EWN - Engineering With Nature

Dr. Edmond Russo, a 27-year veteran of the US Army Corps of Engineers, has a passion for innovation, especially identifying and pursuing new ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness of water resource management activities. In his work at the Galveston District, he led a team that is developing a 50-year plan to protect and restore the Texas Gulf Coast. In this podcast, Edmond puts the scope and scale of the District into perspective and talks about how he and the Galveston team are incorporating the principles and practices of Engineering With Nature in their daily work and their future planning.   Galveston District’s huge 50,000 square mile area of responsibility spans over 360 miles of the Texas coast, from Louisiana to Mexico, extending inland 150-200 miles, and includes world-scale ports, container terminals, and the Houston Ship Channel. The region’s fragile coastal shorelines, ecosystems and infrastructure are vulnerable to sea level rise and no stranger to extreme storms. The District has correspondingly big challenges and opportunities – in the areas of navigation, flood risk management, coastal storm risk management, and ecosystem restoration. The Galveston team is currently working on navigation channel improvement projects of approximately $3.9 billion.   When Edmond arrived at the Galveston District in 2014, he faced significant organizational and collaboration challenges. Under his leadership and driven by his “Fierce Urgency of Now” (FUN) approach, the District became the first Engineering With Nature Proving Ground, which inspired and enabled the Galveston team to collaborate and innovate to effectively address pressing water resource management challenges. The team’s work led to the integration of natural and nature-based solutions into their traditional water management processes. For example, in one project, material dredged from the Houston Ship Channel, which was required to expand the channel and improve shipping safety, was used to construct wetlands and dikes in Galveston Bay. By using the dredged sediment instead of more expensive rock for the lining of the dikes, the team was able to achieve extended ecological benefits, while meeting its navigation safety and reliability mandates, and reducing costs by about 30% compared to more traditional approaches.   What was learned from initial EWN projects is being incorporated into larger projects in the District, including the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibility Study, which recommends infrastructure construction on the scale of $22B to $32B spanning a 50-year timeframe. Part of the proposed plan is to construct a 40-mile long barrier of beaches and vegetated dunes across Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula. A key objective is to reduce coastal storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico into Galveston Bay. This will reduce the risk of property and infrastructure damage and protect and restore fragile ecosystems. Edmond believes this will be critical to achieving long-term resilience and sustainability of coastal communities and ecosystems, especially along the Houston Ship Channel where billions of dollars of energy sector and other economic assets are located.   Edmond talks about the importance of one of the core EWN principles the team has applied to the development of the Feasibility Study – enhancing communications and collaboration with decision makers, agency partners, academics, and public stakeholders, through a variety of activities, including community work groups. A key finding has been that early and frequent engagement with clear and transparent explanations of the process, progress, and intent of each stage, plus enabling stakeholders to influence the process and outcomes, is helping to achieve shared understanding and unity of purpose. He notes this spirit of collaboration will be critical in the future planning and implementation phases of the long-term Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Plan.   When envisioning the Texas coast over the next 50 years, Edmond believes the application of EWN in the Galveston District will enhance understanding of the complex performance of integrated coastal storm risk management and ecosystem restoration features at a landscape scale. The integration of robust field observation, data collection and analysis, leap-ahead biophysical process modeling and simulation, machine learning and artificial intelligence will significantly improve decision making, project performance, and outcomes -- especially during significant storm events. He notes that as the Galveston District continues to innovate, the lessons learned in applying EWN principles and practices and the innovations developed will be shared with other Corps Districts to extend the value to the nation.     Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website USACE Galveston District Edmond Russo at Galveston District Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibility Study Houston Ship Channel

