This paper highlights that Nature based Solutions (NbS) and ecosystem restoration are distinct concepts, crucial for planning and implementing environmental interventions. This distinction impacts goals, resources, and stakeholder involvement. Focusing on freshwater catchment management, the analysis of UK and Ireland projects shows how different framings lead to varied priorities and approaches. Clarity in using these terms is essential to avoid confusion and optimise catchment management. Stakeholders should reflect on their goals to better plan interventions, considering the time lag between actions and outcomes, and adapt to changing environmental drivers.

This detailed report presents the current state of the scientific evidence underpinning a range of Natural Flood Management measures from the headwaters to coasts (14 measures in total). It does this by settign out scientfic confidence levels for each measure. Its also explains ‘what we know’ and ‘what we don’t know’ about the effectiveness of these measures from a flood risk and ecosystem services perspective.

This document is an Annex to the Environment Agency (England) Working With Natural Processes evidence directory. It is the detailed scientific literature review which informs the evidence directory scientific confidence levels. This document is more technical than the evidence directory.

Another practical Natural Flood Management guide for farmers that is written in plain English and has a series of well presented illustrations. Its focus is for farmers in the North-West of England and covers both lowland and upland Natural Flood Management measure types.

Reviews the challenges which point to the key issues of spatial flood risk management, highlighting the problems of scale, connectivity and governance.

This review focuses on the role of relatively small-scale (<10,000 m3) TSAs (Temporary storage areas) in headwater catchments for flood risk management. It also explores the potential wider benefits for implementing these as part of an integrated catchment management approach.

This paper reviews specific measures that are suited to upland headwater areas, which are dependent on their geology, soils and topography. This paper focuses on peatland restoration, forests, large wood in rivers, and agricultural practice.

This paper adopts a community expert perspective to identify barriers to individual NBS. Identifying 17 barriers affecting the implementation of 12 groups of NBS in both urban and rural settings in five European regional environmental domains It define avenues for further research, connecting hydrology and soil science, on the one hand, and land use planning, social geography and economics, on the other.

This paper reviews and critiques the role of RAFs and NFM as an interventionist and holistic approach to lowering runoff rates. The link between RAF design types and their relationship to land use and scale is made.

This paper outlines the potential of nature-based solutions and integrated catchment management. It describes how current integrated catchment policy and programmes would benefit from this new approach and posits that nature-based solutions are a complimentary technology that would have multiple co-benefits in the Irish landscape

This report builds a useful knowledge base of evidence for use of NWRM in the Irish context.

This paper reports a before-after-control-intervention studies in the South Pennines (UK) representing the first rigorous experimental assessment of the impact of blanket peat restoration on catchment runoff. It evaluates the hydrological impacts of two standard restoration interventions; revegetation of bare peat, and revegetation of bare peat with additional gully blocking.

This is a key document on NBS that sets out an assessment framework for NBS projets. The global standards for NBS is a self assessment that consists of 8 criteria and indicators which assess a number of benefits provided by NBS. It is a key document if you wish to assess your NBS project.

This report gives an overview of nature-based solutions in the Nordic countries. It looks at current best practice in nordic countries, assesses policy frameworks, looks at future challenges and reviews example projects and case studies. It ends with a number of key messages and priorities for future mainstreaming of NBS in the nordic countries.

This review document reviews the role beavers play in stream and water resource management. The document seeks to answer the following research questions: How does beaver activity affect the functioning of rivers and streams and water resources? What are the potential benefits and limitations of the ecosystem engineering capabilities of beavers for ecosystem restoration and environmental management in Scotland? What are the remaining knowledge gaps for which further research is needed?

This paper looks at various aspects of floodplain management. For example, floodplain delineation, causes of disturbance, ecosystem services provided by floodplains and measures that can be utilised to mitigate flood events.

This review paper focuses on Runoff Attenuation Measures (RAFs). RAFs cover measures such as leaky barriers, offline ponds and overland flow disconnection bunds. The paper reviews and critiques the role of RAFs in NFM as an interventionists and holistic approach to managing floods.

