<p>In recent years, natural hazards related to climate change, such as extreme floods, droughts and heatwaves, have increased in magnitude and frequency. In response, Natural Water Retention Measure (NWRM), as a vital strategy to mitigate these challenges, focuses on increasing and/or restoring the retention capacity of soil and aquatic ecosystems. NWRMs can have positive impacts that may lead to several benefits and co-benefits. They can also have some negative impacts, in the form of trade-offs. To assess the efficacy of NWRMs, it is essential to consider and evaluate both multiple benefits and trade-offs in a comprehensive framework and use appropriate indicators for their assessment. Through a literature review, it is found that there is no thorough study that examines the different types of benefits and co-benefits, provides a complete classification of the benefits and co-benefits of NWRMs, and introduces various indicators for their evaluation. In addition, trade-offs associated with NWRM are sometimes mentioned in the existing literature, but the different types of trade-offs are not fully listed. In this regard, and for the first time, the present study aims to provide a classification of both the positive and the negative impacts of NWRMs and a list of different indicators related to various types of benefits and/or co-benefits. The study also shows major challenges in assessing NWRMs efficacy, including the spatial and temporal scale of the data and indicators, combining qualitative indicators with quantitative indicators, trade-off quantification considering social, economic and cultural aspects, and human perception. </p>