About: Across the Mekong region, pressures from rapid population growth, urbanisation, climate change and economic development are exacerbating pre-existing water quantity and quality challenges. Social, economic and gender inequities also mean that some community groups suffer disproportionately from the impacts of flooding and other natural hazards.

NbS are increasingly being integrated into urban planning to provide more cost-effective and flexible approaches that also generate a wide range of co-benefits that contribute to broader environmental, economic and social improvements in the urban landscape. Relative to conventional large-scale infrastructure, NbS can be faster to deliver, scalable, and often have lower technology requirements promoting timely recovery of economic activity. NbS can also create healthy places that bring communities together, encouraging social recovery and resilience to flooding and other extreme events including pandemics.

The key objective of the project is to demonstrate the value nature-based solutions can bring to urban flooding challenges in Thailand and Vietnam. In particular, the project will show the environmental, social, water resource management and climate resilience benefits of nature-based solutions and use a robust economic framework to compare the costs and benefits of nature-based and conventional approaches. In doing so the project aims to help build the economic case for nature-based solutions in the Mekong region.

Specifically, the project involves:

• The development and testing of a guide and associated tools for economic valuation for IUFM, with a particular emphasis on flood management in Thailand and Vietnam

• Comprehensive capacity building focused on national stakeholders from each country (policy makers, strategy leads, managers) to identify, design, value, finance and implement NbS for IUFM

• Four detailed case studies (two in Thailand and two in Vietnam) to demonstrate the valuation methodology and proof of concept for wider application across the Mekong

To read the case studies, please click below:

Case Study Report: Tam Phu Park, Thu Duc City – A multi-functional urban wetland and eco-social housing scheme

Case Study Report: Towards a circular island economy – Duong Dong freshwater wildlife conservation park, Phu Quoc

Case Study Report: Streetscape greening transformation of Rayong’s central business district

Case Study Report: The Sukhumvit Green Triangle

• A regional conference to launch the guide and case studies, share experiences and learnings and explore opportunities for wider application within each country and the Mekong more broadly