- University: AgroParisTech
- Place of defence: Montpellier
- Hosting institution(s): International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
Abstract
The land sector plays a critical role in climate change mitigation, with tropical regions having most of the global potential area for nature climate solutions (NCS). However, assessing the effectiveness of NCS remains challenging, as it requires appropriate metrics that can accurately capture the changes these interventions produce, yet such metrics are often limited in their adoption due to practical constraints. To better understand these limitations and how they shape metric usage, this study systematically maps metrics that have been applied in the literature to measure NCS interventions in Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which represent most pantropical NCS potential. This study specifically analyzed both the methodological complexity and operational requirements of these metrics to examine how these factors influence their adoption in practice. The systematic mapping identified 235 relevant studies where 116 unique metrics were used. Biomass-related metrics are the most frequently used metrics, while metrics related to human wellbeing were notably underrepresented. Metrics with higher methodological complexity tended to be used in a greater number of studies, especially those with established protocols. Operational requirements varied across metrics, where metrics such as soil properties and landscape connectivity were commonly associated with technology-intensive approaches such as laboratory analysis and remote sensing. In contrast, biodiversity and biomass metrics relied heavily on labor-intensive fieldwork and social data collection. Finally, four archetypes emerged from the joint analysis of complexity and operational requirements, offering a framework to guide resource allocation and future metric development.
