EWN - Engineering With Nature

After another summer of sweltering heat, extreme flooding, and in several places, unprecedented forest fires, we're thinking even more about climate change and about the nexus of climate change and health. In S8 E1, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Dr. Christopher Lemon, a physician and Asst. Professor, Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine; Faculty Co-Director of Clinical Programs with the JH Institute for Planetary Health; and Fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. Experts project that over 3 billion people are already vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Chris is using what he calls his “superpowers” to assess how climate change is affecting people's health around the world and take action. He's passionate about making a difference in his community and across the planet.

Chris and Jeff met at a conference at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center where Chris gave a presentation on Climate Change and Global Health. For Chris, the conference was an opportunity to get in front of an audience with different backgrounds but a common interest. “We started to pick up on the mental or physical health implications of some of the EWN projects at military installations. Pretty quickly it became this great synergy of how I bring certain things to the table as part of these complex solutions.” Jeff agrees and notes the magnitude of the opportunity. “These military installations are a wonderful opportunity – across 25 million acres of land – to do something positive for the employees at the installations, the military personnel, and the communities adjacent to military installations. They all can benefit from this interaction with nature.”

Chris compares his experiences in healthcare, particularly with COVID, to the coming challenges he sees with climate change and discusses the alignment of healthcare with EWN. In both, the “traditional” approach has often been to try to control nature to an ever-increasing degree. “Right now, US healthcare contributes roughly 8.5 percent of US emissions. So, we are ‘doing no harm’ with the goal of making people healthy; and yet, ironically, because we're not working within the constructs of nature anymore, we're actually making people unhealthy.” It is this more macro view of climate change and public health that Chris is trying to address at the Institute for Planetary Health. “It focuses on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions on Earth's natural systems. But importantly, those disruptions have impacts on human health and all life on Earth. We are bringing that into the center of the conversation.

Chris’s story resonates with Jeff and what he is seeing and striving for in the EWN community: “Chris, I admire the energy and enthusiasm with which you approach the challenge of planetary health. It's quite evident that you have so much knowledge to share, as well as the energy to make change a reality.” Jeff and Sarah invited Chris back to talk more about the important work being done by the Planetary Health Alliance, a growing consortium of over 450 universities, NGOs, research institutes, and government entities who are committed to understanding and addressing the impacts of global environmental change on human health and wellbeing. Our conversation with Chris continues in Episode 2 on October 9. We hope you enjoy these special episodes!

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Christopher Lemon at LinkedIn

As summer wanes and we celebrate back-to-school time with students, parents, and our friends in academia, we’re pleased to launch Season 8 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast! Host Sarah Thorne recently caught up with Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, to discuss what the EWN Team has been up to over the summer, share some highlights from Season 7, and offer a glimpse of what’s ahead in Season 8.

As Jeff describes, the EWN Team has had a busy summer extending the reach of EWN by collaborating with engineering and landscape architect colleagues and working with the EWN Proving Grounds leads on larger, more ambitious projects. “We’ve started to envision really large EWN projects that will be pursued at a systems level so that we can maximize the function and benefits that can be derived from these projects. I'm really excited about having an opportunity to publish these as ‘EWN Playbooks’ and have them available soon.” 

The EWN Team is also growing. Steven Bailey, a landscape architect, recently joined the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). His hire reflects the growing importance of landscape architecture in EWN. And continuing EWN’s tradition of training the next generation of EWN practitioners, Claire Middendorf, an Environmental and Ecological Engineering student at Purdue University, completed a summer internship working with Burton Suedel, one of our frequent EWN Podcast hosts.

Jeff is encouraged, and excited about the progress of EWN more broadly within USACE on the contribution EWN and NBS are making to the navigation, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration missions. “Many elements within the USACE are now focused on NBS and wanting to have NBS be prioritized across all of our business lines. The conversations we're having are focused on what can we do as an organization to accelerate implementation of NBS.”

Jeff and the EWN Team continued outreach to external partners to expand opportunities for integration of NBS. They have been reaching out to colleagues in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US and internationally to colleagues with the Environmental Agency in the United Kingdom and the Rijkswaterstaat, which is responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the Netherlands’ primary infrastructure facilities. 

