Healthy coastal ecosystems can provide services for coastal communities, and serve as a buffer from coastal hazards. However, their capacity to provide protection is threatened by a changing climate and other human-caused stressors. The implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) is becoming an increasingly common practice, as these actions work with nature to provide benefits for both natural ecosystems and coastal communities. Despite these increases, substantial gaps exist in our knowledge of the ecological, physical, economic and social performance of NBS interventions related to coastal protection.
A new publication and accompanying report by NOAA scientists and partners presents a synthesis of relevant literature –known as a systematic map– on the performance of NBS for coastal protection in six ecosystems: salt marsh, seagrass, kelp forest, mangrove, coral reef, and shellfish reef. The research team identified more than 37,000 potentially relevant articles across a variety of databases, indices, search engines, 45 organizational websites, and 66 subject matter experts. With assistance from a machine learning algorithm, these results were whittled down to 252 articles that met the eligibility criteria, stemming from 31 countries and dating back to the 1980s.
The systematic map details the published evidence base, and highlights evidence clusters and evidence gaps related to the performance of active NBS interventions for coastal protection in shallow ecosystems. The map reveals patterns in the distribution and abundance of evidence on NBS performance by publication traits (publication type, year, geography), ecosystem type, NBS intervention type, coastal protection context, study type characteristics, as well as a diverse suite of outcomes. In particular, the compiled systematic map highlights evidence clusters related to ecological outcomes (species abundance, biodiversity), physical outcomes (wave energy, flood risk), ecosystem types, and particular types of NBS interventions (restoring or creating habitat, adding structure, modifying sediment).
The synthesized evidence base will help guide future research and management of NBS for coastal protection so that active interventions can be designed, sited, constructed, monitored, and adaptively managed to maximize co-benefits.
Citations:
- Paxton, A.B., Riley, T.N., Steenrod, C.L. J.B. Alemu I., S.T. Paliotti, A.M. Adler, L. Exar, J.E.T. McLean, J. Kelley, Y.S. Zhang, C.S. Smith, R.K. Gittman, and B.R. Silliman. 2024. Evidence on the performance of nature-based solutions interventions for coastal protection in biogenic, shallow ecosystems: a systematic map. Environmental Evidence 13, 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-024-00350-5
- Paxton, A.B., T.N. Riley, C.L. Steenrod, B.J. Puckett, J.B. Alemu I., S.T. Paliotti, A.M. Adler, L. Exar, J.E.T. McLean, J. Kelley, Y.S. Zhang, C.S. Smith, R.K. Gittman, and B.R. Silliman. 2024. Evidence on the performance of nature-based solutions for coastal protection: implications for researchers, practitioners, and managers from a systematic map. NOAA NOS NCCOS Technical Memorandum 342. 28 pg. https://doi.org/10.25923/m4gf-0g84