areas can filter pollutants from runoff before it reaches the rivers or groundwaters thereby enhancing water quality.  To effectively address water management through NbS, it is essential to adopt large-scale, catchment-level planning, as many benefits will naturally manifest downstream from the NbS implementation area.  

What to think about...

Predicting the efficacy of different NbS for water management can be challenging, as outcomes depend on the project area's initial characteristics and the scale of the challenges the NbS aims to address. Therefore, it is recommended to use modeling tools or similar approaches before implementation to assess whether the NbS can achieve sufficient impact and to set realistic goals. These could involve goals related to for example: 

  • Capacity to store and retain precipitation water relative to the dynamics of the precipitation events (duration and magnitude)   

  • Capacity to purify water which will depend on the quality and quantity of the water entering the area and local characteristics of the soil including the infiltration capacity  

  • Nitrogen and phosphorus concentration or load 

  • Metal concentration or load 

To evaluate and ensure that the NbS effectively meets its water management goals, it is essential to have a monitoring system in place. Monitoring data can then indicate whether adjustments to the NbS are needed to enhance its efficacy. 

You will find more information about standards, policies and laws related to water management in the Nordics in the A-DVICE handbook. 

NbS with a focus on water management

In GuideNbS, we highlight the societal benefits of each nature-based solution, considering the context-specific potential that is determined by ecosystem characteristics. We encourage users of this handbook to fully realize the potential within the specific context of the ecosystem and to set clear targets that can be followed over time. 

  • Re-meandering: A previously straightened or channelized stream is returned to a more natural, meandering (curving) planform. 

  • Raising riverbed level: The stream bed level of a previously cut down stream is elevated to reconnect the river with the surrounding area. 

  • Ditch and drain blocking and filling: Man-made drainage ditches and drains that were originally constructed to lower the water table for purposes like agriculture are obstructed or filled completely. 

  • Rewetting: Former wetlands that have been drained for human activities are rewetted applying different types of NbS that restore the natural hydrology of the area 

  • Floodplain reconnection: Floodplain can be reconnected to its surrounding by applying different types of NbS that reconnect the hydrological connectivity between the river and the floodplain. 

Are you unsure how to choose an NbS that addresses water management? See our general guidance on Nature-based solutions!