An ecologist by training, Dr. Michael W. Beck had been working on more traditional ecological solutions related to marine protected areas until Hurricane Katrina, when he saw that there was a real need for understanding how natural habitats provide coastal resilience. Now his work focuses on figuring out how investing in nature and nature-based solutions can reduce coastal risk and save lives and money.   Mike is a Research Professor and Head of the Coastal Resilience Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He's also the former lead Marine Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. According to Mike, “after Katrina, Hurricane Sandy was a second wake up call for our nation. Sandy caused a huge amount of damages. Some of it we were prepared for, most of it we were not. In the end, Sandy cost taxpayers and the federal government $50 billion in recovery funding.”  That led Mike to a non-traditional collaboration between ecologists and the insurance industry including with firms such as Guy Carpenter & Company, Lloyd’s of London, and Risk Management Solutions (RMS)– to study the role of wetlands in reducing risk. The results were astonishing.  In their study, The Value of Coastal Wetlands for Flood Damage Reduction in the Northeastern USA, Mike and his colleagues found that existing wetlands reduced the damages from Hurricane Sandy by $625 million and that salt marshes could reduce storm damages by 16% or more annually. In this podcast we talk about this work and how it can help create incentives (such as reductions in insurance premiums) for investing in nature for flood risk reduction.   Mike and his colleagues have also studied the protective role of mangroves and other natural barriers in Florida. The work of one of his colleagues, Dr. Tori Tomiczek, is featured in Season I Episode #4 of the EWN Podcast. With RMS, Mike’s team estimated that mangroves provided over a billion dollars in savings during Hurricane Irma alone, and can reduce flood risks in Florida by 25% annually. Mike and his colleagues are also studying coral reefs, which can reduce wave energy by over 97%, including waves produced during hurricanes. Their work shows that if the topmost meter of coral reefs were lost, the costs of storms would double globally.   In the podcast, we also talk about the importance of stakeholder engagement for Engineering With Nature.  Mike describes the value of developing research jointly with the insurance industry, which has been critical in the uptake of the work by key stakeholders and decision makers.  We also talk about future risks, which are rising rapidly from climate change and coastal development.   That is why it is important to put that future risk into perspective and better understand what people can do about risks. In a recently published study, Designing effective incentives for living shorelines, Mike and his colleagues found that a relatively small incentive (such as premium adjustments) could convince many landowners to invest in a more nature-based solution, such as a wetland restoration, over artificial solutions. Mike also describes how a greater proportion of government spending on recovery should be dedicated to nature-based, resilient solutions that offer not just flood risk reduction, but also other benefits such as tourism, recreation and carbon sequestration.  He wants to see nature accounted for in our national economics and is dedicated to sharing his work with government and industry policy and decision makers, along with landowners and podcast listeners, to help everyone see the benefits of doing so.     Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Coastal Resilience Lab and Michael Beck at UCSC Michael Beck at Google Scholar The Value of Coastal Wetlands for Flood Damage Reduction in the Northeastern USA Designing effective incentives for living shorelines as a habitat conservation strategy along residential coasts Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Irma

Growing up on an Island in the Puget Sound in Washington State, Paula Whitfield lived and played by the ocean, watching every episode of the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and diving as often as she could. Her dream was to become a marine scientist. Today, Paula is a research ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), working at the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science in Silver Spring. She is collaborating on Engineering With Nature (EWN) projects that focus on coastal and community resilience, driven, in part, by the devastation following Hurricane Sandy.   In 2012, Hurricane Sandy had a major impact on the Northeastern United States, resulting in nearly $19 billion of insured damages. As Paula explains, it became a catalyst for NOAA to increase its focus on the use of natural and nature-based features (NNBF) – natural infrastructure – to increase coastal resilience. NOAA’s Natural Infrastructure Working Group developed an action plan for supporting NNBF that, as Paula notes, aligns perfectly with the philosophy and goals of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ EWN initiative. This opened the door for closer collaboration between the two agencies.   In this episode, we talk with Paula about the important role of natural features – which include wetlands, mud flats, oyster and coral reefs, mangroves, sea grasses, maritime forests, as well as beaches, dunes and islands – to enhance and improve coastal resilience. She discusses how nature-based strategies are being used to help communities adapt to changing conditions such as sea level rise. For example, natural features tend to more gradually attenuate the impact of waves and currents, providing “speed bumps” that reduce erosion, compared to hardened features that can reflect wave energy to adjacent areas, causing erosion and potentially loss of habitat. Natural and nature-based features also promote coastal resilience, helping communities bounce back quickly after hurricanes and other coastal storms and flooding events, providing the triple-win of preserving ecological function, increasing engineering resilience and enabling socio-economic benefits.   We discuss Paula’s current collaboration with colleagues at the US Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources that are studying on the restoration of Swan Island in the Chesapeake Bay – a great example of the importance of incorporating NNBF into coastal systems. Swan Island, which provides habitat for dozens of species of migratory birds, has been shrinking at an alarming rate because of sea level rise, subsidence and erosion. Paula describes how sediments, dredged to maintain navigation channels, have been used to restore the island, and improve habitat and buffer adjacent coastal communities from waves and storms. Sharing key learnings and best practices in NNBF is a key aspect of Paula’s role at NOAA. We also talk about her current collaboration on a USACE-led initiative to develop International Guidelines on the use of Natural and Nature-based Features to support practitioners, researchers, engineers and others. The Guidelines will be available at the start of 2021.   Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Paula Whitfield at NOAA Paula Whitfield at ResearchGate Hurricane Sandy Swan Island Restoration International NNBF Guidelines Project

