Living Shorelines Performance Metrics: A Mixed-Methods Literature Review

Abstract

Living shorelines are increasingly promoted as alternatives to hardened shoreline protection due to their ability to reduce erosion while providing ecological and social benefits. Despite growing implementation, uncertainty about their long-term performance creates a barrier to their adoption. Adoption hesitancy stems from inconsistent, short-term, and goal-mismatched monitoring approaches. This literature review synthesizes regional, national, and selected international studies to identify best practices for evaluating living shoreline performance. Drawing from peer-reviewed studies, systematic reviews, and state guidelines, the review looks at how evaluation frameworks differ, commonly investigated performance metrics, where key gaps occur, and who conducts monitoring efforts. Results show that best practices emphasize goal-driven, long-term monitoring with the use of tiered metric selection and comparative designs. Physical and ecological metrics dominate, especially wave attenuation, sediment dynamics, and habitat provisioning. There is a notable gap in resilience and socioeconomic metrics, which should be addressed by practitioners, investors, and researchers. This review proposes a tiered, adaptable evaluation framework that aligns living shoreline project goals with prioritized performance metrics and monitoring methods. Such an approach can support living shoreline adaptive management, inform project effectiveness, and improve future funding, permitting, and implementation efforts.