EWN - Engineering With Nature

How do we measure what’s most important to us? And how do we translate those values into decisions about infrastructure projects so that they can deliver a diverse set of economic, environmental, and social benefits? That’s the focus of our discussion in Season 5, Episode 4, of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast. Host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, are pleased to welcome back to the podcast Justin Ehrenwerth, President and CEO of The Water Institute. In this episode, we’re talking about how to measure what matters with respect to natural infrastructure.   This episode is the third in a three-part series covering what Todd characterizes as the three-legged stool that supports the advancement of NBS. The first leg—identifying opportunities for making progress with NBS—was the subject of Season 5, Episode 2. The second leg—understanding the benefits and value of nature—was the subject of Season 5, Episode 3. The third leg—determining how to measure the value of NBS in infrastructure projects—is the focus of Episode 4.   This episode was recorded shortly after the national summit “Measuring What Matters” hosted by the Resilient America Program at the National Academies in Washington, DC, on November 30, 2022, in collaboration with the EWN Program and The Water Institute. Participants from a broad range of organizations came together to share their perspectives on the process and benefit of valuing nature.   Measuring and promoting nature-based solutions is a challenge. As Todd says, “How do we identify the full suite of benefits that nature-based solutions can bring to an infrastructure project? Getting nature up front in the process of planning and design involves elevating the benefits of nature, moving consideration of those benefits forward in the project development process. It’s critical to bring this understanding into the process of project design, accepting nature as a part of the solution.”   Addressing the challenge of measuring these benefits includes new policy research, including exploring the implications of policy alternatives that focus on what and how measurement of benefits is being incorporated into the planning process. Justin summarizes the desired outcome: “The bottom line is to make very clear in the evaluation process that a holistic appreciation of a series of benefits and costs—over and above economics—really has the opportunity to transform. And we’ve got great science to support that transformation, and momentum. If we harness all this interest and enthusiasm, we will see some big changes in the next 18–24 months.”   Todd adds, “How you define what is a relevant value or benefit when you are developing a project informs very substantively what constitutes a solution within that project. So, what you recognize as a ‘benefit’ basically determines the outcome. That’s the reason why we’re doing all this. To produce better projects that last and that produce the array of benefits that our communities need and deserve. I am excited about what we can produce together.”   For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/     Related Links

• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Justin Ehrenwerth at LinkedIn

We often hear of the plight of the polar bear or how monarch butterflies are dwindling. These changes are important, but just a small part of what’s happening with nature in America. Imagine if we had a full picture of nature in our nation—and what nature provides to our lives. And imagine if that picture was at the center of governmental decision-making. Sound utopian? Well, perhaps not. The first ever National Nature Assessment (NNA) is currently underway to better understand how nature is faring in the United States and what it means to all our lives. That’s the focus of our discussion in Season 5, Episode 3, of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast.    Host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, National Lead of the EWN Program, are pleased to welcome back Heather Tallis, the Assistant Director for Biodiversity and Conservation Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Heather joined us in Season 5, Episode 2 to talk about her role in the development of Opportunities to Accelerate Nature Based Solutions. Heather is also the Acting Director for the National Nature Assessment with the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the subject of this episode.   President Biden’s Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies, establishes a number of objectives related to nature-based solutions and EWN. One of the many elements of that Executive Order is a commitment to conduct a National Nature Assessment.    Heather’s role as the Acting Director of the NNA is to work with the representatives of the 13 agencies that comprise the USGCRP to produce an assessment that gives a full picture of the state of nature in the United States and how nature matters to people’s lives. The assessment of the lands, waters, and wildlife across the nation will explore questions such as: What does nature mean to our economy? How is nature interacting with our physical and mental health? And, what do changes in nature mean for our national security and for environmental justice?    Todd and his colleague Kyle McKay are representing the Department of Defense on the Federal Steering Committee. As Todd notes, “The Department of Defense has about 5,000 installations or so across the country and around the world that occupy 25 million acres of land and water—that’s a lot of nature. DoD has many programs and makes many investments in natural resource conservation and is now focused on how nature-based solutions can be deployed to enable comprehensive resilience at their facilities and in the surrounding communities.”   Developing the NNA is a big task that will take place over several years and starts with listening. Heather stresses the importance of the process being open, inclusive, and actionable. An open public comment period is currently underway to gather input from individuals and organizations about what nature means to them. As Heather says, “We truly want to hear from everyone as much as possible. We know there are many different ways to experience nature. Everyone comes from a different way of thinking about nature, different perspectives, and we’d like to hear them all.”    Heather encourages people to sign up for USGCRP’s newsletter for updates and to provide input to the NNA. The current public comment period is open through March of 2023.    For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/    Related Links

• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Heather Tallis at LinkedIn

What happens when a nation focuses on addressing the critical challenges posed by climate change by investing in nature? That’s what we’re talking about in Season 5, Episode 2, of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast. Host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, are talking with two guests from the White House. Heather Tallis is the Assistant Director for Biodiversity and Conservation Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Lydia Olander is the Director of Nature-Based Resilience for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Heather and Lydia are two of the three co-chairs of Opportunities to Accelerate Nature Based Solutions, a report to the National Climate Task Force, which was released by the White House November 8, 2022.    Heather and Lydia faced a big challenge and a very tight timeline. On Earth Day, April 22, 2022, President Biden issued Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities and Local Economies. Section 4, “Deploying Nature-Based Solutions to Tackle Climate Change and Enhance Resilience,” called for developing an interagency report. Heather, Lydia, and their fellow co-chair, Krystal Laymon (from the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy), were charged with leading the process of engaging key Federal agencies, including the US Army Corps of Engineers, to identify opportunities for greater deployment of nature-based solutions (NBS) across the Federal Government, including through potential policy guidance and program change.    Through consultation with agency partners, public roundtables, and Tribal Consultations, Heather, Lydia, and Krystal found that despite a lot of interest, there are real barriers to using nature-based solutions. The breadth of different applications of nature-based solutions underway by Federal agencies can be seen in the Nature-Based Solutions Resource Guide, a companion report that includes 30 examples. Lydia notes that, despite the wide range of Federal agency perspectives and stakeholders included in the consultations, the team identified a set of common themes and challenges, which became the focus of the report.    The Report identifies five strategic areas for action: “Policy,” including permitting, reviews, and cost-benefit analyses; “Funding”; application in “Federal Assets,” including facilities, lands, and waters; building the nature-based solutions “Workforce”; and producing “Evidence” to support effectiveness of NBS based on continuous innovation, learning, and research priorities.   As Todd notes, the timing and the opportunity for this report’s recommendations are unpreceded: “We’re in a time of important change or evolution in people’s thinking about nature. There’s a growing awareness that nature and its ecosystems are a foundation, the source and supply, the economy if you will, to address these social and environmental challenges. An increasing number of people from diverse walks of life and professions and communities are committed to making progress on nature-based solutions. In fact, I’d say they’re hungry for it. So there’s a motivation now that maybe just a few years ago wasn’t as well developed.”   For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/    Related Links (links may not be active on all platforms)

• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Lydia Olander at LinkedIn
• Heather Tallis at LinkedIn

Imagine scientists and engineers using 3D printing technology to create nature-inspired structures and to produce more effective, economic, and aesthetically pleasing solutions. In the premier episode of Season 5 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast, host Sarah Thorne, and Burton Suedel, Research Biologist at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), are talking with two ERDC colleagues - Alan Kennedy, who is in the risk branch of the Environmental Lab, and Zackery McClelland, who is in the concrete and materials branch of the Geotechnical and Structures Lab.   Additive manufacturing (AM) creates objects by adding material layer by layer through computer aided design. This contrasts with traditional, or subtractive manufacturing that starts with something larger and chips away at material to create the final product. 3D printing is a subset of the larger AM field. Applying AM to Engineering With Nature (EWN), creates an opportunity to go beyond the conventional approaches that use steel and rock, to achieve the multiple social, economic and environmental benefits that are an objective of EWN.   The use of 3D printing unlocks the ability to make complex, overlapping, nature-inspired geometries that are impossible to make with traditional methods. This allows mimicking natural, asymmetric structures such as coral-like stubs and mangrove roots. These structures can provide habitat enhancements and erosion controls, while being aesthetically pleasing in recreational areas. They can also blend and composite synthetic and natural biopolymers. This allows scientists to tune the material’s structure and mechanical properties, as well as its surface chemistry and porosity for whatever the site-specific need or application may be.   These advances can be thought of as a natural evolution of collaborative thinking which is key to the ERDC culture and are emerging, in part, related to the reduced costs and improved user friendliness of the 3D printing equipment, plus recent capital investments made at all three ERDC labs. Novel 3D printing technologies that can use natural materials such as sand and clay, have the potential to incorporate beneficial use of dredge material as a feed stock for 3D printing.   While there are lots of hobbyists, universities and even companies doing 3D printing, the application at the Army Corps in an infrastructure context is unique and the potential for beneficial use of dredge material can be a real game changer. One of the goals of work in this area is to make additive manufacturing a mission enabler for novel solutions by creating interagency partnerships and making use of natural materials standard at EWN Proving Grounds. As Burton notes: “By combining the efforts of the Geotechnical Structures Laboratory and the Environmental Laboratories, bringing together the disparate disciplines, we're going to learn a lot from each other and we're going be able to accomplish more in this space. From an EWN perspective, there are a lot of applications for this type of research and this type of capability.”   For more information, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/   Related Links

