Table 2.
Existing and emergent challenges to implementing NbS.
| Categories | Challenges | COVID-19 Caused Challenges |
|---|---|---|
| Perception and knowledge | Lack of understanding and awareness of NbS and their benefits | |
| Lack of experience and knowledge | ||
| Lack of consistent terminology | ||
| Path dependency | ||
| Lack of awareness of the cost of NbS | ||
| Political | Lack of sense of urgency | |
| Lack of political will and long-term commitment | ||
| Lack of supportive legal and policy frameworks | ||
| Lack of national level leadership | ||
| Moving the medical model from cure to prevention | ||
| Financial | Complex funding system | Investment priorities shifting |
| Mismatch between funding priorities and local needs | Increased cost of supplies and knock-on effects | |
| Lack of sustained or dedicated financial resources | ||
| Competitiveness in the funding process | ||
| Access to natural spaces | Land use conflicts | Site closed temporarily or permanently |
| Site restrictions | Green space damaged by intense usage | |
| Deficits in access to green space | ||
| Get permission to green space | ||
| Facility issues | ||
| Engagement | Insufficient citizen engagement | Exacerbation financial and health inequalities |
| Initiating and sustaining stakeholder engagement | Difficulty in engaging people remotely | |
| Lack of knowledge about current locally available services and how to access them amongst stakeholders and the public | ||
| Stakeholder’s lack of knowledge about local needs and contexts | ||
| Lack of effective engagement methods | ||
| Institutional and organisational | Lack of leadership | Exacerbation of human resource and capacity issues |
| Internal governance | Facing aggressively increased demand | |
| Facing overwhelming demand | Coping with COVID-19 restrictions | |
| Capacity and human resource issues | ||
| Coordination | The complexity of stakeholder systems | Difficulty in the shift to remote working |
| Difficulty in establishing partnership with the NHS | ||
| Lack of communication across all sectors | ||
| Difficulty in empowering local communities | ||
| GSP referral and service issues | The complexity of the GSP referral process | |
| Lack of quality assurance |
Consistent challenges identified in both the literature and this study are in bold and highlighted in grey, challenges emergent from this study are in bold.