Measuring the Benefits of Distributed, Nature-Based Stormwater Projects 

With funding from the Water Foundation, The River Project explored the implications for Distributed, Nature-Based Projects as a subset of Green Infrastructure. Distributed, Nature-Based projects for water capture, conservation, treatment and reuse are a cost-effective alternative to conventional gray infrastructure.

As detailed in the paper, Nature-Based Projects can be:

• Built cost-competitively with grey and grey/green infrastructure

• Maintained more cost-effectively than conventional grey and grey/green infrastructure long-term (leading to lower life-cycle costs)

• Provide multiple critical benefits offsetting costs and financing to address pressing social, environmental, and economic challenges as compared with grey infrastructure