The theme for Season 8 is Channeling the Energy. That Jeff explains is inspired by the energy and excitement in the conversations that he has with all the EWN and NBS practitioners, collaborators and educators that he meets. “It's that energy, and it's very contagious. So, that's our theme – channeling the energy.” Listeners can expect another great lineup of episodes in Season 8, including topics such as the nexus of climate change and health, climate policy initiatives being driven by NOAA, how the Navy is incorporating NBS into their plans and projects, and some of the groundbreaking work being done by our EWN colleagues in both the policy and program areas.

Mark your calendar for the launch of Season 8 on September 25! In Season 8, Episode 1, we’re speaking with Dr. Chris Lemon, Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, and Fellow of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. We focus on Chris’s journey into climate change and global health challenges. We hope you’ll tune in.

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Sarah Thorne at LinkedIn
• Dave Trafford at LinkedIn

The Arctic is changing more rapidly than anywhere else on earth due to climate change, and this is profoundly impacting the people that live in and depend on the ecosystems in these cold regions. In Season 7, Episode 13, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), welcome back Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. We continue our conversation on how innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) are being used in cold regions. 

After recording Episode 12, Laura was headed to the Gaia Arctic Summit held in Vesterålen in Northern Norway. The summit focused on how to accelerate the transition to climate resilience in the Arctic. She returned inspired: “It was fabulous from start to finish. The landscape there is absolutely stunning, and I think seeing it really brought home how important it is that we protect this beautiful area and the people who live there.” The summit brought together people from policy, finance, business, research and innovation, and public administration. “The main message for me is the need to collaborate across disciplines in how we work every day—not just having a meeting once a year but how we work in our daily life and how we plan things.”

Laura goes on to discuss the policies, challenges, and opportunities for advancing NBS in cold regions and some of the efforts going on in Europe. She notes that there is strong explicit support for NBS within the European Green Deal and associated strategies such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030—policies designed to set goals to deliver on international commitments. One of the challenges that Laura notes is aligning policy at various levels, from the high-level European national policies to those on the ground at the local level. Jeff notes a similar challenge in the US: “Even those individuals or organizations that are receptive to the idea of NBS still have their own set of policies, rules, or regulations that they must adhere to and sometimes those can be contrary to the overall goal of integrating NBS into a landscape. We must find that common ground and be able to highlight the value of NBS and what that means for local economies, sustainability, and resilience.”

Laura also notes challenges in valuing NBS and making trade-offs are particularly evident in the Arctic. “Where we see the sea ice dissolving and opening up new transport routes and revealing previously unknown mineral resources, there are all sorts of development possibilities. How do we ensure that the Arctic is developing in a way that’s consistent with the needs and desires of the local populations?”

Looking forward, Jeff highlights the ongoing work at ERDC’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. “We are continuing to prioritize NBS and look for opportunities to integrate NBS concepts and projects into our Arctic communities. International collaboration is something that I want to see EWN continue to support.” Laura agrees with this effort and has a call to action for listeners: “I would ask everybody listening—our global community—to think about a consolidated action plan to engage the full range of stakeholders and move across borders to address the issues of climate change because climate change doesn’t stop at borders. We all have to work together. Only global action is going to have the outcome that we all need.”

We hope you enjoy our final Season 7 episodes on NBS in cold regions with Laura Wendling. Season 8 kicks off in September. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Laura Wendling at LinkedIn

From Iowa to Australia to Finland, and most recently Norway, Laura Wendling has followed her passion to integrate nature with engineering and technology to create solutions that, as she says, “are workable in lots of different situations, including cold regions.” In Season 7, Episode 12, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. Jeff and Laura met at a recent conference sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Laura’s interest in innovating with nature was sparked in her undergraduate years while working as a research assistant on a project comping how constructed and natural wetlands purify water from agricultural runoff. “That really got me interested in understanding how we could design natural, or pseudo-natural systems that worked as well or almost as well as the natural system itself—like a real ecosystem.” As she says, her “ah-ha moment” was when she learned about the use of nature-based solutions (NBS): “To have the added emphasis on stakeholder engagement right from the beginning, and making sure that we plan projects so that we’re deriving social and economic benefit in addition to the core target of achieving some kind of ecological outcome—it just made so much sense to me.”

