Public actors need to monitor the state of the environment in order to assess the effectiveness of their actions, prioritize management policies and measures, and thus objectively establish their contribution to the conservation of natural capital. To do so, they must be able to rely on science-based standards to identify the thresholds at which environmental functions can be considered sustainable.

The ESGAP (Environmental Sustainability Gap) is an innovative tool for assessing the condition of a territory’s environmental functions and how sustainable they are. For all critical components of natural capital in the territory concerned (air or water quality, pollution, forest resources, fisheries, etc.), this indicator calculates the difference between their current state and a state that would be sustainable (i.e., a state compatible with the sustainable functioning of the processes necessary for the preservation of life, human activities and well-being). This allows for the calculation of the “environmental sustainability gap”, which highlights the path to environmental sustainability. This can then serve as a guide for public policies to estimate and preserve the critical functions of the natural capital of a given territory. ESGAP has already been tested in New Caledonia, Kenya and Vietnam.

Within the framework of the ECOPRONAT research programme, AFD aims to develop methodologies for assessing strong sustainability, that is, adopting demanding criteria concerning the non-substituability of natural capital by other forms of capital (physical among others) in a territory or country. AFD also wants to promote their use in international frameworks and contribute to emerging international standards on the good ecological state of ecosystems.

Find out more about ECOPRONAT

The ESGAP pilot project recently conducted in Vietnam made it possible to measure the state of the environmental functions of this country. It identified fisheries resources, soil erosion, air and water pollution as the most degraded dimensions. 

It appears that some economic activities can put pressure on these different environmental functions, while other activities depend on their proper functioning. Developing the ESGAP framework is necessary to go further, by integrating the linkages that exist between the economy and the environment and identifying which human activities are concerned. 

In order to do this, the research team will try to link ESGAP measures to socio-economic activities and build a monetary ESGAP. The aim will be to assess the physical risks associated with certain economic activities on the basis of scenarios of environmental pressures (such as the breakdown of supply of certain essential environmental services, for example in agriculture). The development of these new applications of the ESGAP framework aims to guide policy makers in designing more sustainable development paths. 

The research project will be conducted in two phases: 

• The first step will consist in building a “monetary” ESGAP that measures the cost (expressed in monetary units) needed to achieve a sustainable environmental state. This cost is considered an unpaid ecological debt: it corresponds to the cost of effective measures that society would have to spend to achieve a good ecological state. It will be calculated as an abatement cost, that is, the expenditure necessary for human activities (such as production and consumption) in Vietnam to reduce their environmental pressures to a level that does not result in degradation of natural capital (or to an acceptable level, considering the good condition standards considered by the ESGAP).
• The second phase will use the modeling framework developed in the first phase, and assess how different public policies can improve Vietnam’s environmental sustainability by 2035, as well as mitigate the economic risks associated with the loss of the country’s natural capital. First, the team will develop scenarios to determine which interventions can improve Vietnam’s ecological status. Secondly, it will assess the extent to which economic risks related to biodiversity (due to the dependence of the Vietnamese economy on ecosystem services) can be mitigated through these interventions.

Since this study is considered experimental research, the different elements outlined in the research proposal and intermediate results may be adjusted throughout the study based on different factors – such as access to data, data quality, difficulties in implementing certain aspects of the methodology, or unsustainable or misleading results.

The team will produce a synthesis of the study, that will be used as a working document for communication purposes. The final deliverable will outline the methodology, database used and main results of the monetary ESGAP applied in Vietnam and the physical risk assessment methodology for the Vietnamese economy. This final deliverable will explore the relevance of ESGAP for the implementation of public policies aimed at achieving a good state of environmental conditions and future research pathways to link ESGAP measures to socio-economic activities.

According to a 2021 OECD report, two-thirds of African cities are at “extreme” risk of climate and water-related shocks. Violent climate events, heat waves and droughts are thus at the top of the risks incurred by urban areas. Rapid urbanization, unsustainable development and degradation of natural ecosystems exacerbate these risks. 

Nature-based solutions (NBS), which rely on natural ecosystems and the services they provide to human activities, address these urban challenges, while simultaneously providing benefits in terms of human well-being and biodiversity. However, they are still little integrated into urban planning processes and decision support tools available to planners. The lack of knowledge, data and experimentation on nature-based solutions therefore hampers their adoption and deployment. 

The objective of this research project is to enable, through the construction of a strategic framework, the deployment and scaling of nature-based solutions, in particular to address water and heat risks. The challenge is to improve the ecological resilience of cities by helping them identify the risks they must prepare for, to assess the potential of NBS to address them and to develop implementation and funding strategies for these NBS as part of the urban planning process. 

A fast, effective and practical methodology for assessing the potential of nature-based solutions will be made available to the cities of Addis Ababa and Kigali, which are the two pilot cities of this research project. The project is led by WRI, in partnership with the Addis Ababa Urban Development Department, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture and the Rwanda Young Water Professionals Association. This methodology is intended to be adopted by other urban centers to allow a broader appropriation and mobilization of NBS in cities. 

