Thursday, October 3rd听 @ 3 pm
Room 200, Oceanography & Physics Building
Or Via Zoom
Laura Costadone
听Institute for Coastal Adaptation & Resilience
Harnessing Nature for Climate Resilience
Climate change and urbanization pose significant threats to biodiversity, environmental health, and the resilience of urban spaces. Nature-based solutions (NbS) provide a multifunctional approach to addressing these negative impacts. Compared to traditional grey infrastructure, NbS can help mitigate climate change and environmental challenges by enhancing ecosystem services such as flood regulation, urban heat island mitigation, recreational services, and habitat restoration. Case studies will demonstrate how evaluating the effectiveness of NbS and conducting comprehensive assessments of ecosystem services and their benefits to people and nature are critical for integrating NbS into cross-sectoral projects and policy development. In this context, Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) will be presented as a tool to assist natural resource managers and support resource-based economic development by quantifying the economic benefits of ecosystem functions for communities and businesses. Widely adopted worldwide, NCA is a robust and standardized framework for assessing the ecological and economic value of ecosystem services provided by natural assets. Ongoing research explores how quantifying the value of coastal habitats, such as wetlands and marshes, can inform management strategies that maximize economic growth while balancing trade-offs between ecotourism, flood protection, water quality, and biodiversity preservation in coastal Virginia.
Zoom: Contact OES Admin- OESadmin@odu.edu