Mainstreaming Water Sensitive Design and Planning: Tools and Nature-based Solutions for Resilient Futures
This webinar organised by IWA Alliance for Water Sensitive Design and Planning will explore innovative tools and approaches that support the planning, design and monitoring of NbS across the urban water cycle.
IWA Working Group – Alliance for Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning
Starts
Aug 27, 2026
Language
EnglishDuration:90 minutes
Start Time:
10:30 GMT+1Format
OnlineMember fee(LMIC): 00.00
Member fee: 00.00
Standard fee: 00.00
Description
As cities face growing challenges from climate change, rapid urbanisation and increasing water stress, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) are becoming essential for building resilient, sustainable and liveable urban environments.
This webinar organised by IWA Alliance for Water Sensitive Design and Planning will explore innovative tools and approaches that support the planning, design and monitoring of NbS across the urban water cycle. Presentations will feature BGISHUB, a new spatial planning tool that helps prioritises, allocates and assess performance of multi-functional NbS across water, heat, biodiversity and amenity domains; WaterFOLDER, a decision-support platform for designing and evaluating stormwater management interventions; and LAMAS (Lake Assessment and Monitoring Analysis System), an advanced diagnostics and continuous monitoring framework for assessing the health and performance of lakes and urban water bodies. Together, these tools demonstrate how data-driven and evidence-based approaches can improve urban water resilience, enhance ecosystem health and support informed decision-making. Participants will gain practical insights into mainstreaming WSUD and NbS within urban planning, policy and infrastructure development to create cities that work with nature rather than against it.
Target Audience
Engineers, Planners, Architects, Urban Designers and other experts/build practitioners both public and private sector - supporting cities and utilities build resilient water and stormwater management infrastructure in changing climate.
Learning Objectives
Following this session, participants will be able to:
- Understand the role of Nature-based Solutions and Water Sensitive Urban Design in addressing urban water management, climate adaptation and ecosystem resilience challenges.
- Explore practical digital tools and decision-support approaches for planning, designing and evaluating stormwater management interventions and blue-green infrastructure.
- Identify methods for monitoring and assessing the health and performance of urban water bodies, including the use of real-time and continuous monitoring systems.
- Apply evidence-based approaches to mainstream NbS and WSUD within urban planning, policy development and infrastructure investment decisions
Learning Format
Webinar Outcomes
- Nature-based Solutions and WSUDP build climate-resilient, water-sensitive cities.
- Data-driven tools enable smarter planning and design of urban water systems.
- Monitoring and evidence improve the performance of NbS and urban water systems.
- Mainstreaming NbS and WSUDP helps cities work with nature for long-term resilience.
Speakers/Panelist Details
- Peter Marcus Bach, Director & Founder, EdenCT, Switzerland
- Jacek Zalewski, Vice President at RetencjaPL, Poland
- Prasad Babu, CEO & Founder, Geo Climate Risk Solutions Pvt. Ltd, India
Related IWA Specialist Groups
Urban Drainage (Joint IAHR/IWA)
The UDSG fosters and conducts fundamental and applied research on urban drainage, and promotes innovative approaches to urban drainage worldwide. During the past decades, research of urban drainage has moved from studying the traditional protection of urban population and infrastructure against adverse impacts of rain and snow towards a more holistic approach, which strives to provide even a better level of protection, in different climates, by seizing opportunities for designing and operating urban drainage as a system of sustainable green, blue and grey infrastructure elements optimizing the beneficial uses of urban rainwater and stormwater. Green urban infrastructure in reducing the impacts of climate variability and change on urban drainage may become transformational in urban drainage. A list of core issues includes urban rainfall in current and future climates; quantity and quality of urban stormwater and combined sewer overflows; advanced management of stormwater in urban areas, with emphasis on source controls, rainwater harvesting, low impact development and water sensitive urban design; operation and control of urban drainage, including sewer systems and receiving waters, in real time; modelling of whole systems or their elements; and, applicability of these approaches in regions with various climates, governance, and various levels of the economic development.
As the global population is shifting from rural to urban areas, and the urban population is quickly growing, the importance of urban water is rising and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. This urban population creates high demands on water services, among which urban drainage plays an important role, within the concept of the urban water cycle. The provision and sustainability of such services, in the current and future climates, represent a great challenge to urban planners, water managers, decision makers, and NGOs worldwide.
The Urban Drainage SG (UDSG) contributes to broader IWA efforts within the general heading “Urban water Management”. Typical activities of the UDSG are planned cyclically around the group’s important conferences, which typically feature presentations of the group deliverables. Three such conferences are planned for 2016 and 2017.