Climate Resilience
Nature-based Solutions for Degraded Water Resources
Municipal Officials & Professionals
Backyard & Neighborhoods
Land Managers or Stewards
Youth, Parents & Teachers
Protecting our water resources is vital and at the core of the NRWA’s mission. Water resources can be degraded by a variety of climate-related issues. This collection of case studies identifies specific sites in each focus community that were identified for having the potential for degrading nearby water resources. Each Site Study includes a map with site-specific NbS recommendations, a link to the site on an interactive DataViewer, and Nature-based Solutions Project Templates for the recommended NbS. Maps in our Nashua River Watershed-wide Map Atlas can also help in understanding land cover types, soil drainage patterns, and areas at risk for water degradation due to impervious surfaces of likelihood of future development. We encourage you to further explore additional sites and solutions through each town-specific NbS Recommendations Report (links below).
Nature-Based Strategy 1:
Infiltrate Stormwater
Allow stormwater to soak into the ground where it has fallen rather than running off the landscape.
Nature-based Solutions
- Rain gardens
- Porous pavement/de-paving
- Soil restoration
- Amend soils in lawns
- Convert lawns to meadows
- Bioswales
Nature-Based Strategy 2:
Filter Stormwater
Use vegetation and soils to filter stormwater before it enters waterways.
Nature-based Solutions
- Restore/create riparian buffers
- Create meadows
- Use bioswales to prevent runoff
- Porous pavement/de-paving
- Use Best Management Practices
- Increase infiltration
Nature-Based Strategy 3:
Slow the Flow
Reduce the speed at which water is traveling over the landscape by creating obstacles and avoiding channeling.
Nature-based Solutions
- Erosion control during construction
- Daylight culverted streams
- Remove dams
- Rooftop runoff management
Nature-Based Strategy 4:
Plant/Maintain Vegetation
Use vegetation as a tool to prevent erosion and to filter stormwater.
Nature-based Solutions
- Restore riparian buffers
- Green rooftops
Site Studies: Degraded Water Resources
Protecting our water resources is vital and at the core of the NRWA’s mission. Water resources can be degraded by a variety of climate-related issues. This collection of case studies identifies specific sites in each focus community that were identified for having the potential for degrading nearby water resources. Each Site Study includes a map with site-specific NbS recommendations, a link to the site on an interactive DataViewer, and Nature-based Solutions Project Templates for the recommended NbS. Maps in our Nashua River Watershed-wide Map Atlas can also help in understanding land cover types, soil drainage patterns, and areas at risk for water degradation due to impervious surfaces of likelihood of future development. We encourage you to further explore additional sites and solutions through each town-specific NbS Recommendations Report (links below).
Ashburnham
Fitchburg
Groton
Leominster
Pepperell
Explore additional sites in each study community.
Long range efforts to address the degradation of water resources.
Protect, plan, educate, and advocate
- Identify and classify critical water resources
- Restore or create riparian buffers and greenways
- Restore natural flow patterns, remove dams, connect floodplains
- Require erosion and sediment controls at project sites
- Infiltrate / filter stormwater
- Collect data, promote volunteer water quality monitoring programs