Towards multifunctionality: adaptation beyond the nature–society dichotomy

The document proposes 'multifunctionality'—the simultaneous provision of multiple functions across natural and human traits—as a systemic approach to climate adaptation. It identifies roadblocks in current nature-based solutions (NbS), such as a lack of awareness regarding power relations, insufficient data on co-benefits and costs, and financing gaps. The authors advocate for 'hybrid solutions' that combine green, blue, and grey infrastructure and outline four leverage realms for action: defining beneficiaries, designing for interoperability, monitoring across scales, and governing for connectivity and justice.

• The traditional framing of nature as separate from culture leads to a dichotomy where natural landscapes are reserved for conservation and built environments for human activity, hindering systemic adaptation.
• Nature-based solutions (NbS) often operate as technocratic discourses that ignore power relations, potentially exacerbating inequities by failing to identify how benefits are distributed among marginalized communities.
• There is a significant lack of standardized data on the life cycle costs and quantified benefits of NbS, which prevents cities from adopting them over traditional engineered 'grey' solutions.
• Current financing for NbS relies heavily on public investment, but there is a need for diversified business models and blended finance to attract private capital, especially where land is privately owned.
• The authors propose 'hybrid solutions' (green-blue-grey infrastructure) as a more flexible alternative to purely nature-based ones, as they can be integrated into existing built environments and may be less land-demanding.
• Effective multifunctional design requires 'interoperability'—the integration of components into a system of systems—to reduce vulnerabilities and allow for different adaptation pathways over time.
• Monitoring of multifunctional interventions is currently insufficient, lacking long-term, landscape-level data to assess whether interventions are effective or who actually benefits.
• Governance for multifunctionality must move beyond mainstream economic appraisals based on net present value and property values, as these metrics exclude the most marginalized people who do not own property.

APA

Barquet, K., & Green, J. (2022). Towards multifunctionality: adaptation beyond the nature–society dichotomy. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/towards-multifunctionality-stockholm50backgroundpaper-1.pdf

Chicago

Barquet, Karina, and Jonathan Green. Towards multifunctionality: adaptation beyond the nature–society dichotomy. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/towards-multifunctionality-stockholm50backgroundpaper-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Barquet |first1=Karina |last2=Green |first2=Jonathan |title=Towards multifunctionality: adaptation beyond the nature–society dichotomy |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=May 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/towards-multifunctionality-stockholm50backgroundpaper-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barquet2022towards, author = {Barquet, Karina and Green, Jonathan}, title = {{Towards multifunctionality: adaptation beyond the nature–society dichotomy}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/towards-multifunctionality-stockholm50backgroundpaper-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }