Toby Harding, Technical Director at WSP and AMP8 Strategy lead, who chairs WSP’s Nature Based Solutions working group, takes a look at the wide-ranging benefits of using Nature Based Solutions (NbS) to address environmental challenges – including low capital and operational costs, along with reducing energy demand.
Toby Harding: Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) offer a compelling approach to addressing environmental challenges while simultaneously benefiting well-being and biodiversity.
At WSP, we are seeing increased interest from clients, often driven by community demand, across the water sector, local authorities, transport agencies, and private developers, about opportunities for adopting NbS to complement, enhance and improve more traditionally engineered approaches.
NbS are powerful tools and as part of a "twin track" approach working with other engineered solutions, provide the most cost-effective solutions.
Unlike many engineered solutions, NbS offer low capital and operational costs, along with reducing energy demand. By delivering multiple benefits for people and nature, NbS play a crucial role in addressing climate emergencies and biodiversity crises.
Photo: WSP peatland restoration project
To look at just a few examples from WSP’s recent work:
Green Infrastructure Scheme: WSP collaborated with a local authority in the South-East to address heat stress along residential streets in a town centre. The goal was to enhance existing surface water drainage and prevent localised surface water flooding. WSP designed a sustainable drainage scheme (SuDS) using a combination of NbS, technology and engineering. The project reduced flood risk for 30 properties and achieved a £2.5 million payback in flood protection over a 50-year design life.
London SuDS Project: A London City Council engaged WSP to design a SuDS for a 7,000m² catchment in the low-emission neighbourhood. The challenge was to create a resilient solution that would reduce future flood risks, enhance safety, aesthetics and contribute positively to biodiversity, air quality, and public health. WSP designed nine bioretention rain gardens at existing gully locations, with new sewer connections added only where necessary. As a result of the project, no floods were reported during storm events.
Peatland Restoration: National Nature Reserves, located on the English-Welsh border, play a vital role in capturing and storing carbon. The project aimed to protect one million tonnes of carbon stored in peat, equivalent to ten times more carbon per hectare than tropical rainforests. Restoration efforts included diverting older canalised arterial drains to preserve the low-nutrient peat bog ecosystem. The project resulted in increased biodiversity, with over 2,000 species of flora and fauna, including the return of the snipe bird after 30 years.
Reviving Natural Flows in the Northwest: WSP is working with a water company and others to remove redundant infrastructure and re-naturalise a reservoir near the Lake District. This will return the lake and its surrounding rivers and streams to their historic natural levels with the aims to restore natural flows and salmon habitats.
WSP experts have worked with a wide range of industry and government partners to develop the NATURE tool, a simple assessment that measures how well a business or organisation is managing ecosystem services and natural capital. The NATURE tool can help assess the impact of changes in land use and management on an organisation's performance and helps companies run ecosystem service assessments against clearly defined objectives.
WSP partners with clients across various sectors, offering a wide range of services from strategic advisory to project delivery. Our team of specialists, including ecologists, economists, landscape architects, process engineers, stakeholder engagement experts, and cross-disciplinary nature advisors, work together to develop effective, resilient, sustainable, and future-ready solutions.
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