| Course information | |
|---|---|
| Period | Block 2 |
| Timeline | March |
| Number of ECTS | 5 ECTS |
| Coordinator | Elena Marie Enseñado and Charmae Pyl Wissink-Nercua |
| Methodology | Lectures and seminars, case study analyses, co-creation exercise, guided group work, field trips/excursions, independent research and writing |
Course description
Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are systemic placed-based interventions that protect, restore, or sustainably manage ecosystems to address interlinked societal challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, water management, food security, and human well-being. By working with ecological processes, NBS, such as wetland restoration or green corridors, can generate multiple environmental, social, and economic co-benefits.
However, NbS are not inherently transformative nor socially just. The planning and implementation of NBS raise complex questions related to governance, valuation, finance, justice and power. Effective and equitable NBS require integrated ecosystem service valuation, inclusive and multi-level governance arrangements, participatory co-creation processes, and innovative financing mechanisms. Moreover, NBS interventions can entail trade-offs, risks of mal-adaptation, and unintended socio-spatial consequences, which call for critical and context-sensitive analysis.
This course critically examines the conceptual, ecological, socio-political, governance, and financial dimensions of NBS, with a particular focus on their role in transformative sustainability transitions. Students engage with theoretical frameworks, empirical cases, and applied tools to assess how NBS can be designed, governed, financed, and mainstreamed in ways that are socially just, ecologically sound, and institutionally feasible across scales.
Learning objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to critically synthesize and apply conceptual, ecological, socio-political, governance, and financial dimensions of NBS to support just and transformative sustainability transitions in diverse urban and regional contexts.
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Apply integrated ecosystem service valuation approaches to assess environmental, social, and economic benefits and co-benefits of NBS.
- Critically analyze governance, institutional, and financial arrangements shaping the design, implementation, scaling, and mainstreaming of NBS across different policy and planning contexts.
- Design participatory co-creation processes that enable inclusive, multi-actor stakeholder engagement in NBS planning and implementation.
- Evaluate trade-offs, distributional effects, and risks of mal adaptation associated with NBS interventions across different contexts and scales.
- Develop policy and financing strategies for embedding NBS into multi-level planning, governance, and investment frameworks in support of transformative sustainability transitions