Monitoring and evaluation of NbS

At the core of NbS are the societal challenges that these solutions will help solve. Monitoring and evaluation of NbS efficiency are therefore essential to determine whether implemented NbS respond effectively to these challenges across ecosystems and land use types.  

The IUCNs global standard for NbS requires that NbS are managed adaptively and are based on evidence. This means that in practice, NbS need to be monitored and evaluated to make sure that the implemented actions continue to deliver the benefits that they were implemented for. It is therefore very important that measurable scope, vision, target, goals, and objectives” are identified in the start-up phase of a new NbS project. It is also important that adequate funding is allocated for monitoring and evaluation as part of the NbS implementation. 

Unfortunately, monitoring is not often done in NbS in the Nordics.  If no proper monitoring and evaluation is done, it will result in the following problems: 

  • A lack of initial data for proper project planning 

  • Missing monitoring and assessment schemes for evaluating NbS  

  • A lack of information regarding the effects of NbS on social and ecological values across different spatial scales and on long-term effects   

How to evaluate and monitor NbS

The European Commission has developed a handbook for practitioners for the evaluation of impact of NbS with the goal to “to support the adoption of common indicators and methods for assessing the performance and impact of diverse types of NbS. Other frameworks developed to assess NbS include: 

Important questions remain regarding how to assess NbS within and across societal challenges. However, the monitoring and evaluation of NbS impacts should include both observations (monitoring) as well as analysis (assessment of the results). This includes both measuring and assessing change, as well as costs and benefits of the NbS.  

Including a monitoring scheme with the NbS project will support and enhance the evidence base for new and established NbS. It also provides important information regarding performance, effectiveness, implementation and costs. When monitoring an NbS it is important to include appropriate, unbiased, and robust methods for the monitoring and evaluation to be effective.  

Most current studies on the impact of NbS are limited to single cases, limited in terms of the impacts considered or have focused on a specific type of NbS. Most attention has focused on assessing the environmental aspects without paying enough attention to economic, social and health impacts.  

The A-DVICE handbook focuses on the different kinds of policies, such as strategies, incentive programs and laws that may be useful when planning NbS in the Nordic region. In that handbook, you can also read about evidence-based and adaptive management in the Nordics.

Chrysoulakis, N., Somarakis, G., Stagakis, S., Mitraka, Z., Wong, M. S., & Ho, H. C. (2021). Monitoring and evaluating nature-based solutions implementation in urban areas by means of earth observation. Remote Sensing13(8), 1503.  

European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Evaluating the impact of nature-based solutions – A handbook for practitioners, Publications Office of the European Union, 2021, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/244577  

Gann, G.D., McDonald, T., Walder, B., Aronson, J., Nelson, C.R., Jonson, J., Hallett, J.G., Eisenberg, C., Guariguata, M.R., Liu, J. and Hua, F., 2019. International principles and standards for the practice of ecological restoration. Restoration ecology27(S1), pp.S1-S46. 

Sandin, L., Seifert-Dähnn, I., Furuseth, I.S., Baattrup-Pedersen, A., Zak, D., Alkan Olsson, J., Hanson, H., Sadat Nickayin, S., Wilke, M., Koivula, M., Rastas, M., Enge, C., Øie Kvile, K., Lorentzi Wall, L., Hoffmann, C.C. and Þrastardóttir, R. (2022). Working with Nature-Based Solutions. Synthesis and mapping of status in the Nordics. Nordic Council of Ministers. Denmark: Copenhagen.