WISE-UP is a project that demonstrates natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. It develops knowledge on how to use combinations of built water infrastructure (eg. dams, levees, irrigation channels) together with natural infrastructure (eg. wetlands, floodplains, watersheds) for poverty reduction, water-energy-food security, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience.
WISE-UP shows the advantages of combined built and natural infrastructure approaches using dialogue with decision-makers to agree acceptable trade-offs. It ran over a four-year period (2013-2017) and linked ecosystem services more directly into water infrastructure development in the Tana (Kenya) and Volta (Ghana-Burkina Faso) river basins.