Today, Laura is particularly interested in how climate change is affecting cold regions. “The Arctic is warming at a rate that’s far greater than the rest of the world, and there’s been profound—possibly irreversible—effects on terrestrial, aquatic, freshwater, marine ecosystems, and the cryosphere, as well as the people who live in these areas.” Laura highlights some of her recent projects. In her work at SINTEF, she focuses on water and the environment, everything from water-cycle services and water management to the broader environmental issues associated with climate change.

Laura also talks about the importance of spreading the word about NBS, including her work as coeditor of the Nature Based Solutions Journal and Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: A Handbook for Practitioners. “We can’t do science in secret. We should be telling everybody what we’re doing and sharing our results widely, including the things that don’t work.” Laura also stresses the importance of using these indicators and measures to communicate beyond the scientific community. “To talk with people in different sectors, we need to present information in different ways. Traditionally, we haven’t been as good at talking with the public policy sector. We need better evidence that can help to underpin evidence-based policy.” 

Jeff feels that Laura’s travels and experiences have really aligned her focus with the principles and practices of EWN: “Everything you describe speaks volumes in terms of your affinity for EWN. You’ve been in the United States, Australia, Finland, and now Norway. You’ve had exposure to so many diverse ecosystems and so many different people. Those opportunities to learn in those diverse environments will serve you well, both now and in the future. I know you’re going to continue to be a leader in this space.”

Jeff and Sarah invited Laura back for Episode 13 to talk about the policies that are driving strategies for including NBS in Europe. 

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  
•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Laura Wendling at LinkedIn

In Season 7, Episode 11, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), conclude their in-depth conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Part 3 of our special three-part series, Katharine talks about her role as an advocate and her mission to inspire others to take action on climate change. Her bottom line is that you don’t have to be a top climate scientist to make a difference – we can all get involved. 

As a scientist, Katharine is an advocate for understanding the social science of how humans interact with information. “So often we physical and natural scientists feel like: ‘Oh, you just tell people the truth. Surely, they’ll do the right thing, right?’ Well, what social science tells us is no. If we haven’t made that head to heart to hands connection, nothing is going to happen in the right direction, especially pushing against the accumulated inertia of our fossil-fuel based economy and society.”  

Katharine notes the work of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, which finds that people’s assumptions about what others think about climate change are usually wrong. “We assume that we care and very few other people do. We assume that we’re doing things and nobody else is. We assume that nobody else is worried except me and my friends. But actually, they’re already worried. They just don’t know what to do. So, they don’t want to talk about it.”

Katharine’s climate change advocacy is focused on talking about and encouraging other people to talk about climate change. She has initiated and supported multiple channels of communications on climate change, including her TED Talk in 2018, The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk about It; her personal social media accounts and her Newsletter, Talking Climate; and her work with organizations like the Potential Energy Coalition and Science Moms. Jeff reflects on how inspiring and inclusive Katharine’s message is, to include scientists, ecologists, engineers, social scientists, and artists.” As Katharine describes it, “We need people painting the pictures with words, with art, with music, with visual art, with spoken art, with every way we can.” 

Katharine plans to continue her tireless advocacy along many fronts. Her academic work is focused on developing and evaluating high-resolution climate projections and preparing for impacts and increasing resilience planning. As Chief Scientist of TNC, she is dedicated to supporting and advancing the work of TNC scientists. And she is going to continue her work with faith-based communities to advocate for climate action—including being the first plenary speaker at this year’s World Evangelical Alliance annual meeting.

Jeff closes by comparing her skill to another well-known Canadian, “That reminds me of Wayne Gretzky. He basically said, ‘I just skate to where I think or know that the puck is going to be.’ That’s exactly what you’re saying here. We need to be thinking well out into the future and then leaning into those certain outcomes that we can anticipate and planning accordingly.” He adds, “Katharine, the message I am really drawn to is your ‘head to heart to hands’ message. I want to use that and put it into practice in the Engineering With Nature program.  It is truly inspirational.”  This concludes our conversation with Katharine. We hope you enjoyed this special series! For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  
•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

In Season 7, Episode 10, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), continue their in-depth conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Part 2 of our special 3-part series, Katharine talks about taking action—living according to your values and making changes that contribute to climate solutions—and about the critical role of nature-based solutions (NBS) in addressing climate change. 

