ROOTED SOLUTIONS: A Public Forum on Nature-based Solutions for Flood Management

GeoHazards International, together with the UP College of Engineering and GeoThink, present to you ROOTED SOLUTIONS, a Forum on Nature-based Solutions for Flood Management on October 17, Friday, from 2:00 – 5:00 PM (Philippine Time) delivered via ZOOM Webinar.

This is also brought to you by National Research Council of the Philippines Division XII (Earth and Space Sciences), Philippine Association of Landscape Architects, Philippine Environmental Science Association, Inc., UP Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology, UPLB Environmental Biology Division, Institute of Biological Sciences, UPLB School of Environmental Science and Management, Batangas State University – TNEU ARASOF, Mangrove Warriors, and the UP National Engineering Center.

Flooding has become one of the most pressing climate-related hazards in the Philippines, with severe impacts on coastal communities, urban centers, livelihoods, and infrastructure. The situation is worsened by climate change–induced sea-level rise, stronger typhoons, and storm surges, which threaten both lives and economic productivity.

In recent years, flood control projects have become highly controversial, not only due to questions on their long-term effectiveness but also because they have been identified as a major source of corruption in publicly funded infrastructure programs. Costly, hard-engineering solutions such as dikes and seawalls often fail to deliver inclusive, sustainable, and transparent protection for communities.

This has renewed interest in Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) as viable, cost-effective, and community-driven alternatives. By working with natural ecosystems—such as restoring mangroves, wetlands, river corridors, and green spaces—NbS can mitigate flooding and coastal hazards while generating multiple co-benefits, including biodiversity conservation, livelihood support, and climate adaptation.

This public forum seeks to bring together experts, government, academia, and local stakeholders to discuss how NbS can be integrated into national and local disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) frameworks and move towards policy recommendations that institutionalize these approaches.

The forum aims to present evidence and global/local practices on NbS as effective measures against flooding and coastal hazards, showcase the role of mangroves and other ecosystems in strengthening community resilience, explore how NbS can be applied in urban settings as alternatives or complements to traditional flood-control infrastructure, and generate policy recommendations for integrating NbS into national and local DRRM and climate adaptation frameworks.

To register, kindly scan the QR Code from the pubmat or you may visit https://bit.ly/RootedSolutions2025

This is a free Forum.

For queries, you may reach us through the UP NEC Engineering Information Division at [email protected]

Thank you.

Source: UP National Engineering Center Facebook