基于自然的解决方案:应对水资源危机

Nature-Based Solutions for Water Crisis

水是人类社会可持续发展的核心资源之一,对人类生存、社会经济发展和生态系统健康至关重要。水是影响气候变化的核心要素之一,是气候系统、人类社会与环境之间的重要纽带。世界正面临着水资源短缺和水质严重恶化两大困境。基于自然的解决方案(Nature-based Solutions,NbS),利用保护生态系统(森林、湿地、河流等)、对绿色基础设施进行投资(如造林和湿地修复等)、可持续管理(如保护性耕作)等措施,通过对供水和水质两方面的管理来应对上述挑战,增加可用水量,提高用水效率,从源头到城市保证用水质量。NbS应用于水资源管理将带来广泛的协同效益,包括改善人类健康、生物多样性、改善生计以及减缓和适应气候变化,因此,NbS也为水资源管理提供了全新的选择。目前,水资源管理开始从基于工程技术的管理,转向基于工程技术与NbS相结合的管理,未来需以更符合自然规律的方式来应对水危机,实现从对抗自然到顺应自然的转变,扩大NbS在水资源管理中所占的比重。

Water resources are one of the cores of human society’s sustainability,which are essential to human survival,socio-economic development,and ecosystem health.Connecting the environment and human society,water resources play an important role to adapt to climate change.Today,the world is facing two major dilemmas:water shortages and serious deterioration in water quality.In order to meet the above challenges,Nature-based Solutions(NbS)increase the amount of available water,improve water use efficiency,and ensure water equality from the source to the city via the protection of ecosystems(forests,wetlands,rivers,etc),investment in green infrastructure(like afforestation and wetland restoration),and sustainable managements(such as conservation farming).The application of NbS would bring a wide range of co-benefits,including enhancing human health,preserving biodiversity,and mitigating and adapting to climate change,which means NbS provides a brand new choice for water resources management.Right now,water resources management has begun to shift from the water resources allocation based on water conservancy projects to the management combining technology and NbS,responding to the water crisis in a way that is more in line with the laws of nature.This change of water recourses management is not only a necessary means to ensure water safety,but also an inevitable choice to achieve sustainable development goals.