To live up to her personal climate action values Katharine measured her own carbon footprint 12 years ago and when she found that travel was the largest factor, she successfully transitioned over 80% of her talks to virtual. “Then the pandemic hit and I was ready to go.” She notes that when she does travel for an important event, she “bundles” other meetings and speaking opportunities around that event. “When I went to the climate COP two years ago in Egypt, I packed in 55 panels, meetings, talks, and events.”

Katharine believes that communicating the message that climate action is a collective effort that all people can meaningfully contribute to, is essential. “People are worried about climate change, but they don't know what to do about it.” Picking up the analogy she used in S7E9 comparing the work of addressing climate change to moving a giant boulder, Katharine adds: “If we feel like we’re the only hands on the boulder that we’re trying to roll uphill, we will despair. But if we realize there are millions of hands on the boulder, in every country around the world, then we realize we're not alone. That global connectivity is absolutely essential to fixing this problem.”

Katharine goes on to talk about the critical role of NBS as part of the response to climate change, noting that the IPCC estimates that 25% of present-day emissions could be addressed by NBS. “If I see a newspaper headline saying, ‘Is this a silver bullet for climate change?’, I can tell you the answer is no. But I like to say there’s a lot of silver buckshot, and nature is one of our biggest pieces of silver buckshot. I mean, 25% of the climate change pie? That is huge!” She adds that NBS also produces multiple benefits, and notes: “Nature is all through these climate solutions. In fact, I don’t think there’s any way for us to meet our commitments made in the Paris Agreement in 2015, in any way, shape, or form, if we leave nature out of the equation.”

Jeff is highly complimentary of TNC’s work on NBS and highlights the important contribution of TNC in bringing organizations together to collaborate on NBS initiatives such as the Natural Infrastructure Initiative that TNC led along with Caterpillar, USACE, the University of Georgia, and Ducks Unlimited. “When you put TNC in a room with, say, an AECOM or a Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, people start scratching their heads saying, ‘Hmm, what's this all about?’ TNC brings so much interest and awareness to this space, showing how very different entities can work collaboratively to accomplish many of the same goals and objectives that we all share.”

Our conversation with Katharine concludes in Episode 11, which posts on June 26. In our final episode of this series, Katharine focuses on inspiring action, how to learn more about climate change, and how to talk about it with others. We hope you enjoy this special series!!

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  
•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

Katharine Hayhoe is a world-renowned scientist, climate communicator, and passionate advocate for climate equity. She’s a climate ambassador whose message is one of hope. She has dedicated her life to motivating action. Every day. In Season 7, Episode 9, Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) joins host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), for a conversation on climate change that was so deep and wide ranging that we’re going to feature it in a 3-episode series.

Katharine was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in a home where science was always front and center. Late in her undergraduate studies in astrophysics, she took a class on climate change, which completely changed her educational path and led to a PhD in atmospheric science. “I found out that climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally. I felt if I had the skill set you need to work on this urgent global issue that affects every aspect of our lives on this planet, if I have those abilities and those privileges, I need to be using them to make a difference.”

Today, as Chief Scientist at TNC, where she can live her passion for applied science. TNC has ambitious goals for protecting and conserving freshwater, land, and the oceans. In describing the challenges of addressing climate change today, and in particular the social inequities, Katharine notes that “engaging with nature-based solutions not only addresses immediate issues of climate adaptation to heat, it also helps with air pollution, health, and flooding.”

Katharine’s message is one of hope. “I think of this as the ‘head to heart to hands’ gap. In our heads, we know global temperature is rising and humans are responsible. Around the world, the vast majority of people are worried about climate change. In the US over two thirds of people are worried. So, we’re really reaching a tipping point in terms of the head, but they don’t understand how it affects the people, places and things we love. They haven't made the head to heart connection. They still think of it as a future issue, a distant issue, and something that is not on their priority list. If we don’t understand there’s a problem that matters to us, why would we want to fix it?”

Katharine sees that as only half of the challenge. “We could have the whole world worried, but if they don’t know what to do about it, they’ll do nothing. And that’s exactly what we see in the US. Two thirds of people are worried, but only 8% are activated. That’s where the hope comes in. The hope is in connecting our heart to our hands. If I do something, could it make a difference?” Through her newsletter—Talking Climate—and many other channels, Katharine is trying to close these gaps by sharing good news and the actions being taken by people. “Because the number one thing we can do to kickstart and catalyze action is the thing that two thirds of Americans are not doing, and that is we’re not talking about it.” 