The issue of roadway runoff (RR), i.e. mineral and organic pollutants on farms conveyed along farm roadways, has gained recognition in recent years. Recent legislation in Ireland prohibits direct runoff from farm roadways into adjacent water courses. There remains, however, a lack of literature on the nature and scale of the problem, available management options and  impacts of RR on surface water quality. This review presents evidence for the varied content and composition of RR, the nature of conveyance of RR and the existing management options, with a look to developing further options.

Depending on their management, riparian buffer strips have been shown to benefit water quality, biodiversity and mitigate flood risk. Given the multifunctional nature of riparian buffer strips, this review explores the need to identify the mechanisms and conflicts by which they operate in order to promote targeted management of explicit environmental pressures. The review considers the effects of nutrient loadings, soil saturation, vegetation and buffer management on their performance and recommends the integration of various measures at catchment scales to ensure riparian buffers can confer greatest benefit.

The positive water quality effects of a range of agricultural practices were reviewed to assess their effectiveness and the timescale by which their benefits were exhibited. These practices included improved landscape engineering, improved crop management and reductions in farming intensity. The study recommends that policy makers intending to implement environmental management practices consider the spatial and temporal scales by which specific measures are effective and measurable.

The role of the hyporheic zone (HZ) in mediating the nutrient turnover of surface waters is well accounted for in academic literature, but river restoration strategies rarely explicitly target the HZ. This review describes the importance of vertical and horizontal connectivity between the HZ and surface and groundwaters, and the HZ microbial community which govern the biogeochemical processing of nutrients. The review calls for carefully designed experiments which asses hyporheic rehabilitation strategies at streambed and catchment scales.

A systematic review of the most common and well researched examples of Nature Based Solutions (NBS; i.e. constructed wetlands, sustainable drainage systems, and riparian zone management) in the EU, and where sufficient data was available, in Ireland. It examined their role in addressing nutrient and sediment issues, and for addressing additional issues such as broader ecosystem services, carbon storage and flood management. The effectiveness of the chosen NBSs is variable and may be enhanced by favouring catchment-wide over smaller scale measures, and by installing a ‘treatment train’ of measures in chosen catchments, instead of localised measures.

This paper reviews the removal efficiency of five different measures addressing nitrate and phosphorus pollution in agricultural catchments in 11 countries worldwide: (i) free water surface constructed wetlands, (ii) denitrifying bioreactors, (iii) controlled drainage, (iv) saturated buffer zones and (v) integrated buffer zones. Metanalyses showed that all five measures reduced nitrate loading of polluted waters and often acted as sinks for phosphorus. Importantly, there was large variation in the performance of the measures which are linked to differences in design, catchment runoff characteristics and hydrology.

This paper describes the main mechanisms by which nitrogen is removed from agricultural wastewater and details the effectiveness of 4 important forms of NBS in nitrogen uptake and attenuation, namely: Constructed Wetlands, Riparian Buffer Strips, Vegetated Channels and Water Sediment Control Basins. The paper also describes recent research on the harvesting of nitrogen captured in NBS such as the harvesting of duckweed from ponds receiving agricultural wastewater and processing the duckweed to produce animal feed and fertiliser.

A scientfic review paper that looks at the role forested land plays in mitigating flood peaks in the UK. It looks at four woodland type: Catchment, cross-slope, floodplain and riparian. It discusses these four woodland types using evidence from UK case studies (with some wider international cases) to look at the effectiveness for mitigating flood risk. The study highlighted the need for long term datasets, however, such datasets are limited.

This technical review paper focuses on methods to model both natural and human-made in-channel wood (or leaky barriers). It looks at a number of modelling techniques highlighting those methods which are the most popular but also looking at the benefits and challenges of certain modelling approaches.

This is a useful review article that looks at the benefits and challenges behind Natural Flood Management. It contains useful boxes that set out some examples. The academic paper has been writen as a primer; therefore it is accessable to a wide range of readers.

This paper reviews the role of large wood in river restoration projects. The paper offers a synthesis of the benefits and risk ascoiated with using wood to promote geomorphological processes to restore and manage rivers. The paper utilises knowledge from a large expert stakeholder workshop (mainly UK practitioners)

This review paper looks at how wetlands affect various aspects of the hydrological cycle e.g., droughts, floods. It does this by collating evidence from many international case studies. It is a very useful overview paper for understanding how wetlands function, however, it is recommend to also read “How wetlands affect floods” paper for a more detailed overview related to flood management.

