Sustain Change Grow

Nature-based solutions for adaptation to climate change | #34 |with Sourav Kumar Biswas


Listen Later

Climate change is bringing significant changes to peoples’ lives and threatening existence of certain cultures. Summers become hotter, countries face more floods

and with larger impacts, island countries risk disappearing due to sea level rise, etc. We hear more often about the need to spend more money on adaptation measures to get prepared to changing conditions and reduce death toll of
extreme climate events. Where do countries stand in terms of preparedness? What are the true barriers to efficient adaptation measures? Do we have all necessary technologies and solutions to address climate risks? How much money do we need and do we spend enough on adaptation measures?

In this episode, I discuss these and other questions with Sourav Kumar Biswas, Landscape planner and spatial analyst with 13+ years’ experience in urban planning,

climate adaptation, territorial economic strategy, blue economy, resilient infrastructure, and leveraging nature-based solutions at site and metropolitan scales. Sourav has worked in multiple countries: from Republic of Marshall Islands (Oceania), India, Nepal, Afghanistan, China, to North and South America.
Sourav explains how nature-based solutions can help countries get prepared for climate change, compares their cost and efficiency with traditional, so called “grey”,
solutions, discusses the importance of the focus on local solutions specific to context not only of a country but even municipality, identifies main institutional barriers to effectively manage adaptation measures, and much more.

Sourav Kumar Biswas |LinkedIn

Urban design | Spongecollaborative

The episode is available on Google podcasts, Apple

podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Follow me on Instagram: Sustain_Change_Grow

Like the episode, Subscribe to the podcast and Share it

around if you like it. It will help the others to learn about it. And think about sharing your views and suggestions by writing to me at [email protected]

The podcast reflects only my own views.


00:00 Introduction

03:06 Understanding Adaptation to Climate Change

13:00 Nature-Based Solutions for Resilience

21:42 Implementing Nature-Based Solutions in Chennai

31:30 Proactive Management of Ecosystems in the Face of Sea Level Rise

35:45 Challenges and Future Directions

37:09 Shifting Financing Towards Adaptation

39:01 Nature-Based Solutions vs. Gray Solutions

44:45 Capacity Building and Institutional Reform

50:00 The Role of Multilateral Institutions

56:37 Changes Needed in Academia

01:07:01 The Importance of Long-Term Thinking and Collaboration

01:13:32 Two most inspiring books

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Sustain Change GrowBy The podcast series nourishing aspirations for lasting improvements in our lives.