Evaluating the outcomes of wetland restoration projects is critical to improve practice and justify further investment in wetland restoration. We conducted a systematic literature review to evaluate the current state of knowledge on the economic valuation of the outcomes of wetland restoration. We assessed the economic methods applied, the attributes valued, and the timing of the evaluation in relation to the age of restoration along with publication trends. Research on the topic is increasing, but studies from Africa and South America are lacking. A diverse cross-disciplinary interest is notable, yet collaborations between disciplines are less frequent. Of particular concern is that only a third of the studies were undertaken postrestoration, and even fewer for restorations older than 10 years. Gaps in the knowledge base mean that our present understanding of the value achieved through wetland restoration is tentative. The need for postrestoration site-specific valuation efforts remains large both to justify further investment and to improve confidence in predictive and value transfer approaches as practical tools to inform decision-making. Implications for Practice• Long-term monitoring and evaluation (>10 years) should be built into restoration projects from the start (including planning and budget). This would provide more compelling evidence of the long-term outcomes of wetland restoration and potentially convince funders of the benefits of such projects, as well as identifying which kinds of interventions are most cost-effective over time. This must include prerestoration assessment to better isolate the specific contribution of the restoration. • Comprehensive reporting of the original research design and methods and the biophysical and socioeconomic setting (e.g. wetland type, surrounding land use and industries, socioeconomic status of the local population, urban expansion and development) of primary wetland restoration valuation studies will increase their utility for predictive valuation purposes.

<p>The uMngeni River Basin supports over six million people, providing water to South Africa’s third largest regional economy. A critical question facing stakeholders is how to sustain and enhance water security in the catchment for its inhabitants. The role of Ecological Infrastructure (EI) (the South African term for a suite of Nature Based Solutions and Green Infrastructure projects) in enhancing and sustaining water and sanitation delivery in the catchment has been the focus of a project that has explored the conceptual and philosophical basis for investing in EI over the past five years.</p><p>The overall aim of this project was to identify where and how investment into the protection and/or restoration of EI can be made to produce long-term and sustainable returns in terms of water security assurance. In short, the project aimed to guide catchment managers when deciding “what to do” in the catchment to secure a more sustainable water supply, and where it should be done. This seemingly simple question encompasses complexity in time and space, and reveals the connections between different biophysical, social, political, economic and governance systems in the catchment.</p><p>Through the study, we highlight that there is an interdependent and co-constitutive relationship between EI, society, and water security. In particular, by working in spaces where EI investment is taking place, it is evident that socio-economic, environmental and political relations in the catchment play a critical role in making EI investment possible, or not possible.</p><p>The study inherently addresses aspects of water quantity and quality, economics, societal interactions, and the governance of natural resources. It highlights that ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water resources requires both transdisciplinary and detailed biophysical, economic, social and development studies of both formal and informal socio-ecological systems, and that investing in human resources capacity to support these studies, is critical. In contrast to many projects which have identified this complexity, here, we move beyond identification and actively explore and explain these interactions and have synthesised these into ten lessons based on these experiences and analyses.</p><ul><li>1 - People (human capital), the societies in which they live (societal capital), the constructed environment (built capital), and natural capital interact with, and shape each other</li> <li>2 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure enhances catchment water security</li> <li>3 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure or BuiIt/Grey infrastructure is not a binary choice</li> <li>4 - Investing in Ecological Infrastructure is financially beneficial</li> <li>5 - Understanding history, legacy and path dependencies is critical to shift thinking</li> <li>6 - Understanding the governance system is fundamental</li> <li>7 - Meaningful participatory processes are the key to transformation</li> <li>8 - To be sustainable, investments in infrastructure need a concomitant investment in social and human capital</li> <li>9 - Social learning, building transdisciplinarity and transformation takes time and effort</li> <li>10 - Students provide new insights, bring energy and are multipliers</li> </ul>

Recent global and African food crises have raised the importance of resilience as a determinant of the ability of households to cope with shocks and stresses that affect food security. This article sets out to develop a measure for resilience to provide a concise tool for measuring and monitoring food security in comparative ways across countries. It presents the results of the development of a resilience score tested using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) household data for five African countries from two different time periods per country. Cluster analysis was used to classify households into socio-economic groups. The first index used Categorical Principal Component Analysis (CATPCA) and the second a simple sum of assets. Both indices were able to detect changes in household socio-economic status over the data periods in all five countries. However, the results for the two indices were not always consistent. The simple sum method results matched the published national Millennium Development Goal data more closely than the Categorical Principal Component Analysis method. The simple sum of assets has potential as an impact indictor for development programmes aimed at improving household food security and as a national to Millennium Development Goal indicator. It provides a simple tool for tracking resilience from data that is routinely collected through multiple in-country surveys and available from national statistics.

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FEB.A table has been prepared of synoptic situations associated with rainfalls of 0·25 inches or more at anyone of seven selected stations throughout Central Otago. These situation types are discussed with the aid of rainfall charts prepared from observations at approximately 170 rainfall stations in Otago and Southland.