Nature-Based Solutions for Water Management: Between Talk and Practice

In academic literature nature-based solutions (NBS) have increasingly been presented as providing multifunctional benefits for urban water management. Relatively little research has engaged with the question how the talk about NBS aligns with its implementation in practice. In this article we examine how two municipalities justify NBS for water management and compare this with the actual implementation of NBS. We find that there is considerable deviation between the talk about NBS and its implementation in practice. The article concludes with a plea for more practice-based research on NBS.