New International Guidelines for Nature-Based Flood Risk Management Solutions

The first International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management were released Sept. 16, culminating a global effort led by the Army Corps of Engineers that took five years to complete.

The guidelines are said to provide practitioners with the best available information concerning the conceptualization, planning, design, engineering, construction, and maintenance of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) to support resilience and flood risk reduction for coastlines, bays, and estuaries, as well as river and freshwater systems.

The USACE led a team of 77 cross-sector organizations to create the guidelines. NOAA, the World Bank, the U.K. Environment Agency, and Rijkswaterstaat, the Netherlands’ ministry of infrastructure and water management, were among the contributors to the 1,017-page resource spanning 20 chapters.

“The publication is intended to inform and guide practitioners, organizations and communities seeking to enhance the performance of flood-risk management systems and achieve long-term risk mitigation,” said Dr. Todd Bridges, USACE lead for the effort. “The approaches in The NNBF guidelines can be used to increase the value produced by flood-risk management infrastructure investments; increase water infrastructure resilience and sustainability; and reduce infrastructure maintenance and repair costs.”

In the report’s introduction, Army Corps leader Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon calls the document a “much‑needed resource to pursue, consider, and apply NNBF for flood risk management while expanding value through infrastructure.”

You can download both the entire document and the 150-page overview here.