Environmental Design Features for Large-Scale Nature-Based Solutions: Development of a Framework That Incorporates Landscape Dynamics into the Design of Nature-Based Solutions

Abstract

Large-scale nature-based solutions (NBS) contribute to the change in large-scale landscapes and ecosystems for which continuous monitoring activities would be necessary to reflect the constantly changing environment. To fill the existing gap in the design-making process of implementing NBS, a framework that incorporates the landscape dynamics into the design of NBS is expedient and beneficial. This research addresses the above knowledge gap and presents a practically applicable framework for large-scale NBS that incorporates landscape dynamics into the design of NBS. To amplify the power of stakeholders’ involvement and evidence-based knowledge (i.e., field experiences and literature reports), the framework developed in this study was evaluated on a case-study site in Odense area, Denmark, within the EU-funded RECONECT project. Furthermore, this study also addresses the relationship between landscape dynamics and biodiversity by performing a detailed literature review. The results obtained from this work demonstrate that the framework developed can be applied to existing large-scale NBS and it has the potential to recommend guidelines during the planning and design step of large-scale NBS.