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.
Water is critical for economic development around the world—from the parched farmlands of eastern Africa, to growing cities across India and Brazil that rely on hydropower for reliable electricity, to communities in the western United States that continue to grapple with water scarcity and catastrophic wildfires. Intensifying water stress demands a new paradigm for water resources management that prioritizes holistic and integrated solutions. At the center of such an approach is natural infrastructure.
Natural infrastructure uses landscape management strategies like restoration, conservation and sustainable management to provide essential services like clean and abundant water supply, aquifer recharge and flood control. WRI is dedicated to scaling up these smart and cost-effective strategies, which support rural communities while also enabling sustainable development in an increasingly urbanizing world. We leverage WRI’s geospatial mapping (e.g., Aqueduct and Global Forest Watch) and economic expertise to track water risks; unveil natural infrastructure opportunities; and inform, finance, and scale smart strategies to secure water resources.
Through our projects spanning across North and South America, Africa, and Asia, we convene and empower champions at all levels of decision-making. We provide the cutting-edge data and best practice guidance to put natural infrastructure into action. We steward collective learning through extensive networks of water utility managers, conservationists, businesses, financial institutions and governments united behind a common goal: to enhance water security and bolster economic development through landscape restoration and conservation.
Please contact Todd Gartner, Senior Associate and Manager, with any project inquiries.
Know your watershed. Identify water risks. Plan for action. WRI developed Global Forest Watch Water—a publicly available global database and interactive mapping tool—to put decision-relevant information about watersheds conditions, threats to watershed health, and natural infrastructure solutions at the fingertips of anyone around the world with internet access. GFW Water incorporates the best and most up-to-date data and models, WRI’s existing data assets, and extensive networks of experts and partner institutions, to map forests and water risks worldwide.
WRI leverages the data and models behind GFW Water to provide tailored spatial modeling and analysis for government agencies, businesses, and finance institutions. With this critical information, decision-makers can understand watershed risks and develop pipelines of natural infrastructure investment opportunities. We also work with hydrologists and academic institutions to conduct high-resolution spatial modeling to identify the location and type of natural infrastructure interventions within watersheds that will yield the greatest benefits.