Nature-based solutions
Harnessing natural systems to deliver resilient, nature-positive outcomes across catchments, coasts, urban areas and infrastructure.
Driving resilience through nature-based solutions
At JBA, we support organisations to integrate nature-based solutions (NbS) into their strategic, operational and capital programmes, enabling them to restore natural processes, enhance resilience and create value across water, land and built environments. We work with clients to move from intent to action, turning policy and funding opportunities into delivery.
Why nature-based solutions matter
Our society is deeply intertwined with the natural world. The landscapes around us regulate air, water, support biodiversity, enable food and production, and protect us against climate extremes. Yet, across catchments and coasts, natural functions are increasingly compromised.
Recognising this, NbS offers a way to work with, not against, natural processes - helping to deliver resilient systems that contribute to flood risk reduction, water quality improvement, nature recovery, climate change adaptation and community wellbeing. For our clients, this means aligning infrastructure and land-use with the shifting policy, funding and regulatory frameworks that emphasise nature-based outcomes, to meet the challenge of climate change.
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Resilient Places
NbS help shape places that people value, feel connected to and benefit from.
- They can reduce climate risks while enhancing recreation, biodiversity and wellbeing.
- Co-designed with communities, NbS can create accessible, inclusive and climate-adapted environments that reflect local needs and identity.
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Resilient People
Through participatory design and delivery, NbS empower people to understand risk and act on it.
- Community involvement in NbS projects builds awareness, skills and ownership.
- Strengthened social networks and local champions emerge as people collaborate to protect and improve their environments.
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Resilient Assets
NbS creates and enhances assets (both natural and built) that can withstand shocks and adapt over time.
- Restored floodplains, wetlands and coastal habitats work alongside engineered systems to maintain function under stress.
- These hybrid solutions can extend asset life, improve performance and reduce long-term maintenance costs.
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Resilient Landscapes
NbS underpin landscapes and seascapes that evolve and adapt while maintaining ecological integrity and human wellbeing.
- They connect ecosystems and habitats, restore natural processes and sustain essential ecosystem services such as flood storage, water purification and carbon sequestration.
- By creating dynamic multifunctional spaces, NbS support biodiversity, recreation and sustainable land use.
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Resilient Organisations
NbS helps organisations embed climate and nature resilience in strategy, governance and investment.
- They demonstrate leadership in sustainable practice and strengthen relationships with regulators, funders and communities.
- Through evidence-based design and long-term monitoring, JBA helps organisations measure impact and continuously improve.
Delivering integrated nature-based solutions
Our expertise
We bring a multidisciplinary capability spanning hydrology, geomorphology, coastal science, ecology, data science, modelling, economics, engineering design, finance and stakeholder engagement. This enables us to guide clients through the full lifecycle of a nature-based solution: from policy and strategy, through opportunity mapping and feasibility, to detailed design, construction support and long-term monitoring and adaptation.
Because we view NbS as part of a hybrid toolkit, we help organisations understand how NbS can integrate effectively with grey infrastructure, land-use change and monitoring systems, delivering robust, measurable and maintainable outcomes. Crucially, our advice is rooted in scientific understanding of catchment and coastal processes, enabling us to challenge overblown or unproven claims. As contributors to the ongoing development of the science behind NbS, we offer clients practical solutions informed by evidence.
What we deliver
Our services include strategic review and funding analysis to identify opportunities for NbS; spatial and hydrological modelling to locate optimal locations and quantify benefits; development of business cases, cost-benefit and natural capital assessments; partnership opportunities, benefit realisation and funding models; detailed design and construction oversight of restoration and engineered nature-based systems; and monitoring and evaluation frameworks that track outcomes and support adaptive management.
We also deliver capacity building, stakeholder engagement and knowledge-sharing so that organisations embed nature-based thinking across their programmes and scale their impact over time.
Where and how we work
We work with clients to identify and design NbS across rural and urban settings, from upland catchments to lowland floodplains, towns, cities, estuaries and coasts. We work at both landscape and seascape scales, restoring natural processes and integrating NbS into new and existing infrastructure.
By applying NbS through integrated catchment and coastal management, we support a wide range of outcomes and clients - from reducing flood risk and improving water quality to restoring biodiversity, storing carbon and strengthening community resilience. Our work spans both strategy and delivery, enabling clients to embed NbS across operations, investment programmes and land-use plans.
We support clients in developing bespoke, context-driven solutions that reflect local opportunities - whether that’s sustainable drainage in urban neighbourhoods, floodplain reconnection in agricultural landscapes, or nature-positive design along the coast.
If you are exploring how nature-based solutions can support your strategy, investment plan or infrastructure portfolio, we would be pleased to partner with you. Contact our team to start the conversation.
Find out more about how we are supporting water companies to integrate nature-based solutions into their planning, helping them move beyond the theoretical into practical, prioritised implementation. …
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Connecting the Culm is a catchment management project exploring how NBS can increase resilience to flood and drought in the Culm catchment.…
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We have been working in the area of Natural Flood Management for a number of years, using natural processes to reduce flood risk. More recently we have been working with…
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