A recent study by ITDP Brazil, Urban Mobility and Nature-Based Solutions: Integrating Adaptation Strategies for Brazilian Cities (available in Portuguese), shows how Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) can make urban mobility more resilient, equitable, and accessible for all. Integrating NBS into urban mobility offers a strategic path to transform how cities are planned and built in the face of the growing climate emergency. Far from isolated measures, NBS — such as tree-lined bus corridors, shaded walkways, and permeable sidewalks — are part of a systemic approach that combines green-blue infrastructure with high-quality public transport networks. 

By reducing heat, improving air quality, and managing stormwater, these natural interventions make walking, cycling, and accessing public transport more comfortable, safe, and reliable. This, in turn, helps increase public transport ridership and access, especially for people in underserved and peripheral areas of cities. The objective of the Brazil study is to inform and engage public officials and managers across the municipal, state, and federal levels, especially people involved in the planning and implementation of infrastructure policies and investments. For this reason, the NBS study offers several actionable tools and frameworks to help inform decision-making around projects aimed at improving streetscapes, parks, and waterways.  While tailored to Brazilian cities, these lessons are also universal to the many global cities facing climate risks.

Nature and Mobility, Working Together

The publication identifies the main climate threats present in cities and explores opportunities for integration between NBS and transport infrastructure at the regional, municipal, and local levels:

Regional: Connecting municipalities through high-capacity systems (highways, railways, waterway trransport) must also be integrated with ecological corridors, reforestation of basins, and restoration of floodplains that protect infrastructure from extreme events.

Municipal: Structuring municipal green corridors that integrate public transport, cycling, and pedestrian networks with green-blue infrastructure is key. This includes planning for large-scale urban afforestation; linear floodable parks;
infiltration basins that contribute to the reduction of flooding; and the improvement of water and air quality.

Local: Promoting safe intersections, sidewalks that accommodate afforestation and sustainable drainage devices, such as rainwater beds; bioditches; rain gardens; shaded bus stops and bike racks; bus, subway, and train stations and terminals with natural ventilation, passive cooling, and green roofs.

Cohesive measures at all levels, from planting trees along bike paths to installing green roofs at bus depots, can strengthen both mitigation and adaptation and create connections that make urban spaces more resilient and inclusive. In the face of increasing climate disasters, cities and municipalities must pursue mitigation and adaptation strategies that promote high-quality transport for the most people.

Some inspirational examples of these approaches in action include the city of Sobral, Brazil’s filtering gardens along the Pajeú stream, and Medellín, Colombia’s Green Corridors program that connects newly-greened road verges, vertical gardens, streams, parks, and nearby hills. These models show that cities can use mobility projects as catalysts for large-scale climate adaptation and investment into long-term green-blue strategies.

In 2025, ITDP Brazil also held a training for public managers on the concepts of nature-based solutions, inviting representatives from the cities of Sobral and Campinas in Brazil, and Medellín in Colombia. Watch the recording of the session above in Portuguese and Spanish.

Ultimately, nature-based solutions do not just protect infrastructure — they help create safe, inclusive, and dignified mobility for all communities in a city. They reduce risks from heat and flooding, encourage more walking and cycling, and make public transport stations and routes more pleasant and accessible. In doing so, they can foster social inclusion, economic opportunity, and environmental justice, particularly in areas with limited mobility options and vulnerable communities. This supports not just the lowering and absorption of more GHG emissions, but the overall public and mental health of residents in public spaces.