Nature-Based Solutions to Protect Transport Infrastructure Assets in Haiti – Guidance Note

This Guide builds on the continuous growing work of NBS, including existing guidelines, frameworks, and principles relevant to climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, conservation, and development. An overview of existing guidelines, on which this Guide is based, is provided in Annex 1.

This Guide aims to promote the use of nature-based interventions as part of a broader portfolio of structural (risk reduction and adaptation) measures to enhance the sustainability and the resilience of road infrastructure in Haiti, as an alternative or with similar conventional hard engineered solutions, providing unambiguous evidence to why NBS should be considered by national and local transportation/road management agencies.

Through the provision of a step-by-step methodological approach to assist practitioners in the integration of NBS into transport sector investment projects, this Guide presents a resource and a tool for identifying/selecting, funding, designing, and implementing NBS for the protection of road infrastructure in the specific context of Haiti. The document highlights sustainable evidence-based approaches to ensure that current and future road infrastructure investments, as well as wider land use developments, can be made resilient against natural hazards and climate change effects in a more cost-effective, environmentally responsible, and socially beneficial way.

The NBS approaches highlighted in this Guide have multiple use and can be applied in different contexts, often overlapping across sectors, with the understanding that the site-specific context often determines the design, materials, and construction methods needed to be used. Ideally, NBS should be promoted and built into sector policies and design standards, taking into consideration that in some contexts they work best when used in combination with conventional engineering solutions.