A catalogue of nature‑based solutions for coastal resilience

The Coastal Catalogue is designed to support the identification of investment opportunities and the integration of NBS into coastal risk management and planning processes, while enabling more informed, scalable, and context-specific decision-making for coastal resilience investments. While no single resource can capture the full diversity of the world's coastlines or the ingenuity of the communities that steward them, this Catalogue is guided by a clear principle: invest in the natural systems that already protect us; restore those that have been degraded; and thoughtfully combine nature-based and engineered measures where risks are highest and space is limited."

The findings show that coastal communities are on the front line of climate risk. Rising sea levels, intensifying storms, and accelerating erosion are placing rapidly growing coastal zones under increasing pressure — areas where people, infrastructure, economic activity, and biodiversity-rich ecosystems are highly concentrated. The Coastal Catalogue organizes solutions into 9 key typologies and provides practical information on benefits, costs, case studies, site suitability, and design and maintenance considerations to help policy makers, planners, and stakeholders identify, prioritize, and integrate coastal NBS into climate and disaster risk management strategies.Today, approximately 11 percent of the world's population lives in low-lying coastal areas directly exposed to these hazards. Such an integrated approach can strengthen resilience while enabling people, economies, biodiversity, and ecosystems to thrive together, often providing more sustainable and cost-effective protection than conventional gray infrastructure alone.