Optimizing biodiversity benefits of NBS in nature-based urban climate adaptation

Nature-based Solutions (NBS) have the potential to provide solutions to a range of societal challenges, such as climate adaptation, and simultaneously contribute toward biodiversity goals. NBS are increasingly implemented in urban sustainability practice, especially in residential districts and business sites. This provides a great chance to simultaneously enhance local urban nature at the place where people live and work. However, as urban professionals have a predominant focus on climate adaptation functionality, the NBS design often misses opportunities to benefit biodiversity to its full potential. To change this, we present a three-step approach: (i) we developed a typology of biodiversity benefits that urban NBS may possess, (ii) for 14 widely used urban NBS, prioritized for climate adaptation, we estimate their performance on these biodiversity benefits based upon literature and expert judgment, (iii) we call for follow-up actions by policymakers, practitioners and scientists to not miss the opportunities that the urban “climate adaptation” NBS have to offer in making cities more biodiverse and to enhance connections between people and nature.