About EcoShape

EcoShape develops and shares knowledge about Building with Nature: a new philosophy in hydraulic engineering that utilizes the forces of nature, thereby strengthening nature, economy and society.

EcoShape

EcoShape – Building with Nature is a network of organizations and individuals, working together to advance the application of Building with Nature in water related societal issues. Building with Nature is a philosophy about the design and construction of water related infrastructure that harnesses the forces of nature for the benefit of nature and humans, thereby strengthening nature, economy and society.

EcoShape is a foundation under Dutch law, that facilitates the Building with Nature network. EcoShape coordinates, facilitates and orchestrates the activities within the Building with Nature network and community. The ambition of the network is to contribute to the realization of the Global Goals (sdgs.un.org/goals), addressing societal challenges through Building with Nature solutions on a landscape scale.

To make this possible we stimulate knowledge development via pilot projects, to demonstrate and monitor Building with Nature in practice (Nature-Based Solutions). Based on the monitoring results, guidelines for replication and scaling up are developed and disseminated through the website of EcoShape.

Working with EcoShape

EcoShape acts as the coordinating agency for the Building with Nature community. Around certain topics, challenges or opportunities organizations have formed sub-communities, to address these challenges, topics or opportunities. These are called ‘tables’.

Projects, pilots or programmes which are the result of the activities of tables, are being carried out by consortia of EcoShape partners. EcoShape continues to work with these projects, to disseminate knowledge and experience gained and to produce additional guidelines for replication and scaling up based on these projects.

Conditions

Each project has its own financing structure. Rates for engineering consultants and knowledge institutes are based on cost prices of individuals but can be lower (or higher) than the cost price. In many projects maximum compensation is governed by subsidies which have been attracted.

Sharing knowledge

In recent years partners within EcoShape have built up a wealth of knowledge and experience. This knowledge is captured on this website in the section ‘Get Started’.