Part 2 of the conversation with Katherine, includes a discussion of the critical role that that nature-based solutions play in addressing climate change. Episode 10 posts June 12. In Episode 11, which posts on June 26, the third part of our conversation with Katharine focuses on inspiring action, how to learn more about climate change, and how to talk about it with others.  We hope you enjoy this special series!!  For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  
•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

How do we think about forests and their value? We know that forests store carbon, and with the climate changing, many might think the answer is to just plant more trees. Our guests challenge that conventional wisdom and, as the saying goes, help us see the forest for the trees. In Season 7, Episode 8, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Laurie Wayburn, Cofounder and President of Pacific Forest Trust (PFT), and Nathan Beane, Research Forester in the Environmental Laboratory of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). They’re talking about how to sustainably manage forests to make them more resilient. 

Laurie has dedicated her career to forest conservation and sustainability. She is an innovator, a pioneer, and an authoritative voice on forest practices and policy. Much of Laurie’s work at Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) is working with private landowners on conserving forests. “We wanted to work with what I would call the enlightened self-interest of private landowners and make it financially competitive, or even more desirable, to keep their forests as forests, not just as plantations, but to manage them as forests with the full suite of functions.”

Nathan is the leading research forester within the US Department of Defense (DoD). As lead of the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Team at ERDC, his research primarily focuses on forest communities, their function, health, management, and sustainment, and ultimately the creation of “resilient forests.” Nathan’s work addresses problems in forested lands on USACE and DoD installations. His on-the-ground research helps to inform a more comprehensive understanding of healthy forest ecosystems and how to improve their management.

In their respective roles, both Laurie and Nathan speak for the forests. As Laurie describes it, “When people use the term forestry, what they’re typically thinking about is the production of timber or fiber commodities. That phrase, ‘seeing the forest for the trees,’ is all too apt because so many people think of forests just as a collection of trees.” She describes forest systems as beginning well below the ground and ending above the canopy with trees being the most visible piece of a storehouse of biodiversity that comprises the forest overall. Nathan agrees, noting, “While forests provide key habitats for a range of wildlife, including threatened endangered species, they also generate oxygen, filter water, provide soil stabilization, carbon sequestration, ecosystem biodiversity, natural disaster mitigation, and flood control.”

Laurie has a strong call to action for listeners: “One of the most critical things I hope we can help people think about is forests are essential infrastructure, just as we think about roads or the internet as essential infrastructure. As you go about your daily life, be aware of, and grateful for, the grace and blessing of forests and return the favor. They don’t exist without people caring and being involved.”

Nathan agrees: “I’m a big advocate for that. I think it’s important to highlight that it’s critical that we understand the complexity of forests. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I think it’s really important that we continue to conduct research in this space. I’m really glad to be a part of the EWN Program that supports this.”

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  
•      Jeff King at LinkedIn
•      Laurie Wayburn at LinkedIn
•      Laurie Wayburn at Pacific Forest Trust
•      Nathan Beane at LinkedIn

Imagine restoring a 51-mile-long concrete river—running through the heart of the Los Angeles Basin in California—into a vibrant corridor reconnecting fractured communities and ecosystems. In Season 7, Episode 7, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Amanda Tritinger from the US Army Corps of Engineers talk with landscape architects Alex Robinson from University of Southern California (USC) and Leslie Dinkin from the Kounkuey Design Initiative in Los Angeles. They discuss the use of storytelling, augmented reality, and physical modeling tools to engage people along the river in cocreating a new future for themselves and for the river.

Leslie recently graduated with dual master’s degrees in landscape architecture and heritage conservation from USC, studying under Alex and working with him at the Los Angeles River Integrated Design Lab (LA-RIDL).

Alex’s work is rooted in his personal experiences with the City of Los Angeles (LA) and its infrastructure, including the LA River, and finding out how people spend their days interacting with these interesting landscapes. Fresh out of graduate school in 2005, Alex worked on the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, one of the first of many plans for the river that tried to bring different values into the thinking about how to transform the river into something more than just an instrument of flood control. He has continued this focus with the realization that, “We were constrained by so many voices and different constituents, all speaking different languages. I thought, what if we could create a platform where we had a more collective understanding, where people could begin to speak the same language and were able to cocreate something.”

