Drivers and barriers towards nature based solutions for water management in Beirut, Lebanon

The water supply system in Beirut, Lebanon is far from able to fulfill the needs of the residents. It is plagued by water quality and quantity problems leaving residents to depend on informal services where regulations are loosely applied, and authorities’ oversight is almost completely absent. Reviewing the available literature, it becomes clear that NBS are gathering momentum and becoming an important application in the field of urban water management. They are applied to integrate nature with the built environment while securing the availability of clean water to the increasing urban population. The objectives of this research are to identify the current role of NBS for water management in Beirut and to identify the factors that have facilitated or hindered the implementation of NBS in Lebanon at the governance and technical levels. The methodology followed was to interview 15 relevant actors following an interview guide formulated for this research based on the literature review. The interviews were semi structured and audio recordings were later transcribed into text. This was analyzed in Atlas.ti to code it based on key notions from the literature. In addition to that, the groundwater quality around Horsh Beirut park was tested aiming to show the importance of green areas for water management in Beirut. The transcribed interviews, the legislative texts and project documents found were analyzed at three different levels. First, the barriers and drivers towards NBS integration in the water sector were extracted from the interviews. Further barriers and drivers were extracted from analysis of the laws and strategies present. On the second level, these barriers and drivers were analyzed in comparison with the literature. Then, deeper analysis was made of the whole context of water management to deduce cross cutting barriers and drivers. The main drivers towards NBS integration related to the need of change in the approach towards solving the water problems in Lebanon, the need for decentralization, and the importance of bottom-up governance. While barriers, included the absence of long-term visions and a disconnect between the various levels of governance. A governance framework based on the main conclusions was proposed as well as some innovative projects integrating NBS into the water management of Beirut. KEYWORDS: Nature-based solutions ; water management ; governance ; drivers and barriers ; Beirut