Unlocking Nature-Based Solutions

WELL Labs and RMI convened a multi-stakeholder workshop to co-develop actionable solutions for scaling nature-based solutions across building, neighbourhood, and city levels. This synthesis report presents a detailed overview of the deliberations.

Jun 26, 2025

Photo credit: WELL Labs

Indian cities are experiencing heightened stress from extreme summer heat and increased flooding during monsoons. Rapid and often unplanned urban expansion has transformed natural landscapes into dense built-up areas, intensifying the urban heat island effect, water scarcity, and flood risks. Addressing these converging climate and development pressures requires a systems-level, locally grounded approach.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS)—including integrated blue-green-grey infrastructure (BGGI)—offer a strategic alternative to conventional grey urban development. While their benefits are increasingly acknowledged, the pathways for mainstreaming NbS in Indian cities remain unclear, fragmented, and uncoordinated.

To address this, a multi-stakeholder workshop was convened jointly by WELL Labs and RMI, bringing together practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and private-sector actors working across water, biodiversity, planning, design, and governance domains. The goal was to identify barriers to NbS adoption and co-develop actionable, context-sensitive solutions across the building, neighbourhood, and city scales.

This synthesis report presents a detailed overview of the deliberations.

 

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Oak Foundation.

Authors Namitha Nayak, Mrinal Shrivastava, Akhil Singhal, Radhika Sundaresan, Shreya Nath, Tarun Garg, Anam Husain, Kaylea Brase Menon, Prabal Muttoo

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