A scientific review paper that looks at the role wetlands play in mitigating flood peaks. It does this by looking at five hydrological wetland types and investigating how each wetland type affects floods. It does this by collating evidence from numerous case studies. The paper suggests upland wetlands are generally flood generating areas whilst floodplain wetlands offer greater potential to mitigate floods.

This is a scientific review paper that focuses on the role woodland play in mitigating flood peaks. It looks at evidence from UK and Ireland case studies. It shows that woodlands have some benefits, however, limited impact on mititgating extreme events. It also considers the role of harvesting on flood peak response.

A comprehensive evidence review of Natural Flood Management in the UK. It describes the current evidence base of a range of measures and places the evidence statements into four categories. The detailed evidence is presented in an annex to the paper.

This paper gives a critical evaluation of Natural Flood Management approaches and wider literature. It also presents knowledge gaps and makes suggestions on how to overcome these. Its focused on UK examples but covers a wide varity of environments. It suggests a framework for a new approach to Natural Flood Management research.

This is a core output of the EU funded Natural Water Retention Measures project. It is hosted on the Natural Water Retention Measures.eu website (which also contains a case study map). The guide aims to support the selection, design and implementation of Natural Water Retention Measures measures in Europe. It is a core document for the Natural Water Retention Measures approach and is applicable to the Irish landscape. The document is available in a number of languages making it one of the only multi-langauge NbCMS type document available.

This is a systematic literature evidence review that focuses on the role woodlands play in mitigating floods. It was developed by the UKCEH and its focus is on the UK context. Evidence from 71 case studies were assessed.

Here you’ll find training and best-practise examples concerning river restoration. The UK River Restoration Centre (RRC) is the national expert advice centre for best practice river restoration. They also provide training.

Succinct and accessible guide to soil hydrology and management tips for soils under tillage, forest, pasture and peat. It was published for the East Devon Catchment Partnership to shows how good soil managements is fundamental to effective nature-based flood management. It is pitched at organisations who are working in partnership with farmers trying to deal with runoff problems.

This guide focuses on lowland measures and was developed for farmers in the Yorkshire Dales. Its written in plain English and has nice easy to understand diagrams and pictures. It sets out issues such as build costs and mainagement cost in a low/medium/high rating. It was developed for farmers and those tasked with implementing Natural Flood Management schemes.

This is a quick access summary, presenting each measure on one page with a build and cost guide on farms. The guide was developed for farmers and land managers of the Yorkshire Dales National Park but some findings could be applicable to elsewhere in the UK and Ireland. Listed are the key locations, type of measures and costs for the set-up and maintenance of each measure specifically.

Useful if you’re new to the topic of Natural Water Retention Measures and want to get an overview of what’s possible with Natural Water Retention Measures on your farm and how it can be done. It has with excellent images and serves as an introductory guide and overview of the suite of small and large scale Natural Water Retention Measures schemes using case studies. It covers a number of measures.

This technical evidence report focuses on the riparian environment and is focused on water quality (although some of the metrics cover flooding). The report considers how we can improve the effectiveness of riparian buffer zone. The project assesses the effectiveness of traditional grass buffer strips and suggests ways that buffers can deliver more for the environment. It looks at four other catergories of buffer – designer, raised, wooded and engineered.

A very visual and inspiring atlas that showcases 62 Nature-Based Solutions type projects internationally. The atlas covers both catchment and coastal measures and is designed to be accessble to a wide range of stakeholders. It was developed by the Engineering With Nature initiative which is led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is the second edition of the atlas.

A very visual and inspiring atlas that showcases 56 Nature-Based Solutions type projects internationally. The atlas covers both catchment and coastal measures and is designed to be accessble to a wide range of stakeholders. It was developed by the Engineering With Nature initiative which is led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This is a short overview of the Evaluating Nature-Based Solutions project. It offers a very useful short summary and identifies the best assessment framework for assessing the benefits and disbenefits of a Nature-Based Solutions scheme.

