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How to Use the Tool

Exploring Activity-Benefit Mapping

Step 1

Choose a starting point for using this tool based on what you are looking to understand. You can either explore which benefits a certain activity will generate (Activities → Benefits) or which activities will achieve desired benefit(s) (Benefits → Activities). Image showing the NBS tool filters.

Step 2

Choose a habitat that is relevant to your local project context. Image showing the NBS tool filters.

Step 3

Choose at least one type of intervention that is needed in your chosen habitat. Multiple interventions can be selected. Image showing the NBS tool filters.

Step 4

Click the Refresh button to view relevant activities, processes, and benefits in the dashboard. Image showing the NBS tool filters.

Step 5

Within the dashboard, choose which activities you plan to implement or benefits you want to achieve with your project based on your choice in Step 1 and the mapped benefits will be highlighted. By selecting activities or benefits you will see various highlighted connections across the selected habitat-intervention category. Image showing the NBS activity-benefit mapping results.

Step 6

Explore your results and view details (e.g., descriptions and available quantification methods). Click and/or hover on any activity or benefit for more details. Image showing popup window of NBS benefit details.

In the benefits popup, use the Expand icon to show or hide Indicators and Methods. Image showing popup window of NBS benefit details.

Step 7

If you wish to download the results, click the Download button in the blue left toolbar to download a spreadsheet summarizing your NBS results (i.e., linked activities, processes, and benefits). Image showing the location of the export button.

Image showing the location of zoom and full screen buttons.

Additional Tips

  • The benefit boxes and nodes are colored based on the relevant thematic area (water quantity, water quality, carbon, biodiversity & environment, and socio-economics).
  • Additional descriptions and tips can be viewed by selecting the information icons within the homepage and tool.
  • If boxes and nodes appear too large or small (e.g., if all do not fit within your screen), use the “Zoom Level” slider above the display to increase or decrease your dashboard size.

Key Considerations and Limitations

  • The tool provides a high-level overview of the types of NBS activities that can be undertaken and the resulting benefits. The local context and needs of the project should inform how activities are undertaken and assessed.
  • The tool does not account for benefits, but rather presents a variety of indicators and calculation methods that users can adopt to estimate and measure potential water, carbon, biodiversity, and socio-economic benefits of implemented projects. A variety of indicators and methods are currently included in the tool based on existing NBS approaches that have been adopted extensively around the world, but this list is not complete and will be expanded upon in the future.
  • Identification and understanding of societal and environmental challenges should be done before planning interventions. Challenges that inform interventions/activities and potential trade-offs (e.g., negative impacts) of activities have not been included in the current tool and may be explored in the future.
  • The tool focuses on active, direct activities that have direct linkages to processes and benefits. For example, when a specific habitat is selected, only activities that occur within the habitat or directly impact the habitat are included. Activities that occur in a different habitat are not included.
  • While this exercise defines discrete habitats, interventions, activities, processes, and benefits, this is not always an accurate representation of real-life scenarios where overlap occurs (e.g., a river running through a forest). Specifically, the four intervention types are not mutually exclusive. Some interventions may require the inclusion of other intervention activities (e.g., protection of certain habitat types may require some degree of restoration and/or management activities to ensure benefits are realized). Where there is overlap, assessing a combined intervention category (e.g., management and protection) may be preferred. Additionally, some activities may fall within one intervention type, whereas others may be included in multiple.
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