At the ICE x HKIE Joint Civil Conference, held on the 10th April; Ash Welch, Asia Biodiversity and Natural Capital Lead, AECOM Singapore; shared his insights on the future on nature-based solutions (NbS) application in engineering.

“We explored how engineering design can work with natural systems, rather than around them — and why we need engineers to understand NbS to mainstream their adoption. There’s growing recognition of the role NbS can play in building climate resilience and delivering long-term value (65% of studies find NbS consistency more effective compared to traditional engineering solutions for example), but for adoption of NbS to become the default, we need:

✅ Give engineers the confidence that NbS can work with case studies

✅ Encourage engineers to work more closely with ecologists and enviro consultants

✅ Quantify nature value to allow for CBA

✅ Reduce costs for monitoring - AI + Nature Tech

Conversations like this one are a step in the right direction.”