Ports are crucial for global trade and particularly vital for low- and middle-income countries, handling over 11 billion tons of goods annually and supporting millions of jobs worldwide. Yet, ports increasingly face challenges in balancing efficiency, climate resilience, and sustainability. Nature-based solutions (NBS), in combination with traditional engineering, offer a promising pathway to address these challenges by integrating natural processes into port planning, design, and operations.

The World Bank, GFDRR and EcoShape hosted a webinar on building climate resilience in ports through NBS. The session presented the new publication Nature-Based Solutions for Ports: Opportunities and Challenges, highlighting lessons, global examples, and enabling conditions for integrating NBS into port planning and development. 

The Technical Committee on Disaster Risk Management of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) and the Peruvian Engineers Association (CIP) organized this seminar which reviewed the experience of Global Rapid Post-Disaster Damage Estimation (GRADE) assessments from the last 10 years.

GRADE is a remote, desk-based methodology developed by the World Bank and implemented by GFDRR to help World Bank member countries estimate the economic damage impact soon after disasters. As documented in a recent desk review, since its first application after the 2015 Nepal Earthquake, GRADE has been used in over 70 occasions in response to disasters in over 50 countries has informed recovery planning faster mobilization of funds. Using disruptive technology, GRADE assessments are developed in approximately a couple of weeks’ time and on average to accuracy of 90 percent of detailed on the ground damage assessments that follow later. The information generated from GRADE has become a trusted tool for Ministries of Finances, DRM agencies as well as decision makers including World Bank to understand the overall impacts from disasters.  

In Zanzibar, the 3-day Applied NBS Training Course explored NBS for flood risk reduction and enhanced urban resilience, with a focus on the restoration and revitalization of Mwantenga and Ziwa ponds. This was complemented by site tours and group activities to explore NBS opportunities in the local context. 

The training emphasized hands-on, participatory learning, including problem tree analysis, visioning exercises, site tours, and an interactive NBS design process focused on Mwantenga and Ziwa ponds, allowing participants to apply NBS concepts directly to the Zanzibar Town context. Participants explored nature-based, grey, and hybrid solutions for urban flood risk reduction and urban resilience, including effectiveness, costs, and operations and maintenance considerations, as well as stakeholder engagement, institutional roles, financing opportunities, and discussion of next steps toward implementation.

The event will showcase the achievements of the efforts led by countries across Africa in promoting disaster risk reduction and resilient infrastructure over the past decade, with support from the World Bank and GFDRR’s Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Management in Developing Countries (managed by the Tokyo DRM Hub) supported by Japan’s Ministry of Finance. 

We’re excited to invite you to take part in the City Resilience Program’s Urban Heat Hackathon — a dynamic, hands-on event that brings together minds from across the urban climate community to co-create solutions for real-world heat resilience challenges.