The author lays out in-depth information about the planning and construction of a vernal pond. The guide provides practical site suitability and budgeting advice to help get projects off the ground.
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Nature-Based Solutions Tools Search
This database contains over 400 tools and resources that can help guide practitioners at various stages of the nature-based solutions project cycle. Use the filters to identify the tools and resources most useful to you.
You can filter the full list by the habitat type you’re working in, the nature-based solutions strategy you want to use, the project phase you are looking for help with, or the type of tool/resource you’re looking for.
The tools and resources shown here were gathered through a robust search of both federal and non-federal sources. We recognize that this library will never be completely comprehensive, but if you know of an important missing tool or resource, please email nesp@duke.edu.
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Developed by the Interagency Workgroup on Wetland Restoration, this guidebook provides information on restoration project planning, implementation, and monitoring.
This document includes an actionable plan to develop a REPI (Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program) resilience project for military installations and project partners using nature based solutions.
The Data Access Viewer (DAV) allows a user to search for and download elevation (lidar), imagery, and land cover data for the coastal U.S. and its territories.
These reforms acknowledge the shared responsibility for disaster response and recovery, aim to reduce the complexity of FEMA, and build the nation’s capacity for the next catastrophic event. The law contains 56 distinct provisions that require FEMA policy or regulation changes for full implementation, and includes discussion on mitigation strategies that include NBS. This page provides an overview of each provision.
This document highlights engineering with nature (EWN) principles/projects by providing illustrations and descriptions of constructed projectsaround the contiguous U.S. and globe.
EnviroAtlas data and resources can be used to inform a range of projects, from regional to local scales. This easy to use, interactive mapping application does not require any GIS skills to use and provides ready access to 536 map layers likegreen space per capita, mammal species richness or percent developed area and multiple analysis tools. EPA uses this tool for uses like project implementation (e.g. permitting) and designing targeted outreach strategies, but the site includes a repository of diverse ways this tool can be used in advancing all types of environmental work.
FEMA's geoplatform, including its geospatial resource center, facilitates information sharing between the federal government, NGOs, and the public. It includes geospatial data on hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and several other hazards that can be used for visualizing, siting, and exploring potential NBS implementation sites.
This guide is tailored to restoration projects following commercial peat extraction. The authors cover restoration strategies based on the starting condition of the peatland, setting goals for the restored peatland, and the environmental impacts of rewetting peatlands.
EPA's Healthy Watersheds Program vision is to protect and maintain the aquatic ecological integrity of watersheds and supporting habitat networks to ensure that future generations may enjoy these resources and the social and economic benefits that they provide.The site includes several resource to design outreach plans, locate existing watershed restoration projects, and guidance on developing a watershed health index to evaluate your own watershed.
This report seeks to quanitfy the restoration benefits of an EarthCorpswetland enhancement project in Bellingham, WA. It details practical ways to evaluate the benefits of different restoration methods.
Ecological and engineering principles for restoring wetlands, including site assessment, design and construction, vegetation establishment, and monitoring and ongoing management.
The National Mitigation Investment Strategy is a single national strategy for advancing mitigation investment to reduce risks posed by and increase the nation’s resilience to natural hazards, such as sea level rise, droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and earthquakes. This portfolio showcases mitigation projects to provide practitioners with examples of activities that integrate the Investment Strategy’s goals and reflect the guiding principles of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA).
The purpose of this document is to provide a resource that communities can use to identify and evaluate a range of potential mitigation actions for reducing risk to natural hazards and disasters. The focus of this document is mitigation, which is action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to hazards. The document discusses 16 natural hazards, and describes mitigation strategies across several different aspects of mitigation within them. These include regulations requirements through FEMA, education prorgams, and natural systems protection (NBS) ideas.
This monitoring protocol includes an optional implementation data sheet to track project implementation, landowner satisfaction, and landowner compliance for offices with no standardized implementation monitoring protocol, an effectiveness assessment data sheet to assess progress toward meeting the specific biological and/or physical objectives established for a project, and guidance and data sheets for collecting and documenting digital images to substantiate assessments of project success.
This page links ot the social vulnerability layer of the national risk index map. As a consequence enhancing risk component of the National Risk Index, a Social Vulnerability score and rating represent the relative level of a community’s social vulnerability compared to all other communities at the same level. A community’s Social Vulnerability score measures its national rank or percentile. A higher Social Vulnerability score results in a higher Risk Index score.
The National Risk Index is a dataset and online tool to help illustrate the United States communities most at risk for 18 natural hazards. The Risk Index leverages available source data for natural hazard and community risk factors to develop a baseline risk measurement for each United States county and Census tract.
The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program mobilizes over 200 field biologists to provide private landowners with free technical and financial assistance to imrpove habitat conservation on their land. This includes: the planning, implementation, and monitoring of projects; partner and funding identification; and permitting guidance.
This document outlines the uses of the Habitat Priority Planner (HPP), which is a spatial decision support tool esigned to assist users in the prioritization of important areas in the landscape or seascape for conservation or reservation action. In addition to summarizing the development of the tool, this guide discusses the major uses of the tool, core functions, and set up instructions. It also includes a handy workbook-style exercise to walk through using the tool.
This resource library houses online tools and resources like project examples, webinar clips, GIS tools, and federal research and reports.