WISE-UP
Nature based solutions for climate change
Water security is critical for sustainable economic development, poverty reduction and climate change adaptation. Ecosystem services therefore need to be linked more directly and clearly into water infrastructure development to achieve climate change adaptation and integration into water, food and energy security.
This project developed knowledge on how to use combinations of built water infrastructure (e.g. dams, levees, irrigation channels) together with natural infrastructure (e.g. wetlands, floodplains, watersheds) for poverty reduction, water-energy-food security, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience. WISE-UP demonstrated the advantages of combined built and natural infrastructure approaches using dialogue with decision-makers to agree acceptable trade-offs. The project started in 2013 and ran until the end of 2017 with work focused in the Tana (Kenya) and Volta (Ghana-Burkina Faso) river basins.
Goals and objectives
Using the Tana and Volta as demonstration basins, the implementing partnership of WISE-UP brought together a multidisciplinary team of expertise. Its structure was highly interlinked – progress and outputs relied on collaboration between partners. Under the ecosystem infrastructure investment analysis, IWMI explored the eco-hydrological functions of built and natural infrastructure in the context of climate adaptation through a range of techniques, including modelling, ecosystem service mapping and the development of “benefit functions” linked to hydrological functions.
Areas of work
Our work across the world
News
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Publications
Reports, case studies and handbooks
Outreach materials
Brochures, infographics and visual storytelling
Partners
The project was funded thanks to the generous support provided by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).