• Burton Suedel at LinkedIn
• Alan Kennedy at LinkedIn
• Environmental Laboratory, ERDC
• Zackery McClelland at LinkedIn
• Geotechnical and Structures Lab, ERDC

Season 5 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast launches on November 30. Host Sarah Thorne recently talked about highlights from Season 4 and what’s ahead for Season 5 with Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, and Jeff King, Deputy National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program. The EWN Podcast launched in July of 2020 and, as shown by the nearly 25,000 total downloads that it has received since, there is a lot of interest in the topic. As Todd notes, “People came up to me that I’d never met before, telling me that they’re fans and they listen to the podcast. There is clearly a desire and appetite for information about nature-based solutions and what we’re doing in Engineering With Nature.” Season 4 podcast episodes averaged about 218 downloads in the first 7 days of availability (a standard podcast industry statistic) which puts the podcast in about the top 14% of ALL podcasts worldwide. As Todd notes, “The podcast is illustrating and seeding very important conversations across the Corps of Engineers; among leaders; among practitioners; and importantly, with our stakeholders and partners. These conversations are important for moving us forward conceptually, intellectually, and in terms of how we are implementing projects across the country and all around the world.” Season 5 will expand these conversations under the theme of Realizing the Value of Nature. Season 5 will feature some big-name guests, cool science, and lots of innovation. President Biden’s recent Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies, is accelerating implementation of nature-based solutions. We’ll focus on commitments that are being made with respect to the Executive Order and how they will be rolled out in the months and years to come. According to Jeff, “We continue to see a lot of growth within the Network for Engineering With Nature (NEWN). All the wonderful new relationships that are now starting to coalesce within the Network are really exciting. We’ll spend some time doing a deep dive into more of the technical work that’s happening out there.” You can join the conversation by going to the EWN Website or wherever you get your podcasts. And we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a note! Measuring What Matters: Towards a more comprehensive and equitable evaluation of benefits   Listeners are invited to attend an important national summit “Measuring What Matters” being hosted by the EWN Program at the National Academies in Washington, DC, on November 30. Participants from USACE plus other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as private and nonprofit organizations, will explore nature’s role and value, and how best to formulate, evaluate, and deliver integrated water resources projects. Follow the link to register to attend in person or virtually. Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Jeff King at EWN
• Network of Engineering With Nature
• EWN Atlas Series

 

• Sarah Thorne at LinkedIn
• Sarah Thorne at Decision Partners
• Podcast Industry Report: Market Growth and Advertising Statistics in 2022
• Buzzsprout Platform Statistics

 

• EWN Podcast S4E6: A Conversation about Leadership and EWN with Colonel Gant
• EWN Podcast S4E7: A Conversation about Leadership and EWN with Brigadier General Kelly

 

• Executive Order No. 14072, Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies
• EWN Supports White House in Accounting for Nature
• Measuring What Matters: Towards a More Comprehensive and Equitable Evaluation of Benefits – EWN Page
• Measuring What Matters: Towards a More Comprehensive and Equitable Evaluation of Benefits – National Academies Page

