Natural Infrastructure for Water Solutions (NIWS)
What does a thriving community look like to you?
For us, among many things, thriving communities are places where people have access to clean, fresh water, can depend on reliable and sustainable infrastructure year-round, and are protected from the ever-increasing impacts of climate change.
How do we get there?
Natural Infrastructure for Water Solutions is a 5-year IISD initiative to scale up natural infrastructure on Canada's Prairies—for cleaner water and more resilient communities.
Working alongside stakeholders from many sectors, we are:
- Making the business case for natural infrastructure, by demonstrating how impactful and cost-effective it can be
- Encouraging local municipalities to adopt more natural infrastructure projects
- Enabling access to funding for those who want to implement natural infrastructure
- Making sure that natural infrastructure is supported and championed by all levels of government.
Why natural infrastructure?
Natural infrastructure is a way to plan and build with nature to meet our infrastructure needs.
Imagine more wetlands (both natural and designed), green roofs, and stormwater parks, working actively to meet the needs of prairie communities. Natural infrastructure can be a preserved ecosystem (e.g., wetland), a restored ecosystem (e.g., replanted riparian area), or even a nature-based engineered feature (e.g., green roof).
The common thread? Natural infrastructure is managed to provide specific infrastructure benefits, with the potential for many other social and environmental benefits. There is increasing evidence that natural infrastructure can deliver much-needed water outcomes cost efficiently while also providing areas for recreation, habitat to support wildlife, and improving the overall resilience of our communities.
Why the Canadian Prairies?
Economically, there is a big and widening gap between the water infrastructure we have, the infrastructure we need, and the resources and funding available to make it happen.
Ecologically, the Canadian prairie provinces contain some unique and threatened ecosystems—including grasslands and wetlands—that support a clean, reliable water supply and water treatment as well as critical habitat.
Socially, the prairies are home to hundreds of small and medium-sized communities that are facing mounting water risks, including floods, droughts, algal blooms, and the overall impacts of climate change.
NIWS brings together partners to look at ways in which natural infrastructure can help meet these complex, interlinked challenges to ensure our water needs into the future. All this while embracing the power of nature.
Here at IISD, we have been championing the benefits of natural infrastructure for decades, from deploying floating treatment wetlands at the world's freshwater laboratory to soak up harmful excess nutrients to managing a wetland at Pelly's Lake, Manitoba to protect local areas from flooding.
Now we are building on that legacy to transform the way that nature is viewed—as a way of meeting critical infrastructure needs.
Want to join us?
To learn more and to get involved, email Josée Méthot at [email protected]
Want to learn more?
The Multiple Benefits of Natural Infrastructure
We explain exactly what natural infrastructure is and all the multiple benefits that it brings to humans and to the environment.
Advancing Natural Infrastructure in Canada: A forum report
The Advancing Natural Infrastructure in Canada forum convened Canadian experts to discuss how natural infrastructure can build climate-resilient cities/landscapes. This report highlights forum presentations, discussions, insights and next steps.
Mobilizing Capital for Natural Infrastructure in Canada
This report offers a template for Canadian champions and funders of natural infrastructure projects to make a business case for specific projects.
Floating Treatment Wetlands: Keeping our fresh water clean and healthy
We explain how, where and why floating treatment wetlands can be used to keep freshwater bodies clean around the world.
Advancing the Climate Resilience of Canadian Infrastructure
This report provides an overview of potential climate risks for Canada's built infrastructure and existing policies, guides, and actions to support resilience building.
An Application of the Sustainable Asset Valuation (SAVi) Methodology to Pelly's Lake and Stephenfield Reservoir, Manitoba, Canada
This report provides a valuation of the ecosystem services in Stephenfield Reservoir and Pelly's Lake in Manitoba, Canada.
Director, Water Management
Water Policy and Youth Engagement Officer, IISD-ELA
Senior Policy Specialist, Water
IISD Welcomes New Deal on Global Biodiversity Framework
IISD congratulates the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which will guide work within and outside the UN system on tackling biodiversity loss and help lay the groundwork towards the CBD’s vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050.
New Initiative to Boost Natural Infrastructure for Communities across Canada’s Prairies to Launch Tomorrow
A new 5-year initiative to scale up natural infrastructure in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to ensure cleaner water and resilient communities launches tomorrow.
Summary of the 2022 International Institute for Sustainable Development Canadian Prairie Water Retention Monitoring and Modelling Workshop
The 2022 Canadian Prairie Water Retention Monitoring and Modelling Workshop brought together water retention experts to share and identify next steps for advancing research.
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