How to Use the Tool

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 discrete habitats, interventions, activities, processes, and benefits are defined for this exercise, in real-life applications there are instances where there is overlap (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.

Step-by-Step Tool Process

Step 1. Choose a starting point for using this tool based on what you are looking to understand. You may want to explore which benefits a certain activity will generate (Activities → Benefits) or which activities will achieve desired benefit(s) (Benefits → Activities).

Click to view a walkthrough video for the tool

Click to show instructional video

Step 2. Choose a habitat that is relevant to your local project context.

Step 3. Choose at least one type of intervention that is needed in your chosen habitat. Multiple interventions can be selected.

Step 4. Click "Update Explorer" to view relevant activities, processes, and benefits in the dashboard.

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.

Step 6. Explore your results and view details (e.g., descriptions and available quantification methods).

Step 7. Click the "Export View" button to download a spreadsheet summarizing your NBS results (i.e., linked activities, processes, and benefits).

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.
Under "Additional Options", you can select whether you’d like to see the List View (default view) or the more complex Network View. The Network View allows users to visualize the interlinkages between activities, processes, and benefits. Circular nodes can be moved within the Network View to help view the results, but may “drift” naturally to find the best fit.
Under “Additional Options”, you also have the option to show or hide processes, indirect benefits, and specific benefit types. If processes are hidden, the processes will still be utilized to connect activities and benefits, but they will not visible in the dashboard. Indirect benefits are those benefits that are generated by other benefits, not processes.