Research on Brazil has shown Climate Change exacerbating process of desertification and superheated and drier effects on Brazilian urban areas. The city of Brasilia has been frequently affected by drought, with environments of low air humidity and high heat levels, which have triggered the city in recent years to declare emergency status, leading to the closing of schools and parks and other social issues.
51% of the 5570 Brazilian municipalities have declared a state of emergency or
a state of calamity due to drought at least once between 2003 and 2021
– Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básic, 2018
Against such a backdrop, since the 1990s Brasilia has noticed accelerated urbanization which has contributed to a noteworthy reduction and alteration of the city’s aquifer recharge areas, and an increase in events such as floods, droughts, and loss of biodiversity.
Paranoá is a district in Brasilia, with an urban pattern denoted by high soil sealing and low vegetation cover. It shows 87.51% of land built over one of Brasília’s most significant aquifer recharge areas, compromising the availability of fresh water for the entire city.
NBSouth project raises possible solutions exploring the potential of Nature-based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation, in retrofitting urban areas in aquifer recharge areas.
By focusing on water management and thermal regulation, NBSouth seeks to raise awareness about the role of Nature in enhancing life quality across Paranoá, and educate the local population.
NBS in Brazil is still an incipient field of research, and NBSouth document key contributions to scientific research on adaptation planning and Nature-based Solutions, challenges on Water Management and Urban Heat Island.
As such, NBSouth’s main objectives are to:
- Provide a critical review and synthesis of existing knowledge and advance the state-of-the-art on NBS for Water stress situations and for Thermal Regulation suitable to retrofitting areas of high density and soil sealing;
- Contribute to the debate on NBS in planning through a renewed conceptualisation of the values of nature and expectations towards NBS from a case in the Global South;
- Co-develop scenarios and green infrastructure strategies for the definition of policies and strategic plans that articulate socio-economic development and environmental and ecological resilience;
- Co-design, co-implement and co-monitor a pilot case of an innovative NBS in Paranoá addressing the selected challenges