At the methodological level, the construction of a strategic framework for nature-based solutions is interesting for two reasons:

• Identification of flood risks, heat islands, water supply and biodiversity potential of cities through the production of composite maps and the mobilization of satellite data;
• Participatory construction of the strategic framework through workshops with stakeholders of both cities to validate the priority areas of intervention and identify the NBS most adapted to the issues of each area.  

Developed by the WRI research team with the cities of Addis Ababa and Kigali, the Strategic NbS Framework can support cities in selecting and implementing appropriate nature-based solutions (NbS). 

By integrating globally available data sets with local data, it helps identify areas of a given city that are susceptible to extreme flooding and heat, as well as opportunities to expand urban green spaces and create ecological corridors. 

To ensure successful implementation, collaboration between public authorities, technical experts, and community leaders is essential. Using this framework, citywide maps can be quickly generated to identify priority areas. After a validation by city stakeholders, field experts then play a key role in designing effective NbS, tailored to local conditions. 

Although it has limitations in data detail, the Framework provides a solid starting point to build sustainable cities. Additional guidelines provide technical information on usable NbS, as well as case studies. These guidelines are available for download below: 

Download the guidelines

The scientific article presenting the overall approach and results is available for download below :

Download the scientific article 

A webinar from the Research Conversations series was held to present the project's findings, and these research findings are summarized in a policy brief available for download below.

The research project identified a series of lessons to facilitate the deployment of nature-based solutions (NbS), taking into account the specific needs of cities. These lessons highlight the potential of nature in urban resilience planning and climate action:

• To increase awareness and institutional integration:

1. Set up multi-stakeholder processes to support dialogue and the prioritization of identified NbS.
2. Rely on case studies to facilitate understanding and engagement.

• To enhance data availability for more effective planning:

1. Combine local and global datasets to carry out multi-hazard assessments (flooding, urban heat islands, etc.).
2. Encourage citizen science initiatives for data collection, and ensure it is considered in decision-making.

• To strengthen planning and implementation linkages:

1. Establish dedicated governance structures (such as a mayoral committee) to coordinate various technical services involved and mobilize funding.
2. Develop common reference frameworks (design standards, guidelines, etc.) to strengthen political and public support.

• To secure long-term financing:

1. Integrate NbS into existing city investment programs.
2. Include strategies for public-private partnerships and use a multi-benefit assessment framework to demonstrate their long-term value.

• To adapt solutions to the local context and ensure monitoring:

1. Launch NbS pilot projects with monitoring systems to track their performance.
2. Integrate gender, equity, and inclusion considerations from the selection phase of each NbS.

Uganda’s wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems (in terms of ecosystem services) in East Africa. In addition to their ecological functions, they provide more than 50% of the monthly income of the populations that depend on them. However, the rate of wetland degradation is over 70 times the rate of their restoration. Artificialization and urban growth, informal settlements, agricultural activities, pollution or illegal mining of sand and clay: all of these causes contribute to the degradation of these ecosystems. 

To address this challenge, many restoration projects have already been carried out in Uganda, and the knowledge available on the country’s wetlands is important. Strengthening the links between research and policy implementation is therefore essential to facilitate and improve the extension of sustainable wetland restoration in Uganda.

Based on two case studies, this project aims to facilitate and enhance the upscale of sustainable wetland restoration in Uganda:

• Identification of institutional and socio-economic constraints on restoration projects, including available research and lessons learned from Uganda;
• Analysis of the effects of restoration projects on natural ecosystems and their sustainability;
• Development of tools to support decision-making;
• Capacity building of key actors in wetland restoration and management. 

The IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, in partnership with Makerere University, the Ministry of Water and Environment of Uganda and the NGO NatureUganda, is mobilizing its 20 years of experience in wetland research in Uganda to address these issues. 

This project draws on the analysis of two Ugandan wetlands – Lubigi and Rufuha, one urban and one rural – and focuses on several research questions to achieve its objectives: 

• Understand issues of wetlands and synthesize knowledge and practices of wetland restoration;
• Characterize institutions, governance and development process of wetland restoration;
• Analyse the participation of local communities in wetland restoration and assess the economic contribution of these ecosystems to household incomes;
• Assess the impact of restoration on wetland biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services;
• Develop and test an indicator framework for wetland restoration monitoring and develop decision-making tools. 

Strengthening the capacity of the implementing agencies for restoration management, in particular by communicating the results of the project to public actors, is also a key axis of the methodology of this project.

This research process should result in the production of scientific analysis reports on constraints and issues related to wetland restoration projects. Policy notes and knowledge products on the monitoring, evaluation and deployment of ecological restoration of wetlands are also expected.

A Research Conversations webinar was organized in September 2024 to present and discuss the results of the research project.

Watch the replay: Restoring wetlands in Uganda: An integrated approach for sustainable solutions?