Nature-based Solutions offer a wide range of benefits to growing urban communities to help build resilient urban centres and surrounds.
Cities in the Mekong region are growing rapidly. By 2030, more than 40% of the region’s population is expected to live in urban areas.
How Mekong region cities manage their growth will determine the future health, wealth and wellbeing of communities and environments in the region. At the same time, climate change is increasing the pressures they face.
Large scale ‘grey’ infrastructure solutions alone cannot deliver the social, environmental and economic outcomes Mekong region communities desire at a cost that they can afford.
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly being integrated into urban planning to provide more cost-effective and flexible ‘green’ or ‘grey–green’ infrastructure to create resilient urban centres.
The Resilient Urban Centres and Surrounds program will use water management as a catalyst to promote urban climate resilience in 4 Mekong countries – Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
In particular, the program will:
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- Engage Mekong country partners on the need for action and align the opportunities created by hybrid NbS investments
- Demonstrate local application and the economic case for action
- Support scaling hybrid NbS for wider impact
- Leave a lasting legacy of local partnerships and capacity.
Each partner country is different and each jurisdiction will progress through the 4 stages at a rate that reflects their context and involvement in precursor activities.
Detailed case studies will demonstrate the Integrated Urban Climate Management (IUCM) process and use the Benefit–Cost Analysis (BCA) Tool and the Value Tool to quantify market and non-market benefits of NbS in monetary terms. Starting with a desktop long list, we refined the list during missions, via site visits, and meetings with local officials and others with shared interests or concerns (such as local government, academics, non-government organisations (NGOs) and civil society coalitions).
We consider GEDSI implications and opportunities for each site, using these to start conversations, consider implications for inclusive and participatory practice, and inform upscaling options for more GEDSI-responsive NbS design.
We have selected the following case study sites and are in the process of securing governance and management arrangements.

The program builds on previous work on NbS in the Mekong region. It responds to interest from in-country to scale up the work done in Thailand and Vietnam.
It will also scale out the work to develop projects in Cambodia and Lao PDR.
Integrated Urban Flood
Management
INFFEWS:
Value Tool
INFFEWS:
Benefit: Cost Analysis Tool
A tool tailored to assessing investments
for water sensitive cities
The CRCWSC has produced research, guidelines and
tools related to the following topics:
Climate change
mitigation
Community
engagement
Economics and
business case