In their paper, the authors describe studies of rock detention structures (RDS) at four properties and create an argument to acknowledge RDS as nature-based solutions (NbS) based on their documented climate mitigation and adaption potential (Gooden and Pritzlaff, 2021). The adoption of national and international strategies to mitigate climate change and accompanying desertification and drought is dependent on decision-makers understanding the significance of impacts, acting on available anticipatory science, and assuring a commitment to financial investments (Bradford et al., 2018). As such in this invited commentary, I provide additional research describing RDS scalability throughout landscapes, perseverance over time, and contributions to a restoration stewardship economy that supports RDS as NbS.

Contemporary studies conducted on RDS span the United States-Mexico border in North America, describe multiple benefits they provide for people (ecosystem services), and are globally applicable to arid land environments (Norman, 2020). The installation of RDS sets biophysical cycles into motion that persist through centuries, providing anticipatory and restorative functions (Norman, 2020). Additionally, RDS allow capacity-building and risk mitigation that can alleviate climate change impacts in socio-environmentally vulnerable regions (Norman et al., 2021a; Norman et al. 2021a; Norman et al., 2021b). RDS provide sustainable NbS to address climate change and can be implemented to protect, sustainably manage, and restore ecosystems (International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2021).

Over the past 1,000+ years, human populations in the arid North American Southwest have left archeological evidence of RDS across the landscape, but long-term ecohydrological, demographic and socio-economic drivers and impacts have yet to be explored in an integrative and iterative way (J. Dean, University of Arizona, written communication 11/12/2021; Fish and Fish, 1984; Hall et al., 2013; Norman, 2020). The scaling of RDS-NbS interventions and benefits from local to watershed scales and throughout time requires objective science. Researchers are working with land managers and restoration practitioners to establish experiments at multiple RDS installations throughout the Madrean Archipelago Ecoregion of North America to quantify the effects of RDS-NbS on hydrology, ecology, and soil productivity (Fandel et al., 2016; Norman et al., 2016; Norman et al., 2017; Norman et al., 2019; Norman, 2020; Callegary et al., 2021; Coy et al., 2021; Norman et al., 2021a; Wilson et al., 2021; Freimund et al., 2022).

Quantitative models and remotely sensed imagery expand site-based experiments at RDS into larger regional watersheds and allow forecasting and back-casting to extrapolate over time (Norman L. M. et al., 2010; Norman et al., 2014; Norman and Niraula, 2016; Norman et al., 2017; Wilson and Norman, 2018; Norman et al., 2019; Norman, 2020; Norman, 2021; Norman et al., 2021b; Petrakis et al., 2021; Lara-Valencia et al., 2022). RDS support vital ES that address societal problems, including flood regulation; water regulation, purification, and provisioning; habitat provisioning; erosion regulation, carbon sequestration and storage; social value and climate regulation (Norman, 2020; Norman et al., 2021b). These ES protect biodiversity and mitigate climate change with cumulative and multiplicative feedback effects that sustain their positive impacts in the long term (Norman L. et al., 2010; Norman et al., 2014; Norman et al., 2016; Norman and Niraula, 2016; Norman et al., 2017; Norman et al., 2019; Norman 2020; Norman et al., 2021a; Norman et al., 2021b).

The focal paper (Gooden and Pritzlaff, 2021) translates the ecosystem services of rock detention structures (RDS; Norman, 2020) into Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and relates them to sustainable development goals. NbS is a term that is often used to re-frame ecosystem services and green infrastructure projects, to make them more politically palatable (O’Sullivan et al., 2020). Like green infrastructure, RDS rely on vegetation, soils, and natural processes to manage water and create healthier environments. However, unlike green infrastructure, which promotes passive rainwater harvesting to retain water in the built environment, RDS are established to detain water (not retain it) in more remote areas; allowing water to slowly pass through, infiltrate the soils and regenerate landscapes (Norman et al., 2014; Norman et al., 2016; Norman and Niraula, 2016; Norman et al., 2017; Wilson and Norman, 2018; Norman et al., 2019; Norman 2020; Norman et al., 2021a; Norman et al., 2021a; Norman et al., 2021b).

Over the past decade, a multi-disciplinary landscape-scale study has quantified anticipatory and restorative watershed functions of Rock Detention Structures (RDS) installed in the Madrean Archipelago Ecoregion of North America (Norman, 2020). In this commentary, I reference these larger temporal and spatial study extents to underpin RDS interventions as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as presented in Gooden and Pritzlaff (2021), that restore dryland channels with impartial shares of social, environmental, and economic benefits.

Our planet needs solutions to mitigate impacts from our rapidly changing climate, and the ecosystem services of RDS justify the inclusion as NbS, useful to increase carbon storage and sequestration, increase water quality and quantity, buffer flood events, improve vegetation health and biodiversity, and help address global warming (Norman 2020; Norman et al., 2021a; Norman et al., 2021b). The focal paper proposes RDS as a feasible, cost-effective NbS that can contribute to climate mitigation (Gooden and Pritzlaff, 2021).

RDS-NbS are already being used to enhance preparedness, response, and resilience in vulnerable communities along the United States-Mexico border, where a restoration stewardship economy fosters hope, nourishes livelihoods, and establishes valuable ecosystem services via grassroots efforts (Norman et al., 2021a). Investments in RDS-NbS avert risk, damage, and cost associated with drought and flooding (Norman L. et al., 2010; Norman et al., 2014; Norman et al., 2016; Norman et al., 2019; Norman et al., 2021b). Moreover, capital appreciation, described herein, can double or triple restoration investments on Federal lands (Thomas et al., 2016), RDS-NbS provide a huge suite of benefits, and the structures can persist for millennium (Norman 2020).