As an undergraduate student at the University of Florida, Tori Tomiczek’s interests in geotechnical engineering and fluid mechanics, plus her curiosity about how structures were impacted by hurricanes, led to her to focus on coastal engineering. Tori’s experience doing field work in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 reinforced her belief in the importance of protecting our coastlines, and her observations following Hurricane Irma in 2017 led to her groundbreaking work on the important role of mangroves in protecting coastal shorelines.  Today, Dr. Tomiczek is an Assistant Professor in the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department at the United States Naval Academy. In this episode, we’re talking with her about how natural infrastructure reduces flood risk and protects coasts during major storms and how her work is expanding the practice of Engineering With Nature.   Natural features, such as mangrove trees and forests, can provide shoreline protection with their root systems,  which trap sediments and sand, helping to prevent shoreline erosion. During extreme weather events, these plant systems dampen waves and reduce the associated energy in the water. In turn, impacts to inland areas can be reduced. These ecosystems also provide other environmental services such as storing carbon and providing habitat for fish.  Tori and her colleagues have conducted lab and field tests to. better understand the hydrrolic effects of mangroves. She is currently working with colleagues at the US Army Engineer Research Development Center to build large-scale physical models that will provide more insight into how waves are transformed by mangrove forests.  She hopes this work will inform robust design guidance for Corps Districts, coastal managers, community planners, coastal waterfront property owners and other coastal stakeholders who are interested in using natural systems for coastal protection. Tori believes that the Engineering With Nature initiative is a “fantastic way to spread awareness and improve the general understanding of how we can use these systems”.  She also sees value in using these natural and nature-based features as ‘stand-alone’ projects and in tandem with conventional infrastructure – a spectrum of nature-based solutions that will improve coastal resilience in the US and around the world.     Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website ERDC Coastal and Hydraulics Research Lab Tori Tomiczek Hurricane Irma Hurricane Harvey Hurricane Maria Hurricane Sandy Florida Mangroves

In October 2018, Tyndall Air Force Base just east of Panama City, Florida was directly hit by Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm. The damage was significant with over half of the buildings on the base destroyed. Brig. Gen. Patrice Melancon was called back to active duty to the Tyndall Program Management Office (PMO) to lead the base’s massive $5 billion rebuild. In this episode, we’re talking with Melancon about the groundbreaking work the PMO team is undertaking to rebuild the base and incorporate the principles and practices of Engineering With Nature into the Tyndall rebuild and the Air Force’s Installation of the Future initiative. Their intention is to create a resilient and sustainable base that will be a model for the region and potentially all other coastal areas in the US. With practically a “clean slate” available to explore options, Melancon discusses the opportunity to fundamentally rethink what environmental and operational functions are needed for Tyndall, now and in the future.   The PMO team is evaluating best available data and information specific to the base and its landscape.  They are also considering variables that may have changed since the original buildings were constructed (e.g., flood elevation and expected wind loads).  Outputs from this analysis will inform standards needed to design and construct facilities, including the infrastructure needed to accommodate the new F35 aircraft.  This new installation must withstand present-day hazards, but it must also be able to accommodate future environmental conditions and associated risks.  Concurrently, the team is using this time to evaluate the use of EWN strategies through the construction of nature-based solutions in the form of landscape features like beaches and dunes, oyster reefs, and wetlands that reduce risks of flooding while providing additional habitat for threatened and endangered species as well as social value for Air Force personnel and the surrounding community.  As she notes, “it is a re-imagining of the base”.  In this podcast, Melancon describes four pilot projects underway that incorporate EWN principles.  One of those projects includes the beneficial use of sediments to strengthen the existing beach/dune system.  The goal is to use nature-based solutions to increase the resilience of the installation and the local community by reducing the risk of damage from storm surge and waves while also creating environmental as well as social benefits supporting recreation and tourism.    Melancon believes that collaborating with the community and a wide range of stakeholders is important to the success of this initiative and invites interested listeners to become involved and participate in the stakeholder engagement underway at Tyndall.  Listeners can share their ideas at the EWN website (www.engineeringwithnature.org) or the Coastal Resilience at Tyndall Air Force Base website (www.tyndallcoastalresilience.com).             Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Brigadier General Patrice Melancon Tyndall Air Force Base Coastal Resilience at Tyndall Air Force Base