This led Alex to reach out to the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), which has hydrology modeling in its toolset. As Amanda notes, “You can see how this just clearly aligns with Engineering with Nature. At ERDC, we have numerical and physical models, but how do we get our models to talk to people? I think Leslie and Alex have done a really great job in not only creating that connection but making it meaningful.”

The product of this collaboration with Duncan Bryant, Research Hydraulic Engineer, and his colleagues at ERDC’s Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), was the development of a physical model of a section of the LA River with adjacent land owned by the city where there is an opportunity for big changes. As Alex explains, “This is the crown-jewel opportunity for changing the LA River.” To take the engagement with the model to the next level and produce something that invites people to participate in the process, Alex and his colleagues developed an augmented reality component to visually overlay information on top of the physical model. “It lets people interact—a community member can come in and make a comment, draw something, and that becomes input an engineer and a landscape architect can consider in their design process.”

Thinking about how advanced visualization tools support community engagement, Alex says, “I think the model and all the different tools we’ve developed have created this incredible common ground for people to have a conversation and have their ideas and values represented in the system.”

Amanda truly appreciates the work that Alex and Leslie are doing: “If I could just represent all of engineers for a minute, I’d like to say, thank you. Thank you for helping us communicate.”

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

•      Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
•      Alexander Robinson at LinkedIn
•      Leslie Dinkin at LinkedIn 

Imagine the possibilities if brilliant scientists and engineers could figure out how to use natural materials like silt and clay, dredged from waterways, to make nature-inspired, 3D printed structures like reefs and roots to restore habitat and protect coastal shorelines. In Season 7, Episode 6, host Sarah Thorne is joined by Al Kennedy, Burton Suedel, and Andrew McQueen from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). All three are Research Biologists in the Environmental Laboratory at ERDC. They’re discussing the 3D printing workshop they hosted in February 2024 to explore the potential of nature-inspired 3D printing. As a special feature of this episode, several of the workshop participants share highlights from the workshop discussions and the inspiration for their future work. 

The Corps dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of sediment from navigable waterways every year. In Season 5, Episode 6, Lieutenant General Spellman, USACE Commander and Chief of Engineers, spoke about his 70/30 goal–achieving 70% beneficial use of dredged material by 2030. 3D printing can enable new and novel ways to use sediment as a resource and improve the Civil Works’ mission delivery, unlocking some of the constraints on traditional infrastructure engineering by using simple bioinspired design, leveraging natural geometries to produce more pleasing recreational uses, improved ecological functionality, plus economic and social benefits.

The workshop was a key step in advancing the potential of 3D printing by bringing together a diverse group of experts from government, academia, and the private sector to explore the potential of 3D printing using natural materials. Workshop breakout groups focused on four major research areas:

1. Ecosystem restoration and bioinspired design
2. Coastal resilience and sustainability
3. Sediment properties
4. Scaling up  

Key discussions and takeaways from the workshop, include: 

• The importance of being more intentional with infrastructure design, incorporating nature-inspired features to leverage optimizations from nature, and delivering multi-functional materials that offer co-benefits like habitat enhancement alongside primary infrastructure objectives.
• Discussions on the properties of natural materials and their performance in 3D printers, including stability of end products, and the potential need for pre- and post-processing to meet requirements.
• Exploring and innovating the best applications for 3D printed materials, such as using dredged material from confined disposal facilities (CDFs) for ports and coastal areas, enhancing community resilience with new or rehabilitated infrastructure like berms.
• The necessity for maturation and scaling up of 3D printing applications, transitioning from lab-scale to larger format printers suitable for field use, encompassing nozzle design and managing available dredge material for use.
• The potential safety benefits of using 3D printing to automate infrastructure production in hazardous work environments. 

Synergy, engagement, and collaboration was evident throughout the workshop, and participants expressed a strong interest in continuing the dialogue. A report on the workshop results will be available on the EWN website.

For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/  

• Burton Suedel at LinkedIn
• Alan Kennedy at LinkedIn
• Andrew McQueen at LinkedIn