MAinstreaming NAture BAsed Solutions through COASTal systems

In the North Sea Region, climate change will cause sea level rise ( 0.5- 1.0m, 2100), more severe storm surges, and heat stress on sandy and muddy coasts. Combined with increasing human activity, this will have a detrimental impact on coastal zones. If coastal management does not adapt to these changes, the coasts will face an increased vulnerability to flooding, erosion, biodiversity loss, and higher cost of grey infrastructure.With these growing pressures, coastal authorities from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France are facing the task of integrating Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) with biodiversity goals, to deliver a sustainable future.Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are widely recognized as a way forward when it comes to dealing with this common challenge and developing a sustainable approach. They contribute to the ambition of creating a Blue Economy and generate climate resilience while providing benefits for human well-being and biodiversity. Nevertheless, a wide-scale application and implementation, or mainstreaming of NbS has not become a common practice yet. This is mostly due to a lack of understanding of the key criteria for success, i.e. the enabling factors for mainstreaming NbS.Seven partners in this project were involved in the Interreg NSR Building with Nature project. They built a strong base for successful NbS pilots and identified enabling factors, such as technology and system knowledge, multi-stakeholder approach, institutional embedding, etc.This project will bring those outcomes to a higher level on a national and EU scale. A generic framework for mainstreaming will be developed including regional NbS implementation strategies. This will be based on an analysis of the impact of on-the-ground pilot experiments on the enabling factors. Learning activities for future and current professionals and decision-makers will promote capacity building. For the latter, a Policy Reflection Group will be initiated. Overall Objective: Setting the stage in the NSR for wide scale application and implementation (mainstreaming) of NbS in coasts by developing a proven and accessible framework, tools, guidelines based on pilot examples, to enable integrated policies and decision making for the joint delivery of FCERM and biodiversity.