Planning and Evaluating NATure-Based Solutions within local authoritiEs – the PENATE project

This poster aims to present the French ANR PENATE project, which has just started. PENATE seeks to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) as a strategy for adapting urban environments to climate change. To this end, it aims to develop multi-scale, multi-criteria, context-sensitive, and adaptive evaluation tools and methods tailored for local authorities.

The project is supported by a multidisciplinary consortium, bringing together expertise in hydrology, microclimatology, ecology, public policy, and law, and involving both research organizations and operational stakeholders. It includes several pilot sites where NbS are currently under monitoring. The project addresses key challenges such as mitigating urban heat islands, managing stormwater and flooding, improving quality of life, and ensuring ecological continuity across territories.

To achieve these objectives, PENATE aims to:

• Analyze and understand the legal, institutional, and technical constraints tied to implementing regulatory and strategic frameworks, and explore how NbS can address these challenges.
• Link the intrinsic properties of vegetation with their effects on thermo-hydraulic processes in NbS infrastructure through a functional traits-based approach.
• Develop digital tools capable of simulating the multifunctionality of NbS and evaluating their performance across different scales within complex territories.

The outcomes of PENATE are designed to support the integration of NbS into regulatory frameworks such as Local Urban Development Plans (PLUi), Climate Air Energy Plans (PCAET), and the Zero Net Artificialization (ZAN) objective. The project will provide local authorities with a dedicated diagnostic and decision-support tool to guide land-use planning and facilitate the implementation of NbS.