Abstract
The concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) has gained increasingly importance as a means to make major contributions towards more liveable, sustainable and climate-resilient cities. At the same time, there is an increased call for fairer and more inclusive collaborative planning processes to ensure environmental justice. Yet, knowledge on how collaborative planning processes of NBS intersect with environmental justice is still scarce, scattered and one-sided, while in practice lack of resources, time, convictions, and skills further hamper making these processes constructive and long-lasting. With this contribution, we aim to bring knowledge on just collaborative NBS planning and design processes together, in particular in relation to procedural and recognition justice. As part of a larger qualitative systematic review, 117 articles were analysed on ways to improve procedural and recognition justice of NBS planning processes. Based on the review, we compiled seven main strategies with supporting tool examples to guide designing NBS planning processes in a fairer and just fashion: Involve a broad spectrum of stakeholders, Assessing multiple benefits for multiple people; Be sensitive to local context; Encourage knowledge exchange; Empower people; Be open and transparent; and Plan an adaptive and flexible process.