Nature-based solutions: from plans to practice
At JBA, we have been at the forefront of research and science related to nature-based solutions (NbS) for the past 20 years. Discover how we are assisting water companies in integrating NbS into their planning, enabling them to progress from theory to practical, prioritised implementation.
Tackling today's water challenges by working with natural processes
As climate extremes become more frequent and intense, water companies across the UK face growing pressures to deliver resilience while maintaining cost efficiency and meeting tightening environmental standards. Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer a promising pathway to address these challenges by harnessing natural processes to improve water quality, enhance climate resilience, protect or increase water availability, and deliver multiple co-benefits across landscapes.
Many water companies recognise the benefits of NbS within their business plans for AMP8 and in their Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP) initiatives. This may involve piloting or implementing NbS, or conducting further work to gain a clearer understanding of the relative costs and benefits associated with NbS interventions.
At JBA, we are supporting water companies to integrate NbS into their planning, helping them move beyond the theoretical into practical, prioritised implementation.
What are nature-based solutions?
The European Commission defines NbS as:
“Solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Such solutions bring more, and more diverse, nature and natural features and processes into cities, landscapes and seascapes, through locally adapted, resource-efficient and systemic interventions.”
NbS can include a wide range of measures from source to sea: wetlands for nutrient removal, floodplain reconnection, riparian planting, soil management, peatland restoration and the restoration of estuarine and coastal habitats.
These solutions help tackle interconnected crises in water quality, biodiversity loss, water resources, flooding and climate change while offering adaptable and resilient alternatives to traditional grey infrastructure.
We have been at the forefront of the research and science of NbS for the past 20 years.
Case study: Prioritising NbS with Anglian Water
We are supporting Anglian Water in targeting NbS to mitigate diffuse pollution as part of its advanced WINEP. This has involved a two-tier modelling approach and a suite of tools. Click on the drop-downs below to find out more about each tier.
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Tier 1 – Catchment scale analysis
We have identified watercourses where iterative diffuse load reduction in SIMCAT/SAGIS results in an improvement in water quality classification. This process assists in pinpointing areas where minimal upstream effort could yield improvements to Ecological Status.
Alongside water quality, we have assessed where NBS opportunities identified by national-scale mapping (including the likes of the Working with Natural Processes (WWNP) potential maps developed by JBA for the Environment Agency (EA) in 2017, Wildfowl and Wetland Trust Wetland Potential Data, and the England Woodland Creation Offer dataset targeting water quality outcomes) are likely to deliver water resource benefits. This draws on work we delivered for the EA, assessing the water resource benefits of WWNP measures, assigning a low, medium, or high level of water recharge to different measures.
A trade-off analysis helped to highlight which waterbody catchments can deliver benefits that are near-optimal for both water quality and water resources outcomes. These catchments can then be targeted to identify the most efficacious areas for NbS using more detailed modelling with Fieldmouse in Tier 2.
In this instance, the trade-off analysis has considered water quality and water resources. However, in other regions, it may be necessary to factor in surface water mechanisms within the trade-off. For example, Yorkshire Water, while prioritising water resources, encounters different challenges compared to Anglian Water and must consider how NbS can address surface water flooding alongside water resource and water quality. The trade-off analysis can be adjusted to weigh various factors, facilitating a more tailored approach to regional needs.
- SIMCAT (Simulation of Catchments) is a water quality river model. It is used to set and review discharge permits at a catchment scale and quantify the source apportionment of both point and diffuse pollutant loads within the receiving watercourse.
- SAGIS (Source Apportionment Geographical Information System) is a GIS-based digital information management and visualisation platform. It integrates various tools and processes, including SIMCAT, to model water quality in rivers and lakes. SAGIS provides a detailed breakdown of chemical inputs from different sectors, helping regulators and water companies develop effective, evidence-based programmes of measures for catchment planning.
Used together, SAGIS-SIMCAT is the standard tool used by regulators and the water industry.
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Tier 2 – Waterbody catchment-scale analysis
Taking the top 10% of waterbodies identified for targeting in the Tier 1 modelling, we are now using high-resolution tools like Fieldmouse and groundwater modelling to assess where a bundle of NbS measures could most cost-effectively reduce diffuse nutrient loads, improve water quality, and enhance flow resilience. The Fieldmouse pollution risk map provides a means to prioritise NbS and iterate from the highest risk areas until the mitigated pollution load reduces by the level of effort from the Tier 1 SIMCAT analysis.
This evidence-based approach is aligned with WINEP funding criteria and will provide Anglian Water with a ready-made pipeline of NbS projects for delivery in AMP8 and beyond.
- Fieldmouse is a water quality modelling tool designed to target landscape sources of diffuse pollution and most probable hydrological pathways, providing a whole-system approach for assessing risk. It routes and decays diffuse loads from sources like Farmscoper (a decision support tool to assess diffuse agricultural pollutant loads on a farm) through the catchment, providing a visual assessment of which sources contribute most to observed concentrations. It is particularly useful for within-catchment targeting with its cumulative travel time and risk map outputs.
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Tier 3 – Natural capital assessment
To understand the wider benefits that the suggested NbS could deliver in addition to water resources and water quality, we are using both the Environment Agency’s Natural Capital Register and Account (NCRAT) Tool and CIRIA B3ST Tool, complemented by our knowledge of the latest evidence relating to the multiple benefits of NbS following our recent delivery of the update to the WWNP evidence base for the Environment Agency.
Barry Hankin, our Chief of Environmental Modelling, presented on this at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna earlier this year. To see his presentation, please click here.
How we can help
Water companies have made strong commitments to NbS in their PR24 business plans. The challenge is to translate that ambition into action. We can support water companies in:
- Prioritising interventions using robust spatial modelling and multi-benefit analysis
- Identifying co-funding opportunities through blended finance models
- Demonstrating regulatory compliance through catchment-scale modelling assessments
- Engaging stakeholders to co-design and deliver nature-based solutions from source to sea
- Delivering estuarine, coastal and marine NbS which help address water quality issues.
By leveraging our technical modelling, environmental expertise, and regulatory insight, we help turn nature-based ambition into resilient, funded, and measurable delivery.
Through innovative approaches, we can continue to improve how companies integrate the assessment of NbS into their wider systems and planning processes, enabling such solutions to be considered equitably with traditional hard solutions.
Contact us here to discuss how we can help support you in moving your NbS ambitions from theory to practice.
