Conference Agenda

As climate-related hazards intensify, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) have emerged as a potentially cost-efficient and effective alternative to traditional adaptive solutions. Besides risk reduction, NbS offer multiple simultaneous benefits (known as co-benefits) that are often undervalued in decision-making, limiting public and private investment. This study uses a discrete choice experiment, co-designed with local stakeholders, to examine public preferences and to derive the willingness to pay (WTP) for NbS that reduce flood risk in the Netherlands. The survey was distributed to 1,895 respondents across the country. We find strong public support for NbS policies, particularly reforestation, and the subsequent benefits: recreation, additional warning time, and biodiversity conservation. In line with literature, age, gender, and environmental attitudes significantly influence the WTP for NbS. Interestingly, when looking into land-use trade-offs, we find a strong attachment to current agricultural land. In order to capture heterogeneity of preferences, we conduct a latent class analysis, which identifies five distinct profiles ranging from ecologically driven supporters of NbS to respondents who value agricultural land highly or those who prefer traditional measures for risk reduction. These results provide evidence to show that NbS policies can have high social support, but the design cannot neglect local stakeholder preferences, considering the current economic land use.