Nature-based solutions are actions to help protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges while simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment. As the most biodiverse county in the continental United States, San Diego County is well positioned to utilize nature-based solutions. These actions can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve societal co-benefits.

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Nature-based solutions aim to enhance the natural function of ecosystems to provide multiple societal co-benefits such as improved public health through cleaner air and water as well as the availability of open space, improvements to habitat for wildlife and plants, flood risk reduction and other ecosystem services that enhance the resiliency of our environment. Natural and working lands are vital in the carbon cycle in San Diego and throughout California. Healthy ecosystems that include vegetation and soil microbes capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. In contrast, changes that alter or damage ecosystems, including land use modifications, deforestation and wildfires, can release sequestered carbon back into the atmosphere, accelerating the climate crisis. To balance between carbon stored and carbon released determines whether natural lands and ecosystems function as net sources or net carbon sinks. Protection of natural environments from land use and disturbances helps promote the functioning of forests, wetlands and oceans as carbon sinks that absorb more carbon than they emit.

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San Diego has initiated multiple nature-based solutions projects already. However, the need to develop and scale up these projects is ever increasing as San Diego and California face impacts of the climate crisis. The United States Economic Development Administration’s Economic Integrator helped catalyze a nature-based solution project focused on upstream improvements to reduce runoff and debris deposited into San Diego’s stormwater infrastructure. This project helps mitigate the impact of flooding in the urban center while enhancing outdoor recreation and economic development for the County. The project focuses on Maple Canyon, nestled between Balboa Park and San Diego International Airport, a green space that buffers business with nature inside the urban core of San Diego. As flooding during storm events occurs, runoff and debris impact the downstream commercial enterprises, transportation networks and natural habitats. Restoration efforts have minimized flooding and stormwater runoff, helping protect vital urban infrastructure and important urban and natural landscapes.

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As a coastal city, enhancing the resiliency of our coast is vital to managing climate change impacts such as sea level rise, coastal erosion and storm surges. Coastal wetlands throughout San Diego County are essential ecosystems that not only help with flood protection but are also some of the most productive ecosystems that play an integral role in the ecology of our watershed. Coastal wetlands are also considered “blue carbon ecosystems,” which include habitats like salt marshes and seagrass meadows that help capture and store more atmospheric carbon per acre than terrestrial forests. Nature-based solutions that preserve and restore these wetlands help build community resilience to the impacts of climate change by sequestering carbon and helping enhance the resiliency to sea level rise and coastal flooding. The Blue Carbon Collaborative, founded by the nonprofit organization Wildcoast, is a network of organizations working on the conservation, research and policy developments for blue carbon ecosystems and nature-based solutions. 

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Only 10 percent of California’s original wetlands remain, yet they are some of the best ecosystems on the planet for taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it in the ground for a long time. Restoration of these wetlands provides an opportunity to enhance these ecosystems' production and utilize their potential as a natural climate solution. Aligning nature based solutions with the 30x30 plan to conserve 30 percent of our land and coastal waters by 2030 to protect biodiversity will expand access to nature while lessening the impacts of the climate crisis.

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Cover photo credit: IUCN