NUS Cities Lecture Series 02
This is the 2nd lecture held as part of our NUS Cities Lecture Series which investigates ideas, policies and projects developed by urban experts, which aspire to create sustainable, resilient, and liveable cities. The recording of this public lecture can be viewed below.
Timestamps:
0:00:11 | Introduction to NUS Cities Lecture Series
0:01:10 | Lecture by Dr. Bregje van Wesenbeeck: 'Can nature be our solution to climate change?'
0:35:42 | Lecture by Professor Stefan Aarninkhof: 'Implementability: Creating an enabling environment'
1:07:09 | Q&A with Dr. van Wesenbeeck and Professor Aarninkhof
Nature Based Solutions 2.0
Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly popular for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change and can be applied across different landscapes. After a decade of NBS work, it is a good time to reflect on the first generation of nature-based solutions projects. What can we learn from the past, and improve for the future? Broad implementation and upscaling in practice still proves seriously challenging. EcoShape aims to create an enabling environment for NBS by carrying out a pre-competitive, public-private research program, for a variety of coastal, riverine and urban landscapes. This should ultimately pave the way towards large-scale implementation of NBS in practice. Learn more about this through case studies, at the NUS Cities lecture by Prof Stefan Aarninkhof and Dr. Bregje van Wesenbeeck.
Lecture 01 | Can nature be our solution to climate change?
Nature-based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly popular for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change and can be applied across different landscapes. After a decade of NBS work it is a good time to reflect on the first generation of nature-based solutions projects. What did we learn from NBS in riverine, coastal and urban landscapes and how does that improve the NBS of the future? This presentation will define challenges for the next generation of urban NBS to make future NBS more effective from an engineering and ecological perspective.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Bregje van Wesenbeeck (TU Delft / Deltares)
Dr. Bregje van Wesenbeeck is the scientific director of Deltares, a Dutch research institute for water management, and a senior expert in nature-based solutions. She also is an associate professor at the Delft University of Technology in nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction with a focus on salt marshes and mangroves. She strives to both strengthen the scientific foundation and further practical application of nature-based solutions. At Deltares she has over 15 years’ experience in working with development banks, UN, NGO’s and governments in Asia, Africa, USA and the Netherlands, for whom she provides advice on flood risk reduction, erosion mitigation and climate change adaptation. As scientific director she chairs the science council of Deltares, which advices on quality and direction of the work and organization.
Lecture 02 | On the implementability of Nature-based Solutions: How to create an enabling environment?
Pilot applications of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) show great potential for coastal zone development and their use is being encouraged in many policy frameworks. However, broad implementation and upscaling in practice still proves seriously challenging. Careful analysis of earlier Building with Nature projects has revealed the occurrence of six enablers that are crucial for successful implementation of NBS. These include fundamental understanding of the natural system, early stakeholder involvement, sound institutional embedding, a robust business case, monitoring & maintenance schemes to handle future uncertainties and local capacity building. EcoShape aims to create an enabling environment for NBS by carrying out a pre-competitive, public-private research program into these six enablers, for a variety of coastal, riverine and urban landscapes. This should ultimately pave the way towards large-scale implementation of NBS in practice.
Speaker Bio
Prof Stefan Aarninkhof (TU Delft / EcoShape)
Stefan Aarninkhof is professor of Coastal Engineering at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and Chair of the Department of Hydraulic Engineering. He is also the Director of the Foundation EcoShape | Building with Nature. He holds a PhD from TU Delft and previously worked for Delft Hydraulics (nowadays Deltares) and in the dredging industry (Boskalis). His research interests include monitoring / modelling of nearshore coastal processes, dredging for marine infrastructure and Building with Nature, ultimately to enable broad implementation of nature-based solutions in daily engineering and management practice. Throughout his 25-year career in the water sector, he was closely involved in the execution, programming and management of applied coastal research, always at the interface of science, engineering and design.
Date: 20th February 2023, Monday
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (SGT)
Venue: Lecture Theatre (LT)421, Level 4, NUS SDE 3, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore 117566