Global trends in scaling nature-based solutions for disaster risk reduction

Abstract

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are gaining global attention as sustainable strategies for reducing disaster risks, yet a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of their application to natural hazards is lacking. This study aims to fill this gap by presenting a bibliometric analysis of 1359 peer-reviewed publications on NbS for natural hazards indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (2015–2024). A systematic bibliometric methodology was applied, combining performance analysis and keyword co-occurrence mapping using VOSviewer. Annual outputs grew from only 2 publications in 2015 to more than 400 in 2024, representing a 20,100 % increase. The corpus involves 5005 authors and 495 publication sources, with an average of 16 citations per document. Keyword mapping highlights six thematic clusters related to hydrometeorological disasters: flooding and stormwater management, coastal hazards, soil erosion and landslides, drought and water scarcity, urban and climate-related hazards, and integrated approaches. The United Kingdom and the United States are the leading contributors, together producing nearly 500 documents, followed by the Netherlands, Italy, and China. Journals such as Sustainability and Science of the Total Environment concentrate the largest number of NbS–hazard publications. Despite this rapid expansion, gaps persist in evidence of long-term effectiveness, equity of application, and governance. The results provide actionable insights by identifying thematic and geographic research priorities, collaboration patterns, and implementation gaps that can guide future research agendas, inform policy design, and support practitioners in scaling NbS for disaster risk reduction.