Meghan Stromberg

Established invasives are difficult to remove, often requiring heavy equipment and hard labor. Through the SUNCASA project, workers are removing invasives and replacing them with indigenous tree species that are better for the environment. Photo: Jenna Echakowitz/SUNCASA When torrential rains hit Kinshasa in April 2025, the city of 20 million came to a standstill.

When torrential rains hit Kinshasa in April 2025, the city of 20 million came to a standstill. Floodwaters submerged more than half the city as the Ndjili River and smaller streams overflowed, quickly overwhelming the city’s drainage capacity. Lives were lost and thousands displaced, with more than 1,000 homes destroyed. Those living in shanties at the city’s periphery were particularly hard hit. Kinshasa is Africa’s third-largest city and one of its fastest-growing.

As cities try to restore the benefits of natural systems by mimicking how ecosystems function, one option they can use is nature-based solutions (NBS). However, cities often struggle to determine which types of interventions best suit their local context, due to data gaps in how NBS perform and unclear roles and responsibilities for putting them into practice.