Expert perceptions regarding the effectiveness and feasibility of Nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation in a large Mediterranean Basin

This dataset presents the responses received to a questionaire to gather expert perceptions on the effectivenes of 17 nature-based solutions (NBS) to mitigate the negative impacts of floods and droughts in a large Mediterranean river basin, the Segura River basin, in south-east Spain, and on their socio-economic and political-legislative feasibility to be implemented. Consulted experts have expertise on river and wetland restoration from different working sectors including national and regional public administration, the Segura River basin authority, and other Spanish River basin authorities, universities and research centres, NGOs, organized citizen platforms, private companies and the primary sector. Experts perceptions were gathered through an online questionnaire consisting of seventeen multiple-choice questions, one per NBS, using a Likert scale consisting of four Likert items: 1) Effectiveness against floods, 2) Effectiveness for adaptation to droughts, 3) Socio-economic feasibility, and 4) Political-legislative feasibility, and a five-option response format: 1) Limited-very low, 2) Low, 3) Medium), 4) High) and 5) Very high. The questionaire includes 3 questions (Q18,19 and 20) to collect experts perceptions on the combination of the four most effective NBS for the mitigation of floods and droughts in the Segura River basin, on the three key priority actons to facilitate NBS implementation, and on any other action they consider relevant (Q20). More information can be found at the scientific paper entitled "Expert perceptions regarding the effectiveness and feasibility of Nature-Based Solutions for climate change adaptation in a large Mediterranean Basin" developed by Raquel Luján Soto, Carolina Boix-Fayos and Joris de Vente, and published in the Journal People and Nature. This work is part of the project "Nature Based Solutions to mitigate the devastating impacts from extreme weather and climate change (XTREME)". The information on NBS effectiveness and implementation feasibility gathered through expert consultation is being used to develop scenarios for large-scale implementation of NBS to increase water retention on agricultural land contributing to drought resilience and flood prevention, and through channel and floodplain restoration to increase flood discharge and storage capacity in downstream segments of the Segura River.