Abstract or Summary
Monitoring of coastal restoration projects is needed in order to assess project performance (both in the general effectiveness of the restoration technique and in regard to meeting project-specific ecological and/ or socioeconomic goals) and to inform adaptive management. Because it is important for all projects to have some level of monitoring, this framework is intended to cover a variety of coastal wetland restoration and living shoreline techniques and be adaptable to the needs of users from a range of backgrounds – from those with little experience and small budgets, to experts with larger budgets
who may plan to publish their findings and advance the understanding of living shoreline and wetland restoration activities.
The framework walks through the process of developing a monitoring plan for living shoreline and wetland restoration or enhancement projects. During this process, users select metrics that are relevant to their projects’ goals and restoration type. The document then provides a list of common methods for collecting data on each metric. Finally, recommended components of a monitoring plan are suggested with a monitoring plan template that
can be filled out for specific projects. Tables that facilitate the selection of metrics and methods, metric definitions and lists of resources are located in the appendices. By assessing coastal restoration projects with a common set of metrics and sharing lessons learned, we can expect three major advantages: 1) improved technique selection and project design that better meets sitespecific ecological and socioeconomic goals, 2) a better informed and interactive permitting process, and 3)
increased funding and support for natural and nature-based solutions based upon the greater understanding of the ecological and socioeconomic benefits.