March 18, 2025
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Water is essential for sustaining life and health, ensuring food security, and driving economic development. Yet, Canada’s water resources are increasingly under pressure from population growth, overexploitation, land use changes, and the intensifying impacts of climate change.
Nature-based Solutions (NbS) can be an essential part of the toolbox to address Canada’s pressing water management challenges. Constructed wetlands, riparian buffer zones, and urban greening projects, leverage natural processes to provide sustainable and cost-effective ways to manage water quality and quantity while delivering a range of co-benefits, like clean drinking water, flood protection, improved air quality, recreational spaces, and the mitigation of urban heat effects.
Future Earth Canada and Sustainability in the Digital Age were supported by the Standards Council of Canada to host a workshop identifying challenges and opportunities of using NbS for water management in Canada. The workshop brought together over 30 interested parties including municipalities, Indigenous organizations, non-profit organizations, conservation authorities, and academic institutions, to contribute perspectives and case studies, offering practical guidance to enhance on NbS adoption.
The resulting report is available for download at no cost, and provides an overview of key benefits of NbS for water management, a series of case studies demonstrating NbS in action, and presenting key challenges and mitigation strategies for effective implementation of NbS.
Among the key findings, effective implementation of NbS requires the development of standardized approaches and a systematic, multi-phase framework that addresses ecological, social, and economic dimensions of projects. A diversity of partnerships including between municipalities, Indigenous organizations, academia and conservation groups can address knowledge and coordination gaps across sectors.
Insights and recommendations developed during the workshops may also inform the development of technical guidance or a National Standard of Canada in the future. By prioritizing research, advocacy, and policy alignment, Canada can position NbS as a fundamental component of its forward-looking water management and climate adaptation strategies.
The full report is available at: https://sustainabilitydigitalage.org/featured/workshop-agreement-on-nature-based-solutions-nbs-for-water-management/