April 2025
Multibenefit projects like levee realignments that reconnect floodplains can provide benefits for both people and nature. They can address climate adaptation, water management and ecosystem restoration at the same time. However, funding these projects can be challenging, because funding sources usually support single-purpose projects.
To understand how this plays out in practice, we studied a flood risk management project in California’s Pajaro Valley. We explored how the project was funded, including its successes and challenges, and formulated lessons learned and recommendations with broader application.
Our work resulted in the following key takeaways:
- Piecemeal Funding: Funding multibenefit projects currently requires piecing together disparate funding sources, typically focused on single purposes. Where money is not aligned with an integrative vision, that vision is much more difficult to achieve.
- Champions, a Vision & Capacity: Because of fragmented institutions, integrative projects currently need visionary champions with the ability to collaborate and piece together different funding sources. This can work where champions are available, but hinders progress where they are not.
- Integrated Funding Programs: Funding programs that explicitly support projects with multiple benefits can help scale up multibenefit solutions.
We recommend that policymakers and agencies can use their respective authorities to facilitate multibenefit solutions by a) creating grant programs within a single agency that fund a project’s full lifecycle and require multiple benefits, and b) coordinating funding programs across agencies to create complementary programs and combined funding for projects that address multiple agency priorities.
Supporting multibenefit solutions that cut across agency missions can address climate adaptation, water management and ecosystem restoration. Our research highlights barriers to doing so, and recommends ways to remove them to move multibenefit projects from innovative ideal to mainstream. Modernizing funding programs to match the scale and complexity of today’s challenges is a key step.
Download the Article.
Suggested citation: Grimm M., Serra-Llobet A., Bruce M., Kiparsky M. (2025): Siloed funding of multibenefit projects highlights the need for funding programs that integrate cobenefits. Frontiers in Water 7:1566458. https://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2025.1566458
For more information: Contact Marie Grimm, Research Fellow, or Mike Kiparsky, Director, Wheeler Water Institute, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment
This research was funded by the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) Climate Action Seed Grant (ID R02CP7145) and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant (No. 2021-69012-35916) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.