The Engineering With Nature Department is offering this grant to advance the integration of nature-based solutions into risk and uncertainty models.

Background:

Engineering With Nature® (EWN) is the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic, environmental and social benefits through collaborative processes. In turn, sustainable development of water resources infrastructure is supported by solutions that beneficially integrate engineering and natural systems. There are many common interests and opportunities between risk science and EWN that could lead to innovative approaches that improve resilience for people and nature. The risk industry already has played a role in advancing Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF), for example, in advancing risk models and the assessment of the role of wetlands during extreme events such as Hurricane Sandy and in collaboratively developing the science, tools and models necessary to offer a first of its kind “insurance for nature” (i.e., the MesoAmerican Reef).

Risk and uncertainty modelers do not normally provide analysis of the risk reduction benefits of NNBF. However, many of the industry-leading coastal flood risk models could capture some of the most critical flood reduction aspects and other resiliency benefits of EWN projects. These analyses are not yet standard practice and entail real costs in terms of new modelling and analysis. This project will engage work with this sector focused on calculating risk and uncertainty, and it will evaluate data and conduct research to advance the analyses that could be done with models when evaluating use of NNBF by the risk and uncertainty modelers.

Risk models play a critical role in determining the feasibility and acceptability of risk reduction measures such as NNBF; however, NNBF are rarely included directly in such tools and models because of gaps in science and research. More research is needed to use risk transfer models more widely to help align environmental and risk management goals while also creating opportunities for public and private investment in nature-based projects.

The goals of this project are 1) To assess how nature is (or is not) included in models that consider risk and uncertainty, 2) To analyze and identify research gaps and opportunities for alignment in activities, work, and products between the risk models and NNBF and 3) To develop key findings and make recommendations based on the research for how to address the gaps and realize the opportunities. For example two key research areas where significant progress could be made include: (i) advancing the use of natural & nature-based feature (NNBF) data within risk modeling; and (ii) developing risk transfer models that explicitly include NNBF risk reduction measures.

Brief Description of Anticipated Work:

The key goals of this project are to

• Assess the present role of NNBF in risk models and risk transfer models with a focus on the risk analysis and evaluation.
• Identify gaps in risk science and associated models that limit the incorporation of NNBF.
• Identify opportunities for (mutually) beneficial alignment in science and the risk and uncertainty models in order expand the incorporation of NNBF.
• Make recommendations on how to address the gaps and realize the opportunities.