1. We are WSP in the UK
  2. Nature-based Solutions
Nature-based SolutionsOur servicesWhy choose WSP?The WSP Experience
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What are Nature-based Solutions?

Nature-based solutions (NbS) prioritise the environment to address challenges, benefiting people and biodiversity. These scalable and cost-effective approaches include carbon storage, water purification, and flood risk reduction. Organisations can align NbS with ESG goals to mitigate climate change, attract funding, and reduce capital expenditure. 

By integrating NbS, you promote sustainability, resilience, and a healthier planet for future generations.

What is WSP's approach to Nature-based Solutions?

We've seen increased interest from clients, often driven by community demand, across the water sector, local authorities, transport agencies, and private developers, about opportunities for adopting NbS to complement, enhance and improve more traditionally engineered approaches. 

NbS are powerful tools but cannot serve as the only solution to climate change, so WSP takes a "twin track" approach with NBS and engineered solutions. 

We focus on finding synergies between 'grey' and 'green' solutions and seamlessly integrating them where possible.

Our services include:

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Nature-based solutions performance

  • Water quality
  • Flooding
  • Causal model
  • Understanding the physical process
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Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS)

  • Landscape architecture
  • Master planning
  • Lifecycle assessment
  • Engineering
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Hydrology and hydrogeology

  • Peatland management and restoration
  • Water quality monitoring and analysis
  • Natural flood management
  • Groundwater recharge
     
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Carbon accounting

  • Emissions sequestration
  • PAS2080 accreditation
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Wetlands

  • Construction
  • Catchment treatment
  • Wetland design
  • Restoration
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Biodiversity and habitats

  • Biodiversity net gain assessment
  • Ecology
  • Aquatic ecology
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Economics

  • Ecosystems services
  • Return on investment
  • Environmental finance
  • Green financing 
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Data science

  • Geographical Information Systems
  • Remote Sensing
  • Data analytics

Why choose WSP?

Our work with Natural England

WSP is part of an ambitious project in North Shropshire to restore 2,500 acres of lowland-raised peat bog - one of the world’s rarest habitats that prevents and mitigates the effects of climate change.  

Watch the video and hear from our client, Natural England, on why they choose us to deliver this NbS project.

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The WSP experience

We partner with clients from strategic advisory to delivery. Providing strategic advisory services on all aspects of nature first solutions, including urban and coastal modelling, landscape architecture and soils remediation. 

Our specialists across a range of disciplines come together to find the right solution using a nature first approach, including an ecology team and cross-disciplinary nature advisory specialist group who can ensure any NbS work is underpinned by sound ecological principles, and its benefits can be demonstrated and measured using suitable tools.

Our experts worked with a wide range of industry and government partners to develop the NATURE tool, a simple assessment that measures how well a business or organisation is managing natural capital. The NATURE tool can help you assess the impact of changes in land use and management on your organisation's performance and helps companies implement net-gains for the environment through transparent assessments against clearly defined objectives.  

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Water

WSP delivers Future Ready® solutions to preserve and manage water for generations to come.

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Environment

We are solving some of the world’s biggest challenges; cleaning up past legacies, creating new developments that preserve and improve our environment, and finding ways to use and re-use resources.

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