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This report on the Yarlung-Tsangpo-Siang-Brahmaputra-Jamuna River Basin, is a first attempt at documenting the Brahmaputra as a one river system and presenting a multi-layered, holistic perspective of the entire river basin from the perspectives of the four riparian countries. The genesis of the report is the stakeholders from the riparian countries themselves, who highlighted the need for one comprehensive, fact-based document that provides information on the various aspects of the entire river basin and that comprehensively captures the viewpoints of those from all riparian countries. It was felt that a document of this type would be important for supporting the dialogue process and policy discussions on cooperative river basin management. It is natural to expect that such a document should be co-written by various stakeholders across the basin, along with other international experts. The authors are pleased that the report includes contributions from over ninety authors, which is a powerful expression of cooperation in and of itself. The report consolidates the existing wealth of knowledge and information on the river system. At its heart, however, are the riparian’s perspectives and insights that reflect how the river is deeply embedded in the cultures and the lives of the people living within it. The report portrays the inextricable interlinkages between those living in the countries that share the river system: even though they are divided by international borders, they are tightly connected through the basin’s water resources.

Floods are the most frequent of all-natural hazards and responsible for causing more damages than any other disasters. Globally, floods are estimated to have affected more than 2 billion people between 1998 and 2018, accounting for 45 percent of all people affected by disasters during that period with an estimated 142,088 fatalities. The immediate impacts of flooding include the loss of human life, livelihoods, damage to property, destruction of crops, loss of livestock, disruption of services, and deterioration of health conditions owing to waterborne diseases, among others. The direct economic losses caused by flooding over the last decade are estimated at US656 billion dollars, although these are systematically under-reported and actual values are likely much higher. When accounting for intangible impacts on human well-being, natural disasters are thought to cost the global economy more than US520 billion dollars a year. This report outlines a comprehensive framework for valuing the benefits associated with NbS for IUFM to facilitate the identification of appropriate and sustainable financing mechanisms to realize those values. Traditional approaches of assessing the benefits of urban flood management have been focused on avoided losses due to reductions in the probability of flooding. A benefit to this approach is that it is simple to calculate and to explain to decision makers. It can also provide information regarding the optimal level of flood risk reduction associated to the direct intervention cost. However, such traditional approaches do not reflect the full range of social, environmental and economic benefits that can be realized by NbS for IUFM. Broader recognition of these benefits, and an evaluation of their value under different circumstances, provides the foundation for capturing non-market values and leveraging private sector and community financing options. The approach described herein builds on the ‘Principles for Valuing Water’ articulated by the High-Level Panel on Water convened by the United Nations and the World Bank Group and includes three common types of flooding (i.e. fluvial, pluvial and coastal) through a five step process.

Such solutions have the potential to integrate natural habitats, processes, and services as part of a coherent and holistic approach to water management, particularly in the urban context. They can provide multiple functions beyond conventional flood mitigation, generating a range of benefits by restoring and conserving natural capital, improving the live ability of urban spaces, increasing resilience, and contributing to more sustainable outcomes. In doing so, they can enhance overall water security by improving water availability and water quality while simultaneously reducing water-related risks and generating additional social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. Achieving these outcomes requires hybrid urban infrastructure city-wide. Such infrastructure optimizes a mix of blue, green, and gray corridors that can integrate NbS into the built urban form at a range of scales and in varying proportions. While the design and implementation of these hybrid assets are relatively well considered, their implementation at scale has been limited. This is due in part to the challenges in realizing the values associated with the full range of market and non-market benefits and comprehending the distribution of these among diverse beneficiaries. This situation makes it difficult to secure sustainable revenue streams and to internalize future returns that can be aggregated to leverage sufficient financing. As a result, improved approaches are required to identify the benefits derived from NbS, evaluate the value of these benefits and to identify the range of potential beneficiaries, to provide a framework that can facilitate co-investment in hybrid infrastructure and ultimately suitable financing models.