In this episode, we’re talking with Jeff Corbino, Environmental Resources Specialist with the US Army Corps of Engineers, in the New Orleans District. Jeff is the Environmental Function Chief for the District's Operations Division Technical Support Branch that supports the District’s navigation mission through maintenance of waterways throughout South Louisiana including the dredging of 80 million cubic yards of sediment to operate this vital navigation network. Jeff and his colleagues have been doing groundbreaking work applying Engineering With Nature principles and practices using dredged sediment to create riverine islands that provide both environmental and engineering benefits. For example, dredged sediment was used to expand a naturally occurring sandbar that was developing in the Horseshoe Bend segment of the Atchafalaya River, Louisiana. By adding dredged material upstream, Jeff and his team accelerated the transformation of the sandbar into an island, partnering with the river to create new, sustainable habitat, and engineering value that reduces future work and cost.  As Jeff discusses, they “let the river do the heavy lifting”.    Jeff and his colleagues worked with scientists and engineers at the Army Corps’ Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to quantify the benefits of the project.  They have received four awards for environmental excellence and adaptation to climate change from the Western Dredging Association, Dredging and Port Construction Magazine, US Army Corps of Engineers, as well as international recognition. Jeff discusses the key learnings from the Horseshoe Bend Island project and how they are being applied to current projects, including a major diversion project in West Bay, Louisiana, where dredged material is being used opportunistically in concert with the diversion’s power to accelerate the restoration of wetlands. Demonstrating the triple-win benefits of EWN projects of this kind provides an opportunity to expand and extend what is being learned to other projects within the District, to other Districts and to other projects leaders outside the Corps.   Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website USACE New Orleans District Beneficial Use of Dredged Material: Horseshoe Bend Island at the Atchafalaya River WEDA Awards for Horseshoe Bend Island Project   Foran, C.M., Burks-Copes, K.A., Berkowitz, J., Corbino, J., and Suedel, B.C.  2018. Quantifying Wildlife and Navigation Benefits of a Dredging Beneficial Use Project in the Lower Atchafalaya River: A Demonstration of Engineering With Nature®. Integr. Environ. Assess. Manage. 14(6):759-768. DOI: 10.1002/ieam.4084.   Suedel, B., Berkowitz, J., Kim, S., Beane, N., Summers, E., Evans, D, and Corbino, J.  2015.  Creating Horseshoe Bend Island, Atchafalaya River, Louisiana. Terra Et Aqua. 140:26-31.

On the 10th anniversary of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE), Engineering With Nature (EWN) initiative, we’re taking a look at its foundation, fundamental principles, applications to date, and its promise for the future. Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist in Environmental Science is our guest. Todd serves as the National Lead for EWN and the effort to collaborate across USACE and with other organizations in expanding this approach to infrastructure development. EWN provides opportunities to integrate engineering and natural processes to produce outcomes that reduce demands on limited resources, minimizing negative impacts, and creating new benefits and value.   Over the coming decades, trillions of dollars will be invested in infrastructure projects, and these efforts can be planned and designed using EWN to diversify and expand an array of economic, social and environmental benefits. For example, EWN offers USACE the opportunity to support navigation and flood risk infrastructure while also producing co-benefits such as habitat for wildlife, recreational sites for communities, and other benefits.  Success and advancements in EWN practice have been achieved through research and development, constructing and monitoring demonstration projects, implementing and documenting full-scale projects, and continuous communication and education.  Collaboration is a central theme that integrates all of these activities. In this episode, Todd provides his perspective on the EWN portfolio and future plans for the initiative. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges Howard Odum Ecological Engineering Ian McHarg, Design with Nature EWN Atlas Horseshoe Bend Island at the Atchafalaya River EWN Strategic Plan Walter Anderson, artist

Over the last 10 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working on an initiative called Engineering With Nature that uses natural processes and systems to deliver a broad range of economic, environmental, and social benefits.  EWN, as it is called, is developing and implementing nature-based solutions for infrastructure, engineering, and water projects.  EWN brings together a growing international community of scientists, engineers, and researchers, from all kinds of disciplines to collaborate on how best to harness the power of nature to innovate, solve problems, and create sustainable solutions.  This podcast tells their stories.   It’s a show about innovation and collaboration.  It is about combining natural and engineering systems.  And it is about amazing results for infrastructure, the environment, and communities.  Scientists and experts will talk about how they are transforming traditional approaches to infrastructure challenges across the US and around the world by applying the principles and practices of EWN.    Sarah Thorne of Decision Partners has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the EWN initiative for the past decade, and, through this podcast, will share stories of the people, their unique collaborations, and a broad range of projects that exemplify the principles and practices of EWN.  We hope you’ll listen to the show and be inspired!