Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly promoted in environmental management to address water, climate, biodiversity, and pollution challenges while delivering social and economic co-benefits. Yet decision-makers still face uncertainty about what works where, for whom, and how reliably over time. This narrative review synthesizes cross-cutting, peer-reviewed evidence on three decision-critical domains: NBS effectiveness for key environmental management objectives; co-benefits, trade-offs, and equity (including distributional risks across groups and places); and monitoring and evaluation (M “comprehensiveness” refers to breadth of themes and management objectives addressed, not to exhaustive capture of all published sources. A distinguishing contribution is an intervention–pathway–endpoint typology oriented to measurement and M consolidates social, economic, and ecological co-benefits; reviews recurring M proposes a pragmatic minimum indicator set and feasible evaluation designs; and outlines an implementation-oriented NBS environmental management cycle. The aim is to strengthen transparent, climate-aware, evidence-based, and equity-aware environmental management.
Buddhi Dayananda (Tue,) studied this question.