document<\/a> is mostly a how-to guide. But its heft and international imprimatur legitimize natural infrastructure such as dunes and marshes as an alternative to traditional, manufactured flood-control measures such as sea walls and levees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cIt could be really significant, given the breadth of the stakeholders from around the globe that were involved in the drafting,\u201d said Sarah Murdock, director of U.S. climate resilience and water policy for the Nature Conservancy, which helped develop the report. \u201cIt really comes with such a stamp of endorsement from all these different public, private and NGO folks who were involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten nations on four continents contributed to the guidelines, including Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Denmark and the United States. Leading the drafting along with the Army Corps were NOAA, the World Bank, the U.K. Environment Agency and Rijkswaterstaat, the Netherlands\u2019 ministry of infrastructure and water management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad signaled the Biden administration\u2019s embrace of natural infrastructure during a virtual conference yesterday announcing the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNatural features are more capable of adapting to a changing environmental condition and being self-sustaining, while conventional infrastructure can have less capacity to meet future conditions,\u201d said Spinrad, who was appointed by the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spinrad noted the dual benefits of natural infrastructure as both protection from flood damage and habitat for a range of species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy using natural features such as marshes, dunes, reefs, islands and mangroves to protect coastal communities, we can also improve habitats that support commercially and recreationally important species, and enhance opportunities for aquaculture,\u201d Spinrad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army Corps environmental engineer Candice Piercy told the virtual gathering that natural infrastructure needs to be maintained to be effective as flood control. Wetlands in southern Louisiana that were intended to buffer storm surge \u201cwere stressed for a long time\u201d prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Piercy said. \u201cThat storm served as a tipping point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just focus on whether NNBF stays in place during a storm or flood,\u201d Piercy added, using the abbreviation for natural and nature-based features. \u201cWe also need to make sure it is appropriately functioning outside of those periods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brenden Jongman, a disaster risk management specialist for the World Bank, said developing nature-based infrastructure \u201cis not straightforward. It requires the right tools, guidance and principles and also a lot of capacity-building.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new guidelines \u201cwill really help us get to the nitty-gritty and develop better projects,\u201d Jongman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report has 20 chapters and dedicates hundreds of pages to explaining how to develop various types of natural infrastructure, such as beaches and dunes, coastal wetlands, islands, reefs, and underwater vegetation and kelp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the report\u2019s introduction, Army Corps leader Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon calls the document a \u201cmuch\u2011needed resource to pursue, consider, and apply NNBF for flood risk management while expanding value through infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To view online<\/em>:
https:\/\/subscriber.politicopro.com\/article\/eenews\/2021\/09\/17\/global-guidelines-promote-natural-infrastructure-280713<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Thomas Frank, 09\/17\/2021 06:50 AM EDT It\u2019s 1,020 pages long, took five years to write \u2014 and could help galvanize the movement toward using natural infrastructure to protect the world against flood damage. The first International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management were released yesterday, culminating a global effort led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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