Nature-Based Future Challenges

About the Nature-Based Future Challenges

The Nature-based Future Student Challenges program (the Challenges) aims to mitigate adverse environmental conditions in the delta regions, which are critical for food production. Nature-based solutions leverage the functions of ecosystems to benefit society and address environmental and public health issues such as extreme heat and flood risk. For example:

• Creating green roofs and walls in cities to help moderate the impacts of heatwaves by removing heat from the air, help reduce pollution and retain storm waters, which helps reduce flood risks
• Planting oyster gardens in harbors and other waterways harnesses oysters’ innate ability to clean water by filtering algae, removing excess nitrogen and consuming pollutants.
• Protecting and building dunes at the edge of a beach can protect coastal communities from high waves and storm surges, which reduces coastal flooding while providing important ecological habitats.

Nature-based solutions work with the environment and offer numerous benefits:

• More cost-effective than traditional interventions
• Provide economic growth
• Improve public health
• Bolster water availability
• Protect agricultural lands
• Increase agricultural productivity.

The Challenges are engaging stakeholders and students to visualize and move society towards nature-inclusive practices by designing and visualizing a nature-based future that is people-centric and place-based. Grantees are developing maps that illustrate the nature-based future, showing anticipated and potential impacts in the next five to ten years.

The Challenges are preparing the next generation of leaders to harness the potential of nature-based solutions in the Mississippi Delta region and other Delta-focused areas.

Wageningen University & Research manages The Challenges, which funds three annual grantee cohorts from 2023 through 2026. For more information about the Challenges, upcoming events and the open application details, visit the Nature-based Futures Challenges webpage.