This is a useful document if you are looking for an assessment framework (for potential benefits and disbenefits) for an Nature-Based Solutions project. This project searched for potential assessment frameworks and carried out a two-stage process to identify the most appropriate framework. The initial search identified 23 frameworks which were then independently evaluated by the project team. The IUCN Global Standard was identified as the best designed framework.

This is a comprehsive evidence review of wetlands relavant to the Scottish context. It reviews a number of wetland types and sets out the evidence levels behind them. The overall aim of the document was to review the role of functioning wetlands in moderating extremes in water availability in a Scottish context, however, it considers wider benefits such as biodiversity.

Riverwoods is a Scottish initiative aiming to promote healthy and resilient river systems across Scotland. This evidence review aims to provide a broad indication of the most up-to-date scientific evidence underpinning the environmental benefits that river woodlands provide for Scotland. It sets out a summary of the strengths of evidence of river woodlands (from very strong to weak).

Rural Sustainable Drainage Systems (Rural SuDS) are a type of Nature-Based Solutions approach. They aim to reduce agricultural diffuse pollution impacts as they are physical barriers that treat rainfall runoff. This guide helps with selecting, designing and building the most suitable Rural SuDS for your farm and explains how to look after the systems. It also promotes the wider benefits such as coping with extreme weather related to climate change, localised flood prevention and enhancing biodiversity.

This one page overview pullout forms part of the CIRIA Natural Flood Management manual. Specifically this advanced technical guidance sheet was developed for runoff storage measures.

This one page overview pullout forms part of the CIRIA Natural Flood Management manual. Specifically this advanced technical guidance sheet was developed for runoff management measures.

This one page overview pullout forms part of the CIRIA Natural Flood Management manual. Specifically this advanced technical guidance sheet was developed for leaky barrier measures.

This one page overview pullout forms part of the CIRIA Natural Flood Management manual. Specifically this advanced technical guidance sheet was developed for floodplain reconnection measures.

This manual presents a step by step overview for delivering an Natural Flood Management project. It was developed for UK practitioners, however, some of the technical guidance is applicable to Ireland. It covers issues such as problem idenficiation, funding, design criteria of measures, construction and management issues. Detailed technical advise is given for four specific measures. The manual draws on international best practice that is relevant to the UK.

Detailed handbook for people who want to know in-depth about Natural Flood Management – from the concept, over different measures to modelling approaches. The 2015 Nature-based approach to flood management Handbook from the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) introducing the concept of Natural Flood Management (NFM), outlining the multiple benefits and overview of river and floodplain management.

This excel spreadsheet tool complements the Environment Agency (England) Working With Natural Processes evidence directory. It gives information on the modelling processes behind each measure.

This collection of case studies complements the Environment Agency (England) Working With Natural Processes evidence directory. The focus of these case studies is on “soil and runoff management” measures, although not all cases are focused solely on these measures. The zip file contains 15 individual UK case study documents (each document is a pdf). The case study covers topics such as the number of measures installed, modelling and costs of project.

This collection of case studies complements the Environment Agency (England) Working With Natural Processes evidence directory. The focus of these case studies is on “woodland” measures, although not all cases are focused solely on these measures. The zip file contains 7 individual UK case study documents (each document is a pdf). The case study covers topics such as the number of measures installed, modelling and costs of project.

This collection of case studies complements the Environment Agency (England) Working With Natural Processes evidence directory. The focus of these case studies is on “River and Floodplain” measures, although not all cases are focused solely on these measures. The zip file contains 23 individual UK case study documents (each document is a pdf). The case study covers topics such as the number of measures installed, modelling and costs of project.

This handbook was devloped by the EU funded ThinkNature project. The handbook promotes knowledge regarding Nature-Based Solutions, helps support the implementation of measures and sets out a comprehensive

This detailed guidelines document (led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and developed by authors from ten countries) provides practitioners with the best available information concerning the conceptualization, planning, design, engineering, construction, and maintenance of Natural and Nature-Based Features (which contains NbCMS measures) to support resilience and flood risk reduction from the headwaters to the coasts.