PROTOCOL FOR DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE OF THE NBS FOR DRYLANDS (Summary for Decision Maker)
Creators: name: D'Ambrogi, Serena
name: Gerorgiadis, Christos
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: restoration
land degradation
drylands
protected areas management

description: The NewLife4Drylands (NL4DL) project aimed to monitor the application, scalability, and replicability of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for the restoration of drylands by using satellite-based indicators. The project adopted a multifaceted approach that involved establishing a protocol for NBS in drylands, encompassing the identification of drylands characteristics and the design of NBS, and overseeing midterm and long-term restoration efforts.

The NL4DL Protocol has primarily adopted the approach and the structure of the International Principles and Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration (SER, 2019), Principles and Guidelines for Ecological Restoration in Canada’s Protected Natural Areas (Canadian Parks Council, 2008) and Ecological Restoration for Protected Areas (IUCN, 2012), adapting them to the specific needs of ecological restoration of mediterranean drylands. These documents represent international references for ecological restoration activities in natural and semi-natural environments. Consulting these documents is recommended for interested parties (such as practitioners, academics, and decision-makers) who wish to investigate and explore specific issues related to a site in need of restoration activities.

In the Protocol, the elements depicted in the reference documents (SER, IUCN and Canadian Parks Council) are tailored and further elaborated, particularly concerning activities for restoring degraded soils using NBS. The Protocol also explores the integrated use of ground-based and Remote Sensing (RS) data to identify indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of planned solutions. This approach is geared towards fostering adaptive, evidence-based and interdisciplinary management of the ecological restoration process.

The Protocol follows the principles and input of the cited documents and integrates the NL4Dl project outputs into ecological restoration activity in drylands (through planning, design, implementation, and maintenance) that are:

-          a procedure for assessing existing degradation processes and monitoring ecosystem restoration interventions (such as NBS) in degraded drylands, combining RS techniques with in-field gathered data. It serves to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration activities and improve sustainable land management on a long-term basis;

-          an operational tool, the Decision Support Web tool, which identifies the best sustainable solutions (Nature-Based Solutions) based on degradation processes. It includes indices and indicators related to each degradation process and enables end-users to monitor the effectiveness of these solutions. This tool guides the users in evaluating available NBS for restoration activities in soil-degraded areas and provides relevant monitoring elements. It aims to reduce the knowledge effort, minimize subjective analysis, and help prioritize options.

The collective use of these tools paves the way for an informed decision-making process regarding land and soil restoration, alongside identifying best practices that can be replicated in similar contexts