Abstract

Climate change is leading to more extreme precipitation events, which require new ways of managing stormwater, particularly in urban areas. Nature-based solutions (NBS) have become an increasingly popular way of providing additional stormwater retention and detention, as well as supporting urban biodiversity and access to nature. However, monitoring of the hydrological performance of NBS is often limited. To date most literature has focused on monitoring methodologies for specific sites and types of NBS, using remote sensing and modeling methods, or measuring benefits of NBS for urban heat mitigation. More comprehensive measurement strategies are needed to improve design, inform maintenance, and provide data that can encourage the adoption of NBS. To address this gap, this tutorial review provides specific recommendations for the instrumentation and in situ monitoring of common types and scales of NBS, as well as in-depth discussion of monitoring methods and hydrological performance for two specific NBS installations in the Chicago region. Based on these findings, we make recommendations for consistent hydrological assessment of NBS and development of common metrics that allow for comparison regionally and across different types of NBS.