Nature-based solutions for sustainable management of ecosystems

Nowadays, adverse climatic conditions pose many obstacles to achieve sustainably management of ecosystems.  Extreme weather events, specifically intense rainfalls events may result to catastrophic floods. Further, factors such as increased agricultural activities, deforestation and wildfires also result to excessive erosion rates. At this study, preliminary results are presented on research that was conducted for the Aggitis Basin, located at the prefecture of Eastern Macedonia in Northern Greece. In order to identify the pollution sources, the study areas were selected based on land use characteristics, such as dominant vegetation and soil type. The categorized land uses were, natural areas of sclerophyllous vegetation, rangeland, agricultural and riparian vegetation. Based on erosion “pin-measurements”, the land use that contributed the least sedimentation and reflected a “nature-based solution” scenario, were the areas with the riparian vegetation. On contrary, the rangeland, the agricultural and the areas with sclerophyllous type of vegetation contributed the most pollutants. Consequently, specific land uses were more prone to increased levels of erosion (e.g., agricultural). So, those areas require further action, such as introduction of nature-based solutions in order to mitigate non-point source pollutants reaching the sea bodies.