Our planet faces the existential threat of a warming climate alongside a catastrophic loss of biodiversity and species. As the climate changes, so too does the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, with costs associated with flood risk estimated to increase up to thirty-fold in the EU and UK by 2100. Simultaneously, human beings have transformed landscapes for food, energy, transport and shelter and have limited the natural capacity of landscapes to retain water, clean water, sequester carbon and enable habitats to thrive and connect to one another.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) offer relief from these threats, with the potential to mitigate climate change, adapt to extreme events and provide restored and new habitats for plant and animal species. Planning and designing NbS can be complex and there are few established methods to enable greater uptake at the speed and scale required to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. This session targets the impacts that NbS can have on the water environment, how do we maximise their benefits, and how to scale up delivery across sectors? We would like to show evidence from multiple measure types, demonstrating how they can be optimised for multiple purposes, and emphasise the role of people in making NbS a reality through case studies.

This session will bring together scientists with the tools for the quantification of benefits with policy decisions and funding routes to ensure investment in resilience and mitigation strategies is accelerated. The session therefore invites contributions on (but not limited to) the following questions:

- What quantitative assessment and modelling tools can be used to develop business cases for supporting NbS?
- What policy drivers can be leveraged to increase uptake in NbS?
- What is the cost of ignoring NbS in planning for resilience and climate mitigation?
- How can we produce thriving landscape for all, removing the barriers to the NbS approach?