Well-functioning ecosystems can play a significant role in buffering cities, settlements and infrastructure from climate hazards at multiple scales . Nature-based solutions  are actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits . Widely recognised as low-regret measures for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation, green and blue infrastructure investments and natural area conservation in cities can provide NBS across scales to reduce temperature shocks and provide natural flood defences among other adaptation and resilience benefits . Blue infrastructure, for example, provides ecological and hydrological functions  critical to sustainable urban water management . Public parks, urban forests, street trees and green roofs, as well as lakes, ponds and streams are widely documented for providing local cooling, grass and riparian buffers, forested watersheds can enhance flood and drought protection for cities and settlements, and mangrove stands and wetlands in coastal areas can reduce storm surges. Despite increasing knowledge about NBS , recent studies indicate that nature-based approaches to adaptation and resilience are still under-recognised and under-invested in urban planning and development , despite the potential scale of benefits, for example, a recent study covering 70 cities in Latin America calculated that 96 million people would benefit from improving main watersheds with green infrastructure .
IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
IPCC Report