Social impacts of nature-based solutions

Defining a Monitoring Strategy for nature-based solutions (NbS) is built around the selection of proper key performance indicators (KPIs). These indicators help to generate information regarding a NbS’s social, environmental, economic or other impacts. The decision about which indicators should be included and the final monitoring framework will ideally be co-developed together with local stakeholders in order to assure community engagement, participation, and ultimately generate a higher level of public support for the NbS.
But how are the specific KPIs selected? The starting point is understanding what challenges aim to be addressed by the NbS and what the desired outcomes are. The selected metrics for assessing each indicator should be flexible, having a balance between accuracy, resource-intensity and necessary capacity to gather the information.
Long-term monitoring should already be planned from the first conception phase of the NbS design, with the aim of generating reliable feedback of how well and in what ways the NbS is performing towards the desired outcomes. This data generation will enable informed decision-making for future urban planning. In addition, measuring the impacts of NbS will help to generate a monitoring narrative that can help to mainstream the NbS in urban policies and support more widespread implementation in the future.

This series of monitoring factsheets aims to support the development of monitoring strategies for NbS in urban regeneration projects by:

Providing insights to cities for the impact assessment of NbS in urban regeneration projects.
Highlighting lessons learned and good practices emerging out of the CLEVER Cities project.
Advancing the discourse beyond Key Performance Indicators. Showcasing the monitoring experiences of some of the CLEVER cities.