Strategies for mainstreaming nature-based solutions in urban governance capacities in ten European cities

This paper explores the institutional mainstreaming of nature-based solutions (NBS) to advance a process-based understanding about how to strategically develop the governance capacities needed for systemic, localised and inclusive NBS. To this end, it reports how policy officers in ten European cities have started to mainstream NBS by interacting with and changing incumbent governance arrangements when experimenting with novel governance processes and mechanisms to plan, deliver and steward NBS. Based on these activities of the policy officers, the analysis identifies three strategies, associated stepping stones and changes in governance conditions, to mainstream NBS in governance capacities: institutionalising (a) a systems' approach to link NBS to policies, regulations, and departments across goals and sectors, (b) inclusive collaborations for localised and inclusive interventions, and (c) reflexivity and learning about how NBS interact with the (institutional, ecological, social, etc.) contexts and create impacts. The strategies illustrate institutional entrepreneurship in interacting with incumbent governance contexts, and how starting from NBS as a type of systemic innovation can promote broader shifts in urban governance arrangements.

Katharina Hölscher, Niki Frantzeskaki, Marcus John Collier, Stuart Connop, Esmee D. Kooijman, Marleen Lodder, Siobhan McQuaid, Paula Vandergert, Dimitra Xidous, Lejla Bešlagić, Gillian Dick, Adina Dumitru, Agnieszka Dziubała, Isobel Fletcher, Cristian Garcia-Espina Adank, María González Vázquez, Natalia Madajczyk, Eleni Malekkidou, Maria Mavroudi, Eleftherios Loizou, Agnieszka Osipiuk, Belma Pašić, Antonio Prieto González, Mien Quartier, Selina Schepers, Nermina Suljević, Ivaylo Trendafilov, Katrien Van De Sijpe, Velichka Velikova, Peter Vos