Rising waters | Rooted solutions
Beyond floods - quantifying the co-benefits of natural flood management
NFM isn’t just about reducing flood risk - it delivers a range of other benefits. By quantifying NFM’s wider value, we can unlock new investment opportunities beyond traditional flood risk budgets.
Natural flood management (NFM) isn’t just about reducing flood risk - it delivers a range of other benefits. These ‘co-benefits’, some of which are being investigated in Ousewem’s Living Labs initiative, rangefrom improving water quality to enhancing biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Unfortunately, these benefits are still often overlooked in funding decisions.
By quantifying NFM’s wider value, we can unlock new investment opportunities beyond traditional flood risk budgets.
Key co-benefits of NFM
- Biodiversity: Creates habitats for wildlife and improves ecosystem resilience.
- Water quality: Reduces runoff pollution, benefiting rivers and drinking water sources.
Recent modelling work is highlighting how nature-based solutions (NbS) like wetlands and soil management can significantly reduce pollution runoff, benefiting both biodiversity and drinking water sources. By identifying pollution hotspots, we can target interventions more effectively. (Explore how Ousewem is using data to improve water quality.)
- Carbon storage: Peatland restoration and tree planting help sequester carbon.
- Health and wellbeing: Green spaces and natural landscapes improve mental and physical health.
How we’re measuring this impact
- Our team members at the University of York have reviewed how NFM’s co-benefits are currently measured.
- Findings will inform our willingness-to-pay survey, which aims to explore how the potential beneficiaries of NFM value these benefits in real-world investment decisions. This research will strengthen business cases for NFM funding from both public schemes and private green finance markets, by helping to understand the value of NFM to people and the environment.
Linking co-benefits to investment
Much of the existing funding for NFM comes from public sources, such as government-backed agri-environmental schemes. However, there is increasing recognition that private investment could support the wider delivery of NFM. This is commonly referred to as green finance.
As part of the Ousewem project, JBA Consulting and researchers at the University of York are investigating how different funding mechanisms (public, private or a mixture of both) are supporting NFM delivery. Their work includes:
- Conducting interviews with key stakeholders to understand what drives investment.
- Identifying what works, where challenges remain, and how NFM financing can evolve.
- Identifying possible public and private funding opportunities and sources for NFM and NBS.
This research will help define how the co-benefits of NFM (biodiversity, carbon storage, water quality) can be integrated into funding decisions.
What’s next?
The insights will support new funding models for NFM, ensuring these vital co-benefits are properly accounted for in investment decisions.
Why it matters
By demonstrating the full value of NFM, we can make a stronger case for new funding models, securing long-term investment in nature-based solutions - thereby, providing long-term resilience for communities and the environment.
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