Innovative approaches for sustainable lake restoration

Nature restoration requires optimisation to ensure approaches are effective, address broad societal challenges and are economically viable. This structured literature review addresses the knowledge gap in holistic evaluations of emerging lake protection and restoration approaches, particularly those using nature-based and circular methodologies. In addition to benefiting biodiversity, these approaches aim to deliver co-benefits to society, such as resilience to climate change or sustainable economic development. The in-lake circular solutions reduce internal nutrient loading while enabling nutrient and carbon recovery, thus having potential for reducing lacustrine greenhouse gas emissions. The importance of prioritising the capture of pollutants at source or before they reach the lake is, however, undeniable. Nature-based solutions across catchments target water and nutrient retention on land by creating sponge landscapes and provide co-benefits consistent with multiple EU and global policy goals, including the EU Water Resilience Strategy, EU Nature Restoration Regulation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our review highlights the necessity for developing a tailored combination of measures that can address multiple pressures. Developing a restoration programme for an individual lake should initially involve a thorough lake-specific diagnosis of the problems and their causes. This systemic diagnosis guides the development of an integrated catchment–lake strategy, combining multiple measures to yield the most durable restoration outcomes. Further evidence of the costs and benefits of innovative nature-based and circular solutions is needed to support their wider adoption and achieve successful lake restoration at wider scales. Graphical abstract • Innovations available for lake restoration and protection were reviewed. • Nature-based catchment water management provides multiple co-benefits. • Legacy nutrients and excess biomasses in lakes are potential recoverable resources. • Lake restoration most often requires combined measures, not single solutions. • System-level analysis ensures effective lake-specific restoration strategies.