Publications
Natural Infrastructure for Water
We empower governments, businesses, utilities, and communities to enhance water security by investing in “natural infrastructure,” like forests and wetlands, as part of a portfolio of smart solutions to growing water challenges.
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Green-Gray Assessment: How to Assess the Costs and Benefits of Green Infrastructure for Water Supply Systems
by , , , and -A growing body of research shows that healthy watersheds are a vital component of a well-functioning water supply infrastructure system. WRI’s Green-Gray Assessment (GGA) method allows stakeholders to value the costs and benefits of integrating green or natural infrastructure into water supply...
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Natural Infrastructure for Aquifer Recharge Financial Calculator: Method, Data and Assumptions
by , and -The Natural Infrastructure for Aquifer Recharge Financial Calculator, is an excel based tool with a flexible financial model that estimates the private costs and benefits, including the return on investment (ROI), of natural infrastructure interventions designed to enhance aquifer...
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Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure
by , , , and -Traditional infrastructure systems worldwide rely on built solutions to support the smooth and safe functioning of societies. in the face of multiplying environmental threats, this approach alone can no longer provide the climate resiliency and level of services required in the 21st century....
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Water Infrastructure Criteria under the Climate Bonds Standard
by , , , and -Healthy ecosystems like forests, wetlands, and farms are nature's water infrastructure. They are essential for buffering against floods and the provision of clean, ample water around the world – feeding growth in agriculture, industry, and cities. But unlike traditional pipes and pumps, “natural...
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Protecting Drinking Water at the Source
Lessons from United States Watershed Investment Programs
by , , , , and -Watershed investment programs offer promising pathways to securing safe drinking water. But what does it take to establish and grow a successful watershed investment program? Program investors and practitioners are looking for guidance and ideas on how to build a program that works for their own...
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Building a Water Quality Trading Program: Options and Considerations
A Product of the National Network on Water Quality Trading
by -This report aims to provide a reference on common elements and decisions inherent in water quality trading (WQT) program design, especially point-nonpoint WQT programs and the range of available options.
It is intended to help establish WQT programs, provide greater transparency about...
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Revaluing Ecosystems
Pathways For Scaling up the Inclusion of Ecosystem Value in Decision Making
by , and -The goal of this “revaluing” effort is to promote longer-term thinking and create incentives to protect and restore ecosystems and ensure their sustainable use. The issue brief presents 6 key issues which emerged.
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Natural Infrastructure
Investing in Forested Landscapes for Source Water Protection in the United States
by , , and -Aging water infrastructure, increasing demand, continued land use change, and increasingly extreme weather events are driving the costs of water management higher in the United States. Investing in integrated water management strategies that combine engineered solutions with "natural...
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Insights from the Field: Forests for Water
by , , and -This issue brief describes analyses by the World Resources
Institute (WRI) in support of emerging payments for watershed
services (PWS) programs in two major watersheds in Maine and
North Carolina and insights gleaned from work in progress. The
three pilot initiatives...