Today, the results of the environmental impacts accumulated over years of human activities are beginning to be clearly noticed by society and companies. Some of the most direct examples we are experiencing are the water crises that have been affecting different regions of the country. The shortage affects the productivity of companies and rural producers and even the water supply of cities. To minimize the impacts, multiple solutions are needed, including improved risk management, the viability of better technologies and investment in the recovery of forests that protect our water resources.
Among these solutions, the one that is least explored is the environmental recovery agenda for basins. Read this content and learn more about Natural Infrastructure and its environmental and financial impact benefits.
What is Natural Infrastructure?
Natural Infrastructure refers to the use of nature-based solutions to address issues related to water use and availability, particulate matter control, flooding, and more. Today, the main projects are related to those natural and open spaces, such as forests and wetlands, which are strategically managed to protect water supplies. These projects seek to balance the protection and restoration of green areas while preventing these areas from being used solely for urban growth and agricultural production, or from being reduced and degraded, which leads to losses for society itself, as resources become scarce and/or polluted.
On the other hand, if investments in natural infrastructure are made correctly, benefits There are many. In the medium term, they contribute to greater water availability by controlling flow, preventing the accumulation of sediments from silting and retaining pollutants. In other words, it is a preventive measure: instead of spending resources treating polluted water, one can invest in mechanisms that prevent or drastically reduce pollution.
Initiatives still as an exception
Although these initiatives are gaining recognition in some countries, they still appear as an exception and not as a concrete and complementary solution to the use of traditional (grey) infrastructure. Most cities in Latin America rely exclusively on gray infrastructure, such as water treatment plants, dikes and dams, even when threats reach a scale where these solutions become too expensive or are not sufficient to guarantee the water security of the regions.
Among the greatest difficulties in developing natural infrastructure projects is the lack of accurate data on the return on investment in terms of the expected increase and/or stabilization of river flow, as well as the savings generated by improving water quality. This is due precisely to the low number of monitored initiatives that can generate these responses. It is therefore important to invest in pilot projects that can already be based on the successes of international initiatives.
How to increase Natural Infrastructure in Brazil?
A better understanding of economic benefits that this type of strategy generates would bring greater engagement to these initiatives. The perspective that sustainable models can also be profitable must be put on the agenda and thus bring more investors.
Case São Paulo – Natural Infrastructure
In some cases, investing in Natural Infrastructure can greatly reduce costs in the medium and long term with water treatment. The city of São Paulo has a water fund supported by the Latin American Water Fund Alliance, an association between The Nature Conservancy (TNC), FEMSA Foundation, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and other partners.
TNC estimates that by restoring approximately 14,300 hectares of land near the watersheds, the reduction in sedimentation would be 50% and would bring a savings of U$2.5 million per year in water treatment for the city of São Paulo. This reflects in a reduction of 15% over 10 years.
WRI and a network of partners developed the “green-gray assessment”, an economic analysis methodology that allows decision makers to compare investments in natural infrastructure with the cost benefits of traditional infrastructure.
Tests were carried out in countries such as the United States and Kenya. The results showed that Natural Infrastructure does indeed reduce costs in subsequent water treatments.
Knowledge support tools
As previously mentioned, there is a lack of information and practical data on natural infrastructure. However, there are now different tools that help to understand the subject and how to apply the measures.
This is the case of ROAM, a methodology for evaluating restoration opportunities that guides decision-making through strategies that highlight environmental and economic benefits.
There are other tools like InVEST, RIOS and ROOT which show areas of lower cost for restoration.
Brazil and some regions of the world are still at an early stage in implementing projects related to Natural Infrastructure. However, it is clear that with the help of facilitating tools this scenario tends to grow. This will bring enormous benefits in terms of water quality and availability to cities in the coming years. To read more content like this, keep following our blog!
