Nearly 50% of the rural areas in the world are classified as mountainous regions and are exposed to risk from geological and hydro meteorological hazards. Mountains tend to amplify these risks, and even more so under extreme weather events. However, rural mountainous regions do not receive the same attention as densely populated urban areas in national disaster risk reduction (DRR) plans. National DRR plans focus mainly on regions with highest population density, which tend to be urban and/or coastal areas.

The PHUSICOS project has focused on investigating the use and benefits of nature-based solutions in rural mountainous areas by implementing demonstrator cases. Our sister project OPERANDUM has developed complementary experience through their focus on open air laboratories in rural natural areas. The PHUSICOS and Operandum teams have collaborated on compiling these experiences in this NBS guidebook. Initially planned as an overview of possibilities and conditions from the project sites themselves, the guidebook has evolved to became a much broader document that is aiming to inspire designers, local policy makers and others to implement NBS in a broad spectrum. It gives insight to the suitability of certain NBS in the different landscapes or ecosystems and their effectiveness for climate resilience.

We hope this guidebook can inspire anyone to work with NBS to address resilience on various scales. Let this be an invitation to discover, understand, but most importantly act according to nature.