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• Most of the NbS of Tropical drylands of India are not follow the IUCN standard criteria. • The Identified NbS are baised towards environmental services than addressing social needs of the people. • Improved NbS interventions requires intensive enagement of stakeholders for addressing social causes. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is a flexible, adaptable, and multi-functional strategies employed to address climate change. However, all the claimed NbS are actually do not adhere the criteria of being NbS. Therefore, present study analysed 87 articles to appraise adherence of potential NbS as per the IUCN Global Standard, along with evaluation of flow of associated ecosystem services (ES). The review identified 39 interventions, out of which only twelve interventions adhered the criteria of NbS. Among the classified NbS, two interventions, namely, sustainable forest management (SFM) (80.83%) and haveli rejuvenation (75.61%) strongly adhered to the IUCN Standard. Lack of adherence in the non-classified NbS interventions was mainly attributed to absence of information on inclusive governance, monitoring and associated trade-offs. The identified 39 interventions were also observed to be enhancing a total of 37 ES, evaluated through 37 distinct indicators i.e. different and enhanced flow of ES were observed by the different NbS. However, the majority of classified NbS were biased towards flow of environmental services than social services. Present study results that all claimed NbS cannot fulfilled the intended objectives of NbS and thus cannot be classified under the NbS as per global standard. Moreover, assessing the flow of associated ES may be an additional support to broaden the scope of NbS implementation. Therefore, present study also highlights to integrate the flow of ES along with the adherence criteria of NbS. Moreover, the review also facilitate to understand constraints associated with the implementation of potential NbS interventions and thus, suggests considering wider aspects in the future researches for assessing the implementation of NbS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ecosystem services have synergies and trade-offs between sustainability dimensions. • The complex nature of ecosystem model output make communicating findings difficult. • We developed modeled based CIs to evaluate forest management strategies. • Composites were systematically evaluated across three regions and climate periods. Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, and ecosystem models can be applied to assess the contribution of different forest management strategies to climate mitigation and adaptation. Complex model output and trade-offs between environmental, economic, and social sustainability dimensions are difficult to convey. To facilitate stakeholder communication, we developed composite indicators based on ten ecosystem service indicators obtained from ecosystem model simulations representing 19 forestry management strategies across three ecoregions and climate scenario projections in Sweden. Eight alternative composites were generated around a central framework addressing sustainability aspects in terms of wood production, preservation of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation (risk management). A combination of principal component analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's coefficient alpha, and hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to account for the statistical relationships between indicators. Z-score normalization was superior to min-max normalization in capturing differences among management strategies. Two weighting schemes were applied, based on policy prioritizations between sub-components that reflected 1) current policy with an equal emphasis on production and biodiversity, and 2) a stronger focus on nature protection. Equal emphasis generated a larger range of scores (76.0 ± 21.2) than the focus on nature protection (32.0 ± 5.8), as the latter would provide less production benefits and thereby fewer trade-offs between production and other aspects. The final scores of the 19 management strategies fell within a variance boundary of each other, showing their contribution to different policy targets and the usefulness of combining strategies at the landscape level. The composites displayed agreement across regions and scenarios. They indicated that a shift from even-aged conifer monocultures towards a combination of continuous cover, broadleaf-mixture, and unmanaged would work well for balancing goals under changing climate conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Urban streams can provide important services to cities population and support a wide biodiversity. • Yet, they have been neglected for centuries and their ecosystems are often highly degraded. • We propose a global, integrated system to assess urban streams ecosystems and services. • The tool includes five sections, 17 divisions, 89 indicators, and a scoring system. • UsAs contributes to promote urban stream restoration and better management. Urban streams and ecosystems are highly affected by the intense development of cities and an increase of impervious surfaces. If these environments are close to their pristine state, they can be considered a nature-based solution promoting the integration of both green and blue elements in the cities, while providing a wide range of services (e.g. better aesthetics, air quality, leisure areas, and mitigation of climatic changes). In view of this, the current study aimed to develop a holistic assessment tool for urban streams that can be used to highlight their importance and support decision makers in the elaboration of measures to recover urban streams. The tool called Urban stream Assessment system (UsAs) includes the assessment of (1) biodiversity, (2) ecological functions and habitat that are inherent components of the ecosystems, and (3) provisioning, regulating, and cultural services, following The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and the Common International Classification of Ecosystem Services (CICES). The tool includes 89 indicators belonging to 17 divisions (services and functions) selected from studies on urban areas and fluvial ecosystems. In addition, the tool introduces a method for the measurement of an indicator, rationale for the used indicator, positive and negative scope of the indicator, and reference to the proposed method. The tool incorporates also a step-by-step scoring system, which results in a global quality classification of streams. The UsAs tool was tested with a case study stream located in the city of Coimbra, Central Portugal. The final classification attributed to this stream was moderate, which is slightly higher than the ecological status, highlighting its potential ecosystem services (ES). However, the UsAs clearly showed a poor biodiversity (namely of aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, fish, aquatic mammals, and terrestrial insects), habitat conditions and the most compromised services that could be improved: water supply, air quality, health and well-being. The use of this novel tool supports also new research and knowledge on aquatic ecosystems and particularly urban streams by generating relevant data to answer and test important ecological questions, such as the influence of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning and services. Further investigation should focus more on tests in different types of urban streams, regions, and climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peatlands provide habitats for many species and a variety of ecosystem services worldwide. In this study we used an integrated biophysical-economic modeling approach with multi-objective optimization to investigate how alternative land-use and land-management (LULM) options jointly affect economic returns from marketed (timber, energy peat, restoration costs) and non-marketed public goods (water quality, GHG emissions, biodiversity) in a typical landscape dominated by peatlands in northern Finland. We considered several LULM options including no action (the current state will continue), bioenergy wood harvesting, intensive forest management, restoration, and energy peat extraction with three after use options (no after use, reforestation, rewetting). Our study revealed strong tradeoffs between biodiversity and ecosystem services in drained peatlands. Optimal LULM depended strongly on the chosen objectives, i.e. whether marketed or non-marketed goods were preferred. For example, when the objective was carbon neutral land-use, the no action option was mostly chosen, while bioenergy wood harvesting was mostly chosen when the objective was to provide economic and environmental benefits at the same time. The strong tradeoff between biodiversity and ecosystem services indicates that compromises are unavoidable in order to obtain a multi-functional landscape which provides biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and water protection in a cost-effective manner. • Selection of alternative land-management options for peatlands was analyzed. • The cost-impact analysis utilized multi-objective optimization. • The variables were the NPV, biodiversity, climate impact, and water emissions. • A small decrease in the NPV resulted in a clear increase in environmental benefits. • Optimal land-management depended strongly on the chosen objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]