What happens when a world-renowned landscape architect from Thailand comes to the United States as Designer-in-Residence to work with an award-winning architect whose passion is what he defines as watershed architecture? In Episode 10, hosts Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are talking with Kotchakorn Voraakhom (“Kotch”), an international member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and founder of Bangkok-based landscape architecture company LANDPROCESS, and Derek Hoeferlin, Chair of the Landscape Architecture and Urban Design programs at Washington University in St. Louis. Derek and his colleagues at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts are hosting Kotch’s year-long appointment sponsored by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.   Kotch is the first landscape architect to receive the UN Global Climate Action Award for her use of nature-based solutions in urban settings. Derek works on integrated water-based design strategies for major river basins, including the Mississippi.   Kotch was born and raised in Bangkok and witnessed its transformation from “green, to gray, to super gray—from a city with natural spaces to one that has been increasingly paved over.” Today, Bangkok is a city of over 10.7 million people. “It’s more crowded with less natural habitat for the people who live there, which impacts the quality of life and the quality of the existing green infrastructure, like canals and green space. Agricultural land has been abandoned.”   In 2011, flooding in Thailand displaced millions of people, including Kotch’s family: “I think that’s really the point where I started questioning who I am as a person living in Bangkok, who I am as a landscape architect, and how can make some changes to address this problem.” This led to her thinking about the role that nature-based solutions can play in landscape architecture, which has become the foundation of her practice. “When I started in landscape architecture in my school, I had been taught to really understand what’s the climate at the site, what’s the culture of the people, what are the constraints and benefit of the existing natural cycle there and then go on to design. I think my team at LANDPROCESS and I are really different from traditional architects and engineers. We work as a team with them but having us on the team really brings a different approach. We make sure nature-based solutions are part of the process.”   Derek grew up in St. Louis and after studying architecture in New Orleans and New Haven and practicing for multiple years returned in 2005 to begin teaching at Washington University in St. Louis. His experience with flooding events in Missouri, including the Times Beach Disaster in 1982 and the Great Flood of 1993, led him to realize that “water can be a very politicized thing and a very difficult thing to talk about when you’re talking about rebuilding communities and protecting them or integrating nature-based solutions, especially in an urbanized setting.” While teaching at WashU, he’s witnessed more frequent extreme events, floods, and droughts, and come to understand that these events are not just coastal problems. “This is not just in New Orleans. It’s happening up here in the St. Louis in the Midwest, and it’s even happening farther upriver, which led me to look at the whole Mississippi water system.” He came across the work of Eddie Brauer, Senior Hydraulic Engineer with the USACE St. Louis District, who has been working on Mississippi basin-scale challenges. And he met Kotch, who has been engaging with the United Nations on global-scale issues. These experiences led him to ask, “How do we come together as a collective, as designers, engineers, policymakers?” on what he calls “watershed architecture thinking”—working at the large watershed scale, back down to the scale of a city, and ultimately a building.   Jeff agrees that applying natural strategies at the watershed scale is critical and notes that this approach was key to the development of the International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management. “We know now that if we just approach the challenge as one project in one location, then another project in another area of the watershed, we’re not thinking about a systematic approach. That can have downstream consequences that negate anything that we’ve tried to do in the way of creating resilience for that watershed.”   Kotch’s focus on using nature-based solutions in urban settings creates more resilient cities that can adapt to the increased flooding that results from climate change. And nature-based solutions are key to providing addition social benefit, especially to the most vulnerable communities. Her not-for-profit company, the Porous City Network, aims to improve the resilience of urban areas by transforming impervious surfaces into a system of productive public green spaces, which help mitigate excess water. This includes maintaining threatened landscape infrastructure such as agricultural land, canals, and ditch orchards, as well as interventions like urban farms, green roofs, rain gardens, and permeable parking that provide needed space for water absorption. “When it comes to nature-based solutions in our landscape-architecture approach, we must understand how nature works and let it work itself. It’s not about us controlling everything and measuring everything for our own need.”  She adds: “We have to shift our mindset to really understand the problem.”   Kotch’s work is important and inspiring to landscape architects and urban planners. Speaking of her ground-breaking work in Bangkok, Derek notes, “They’re stunning and they’re beautiful. Her Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park—the scale of what it does embedded in the city of Bangkok—is so inspiring because you see it’s not just a pocket park, it’s a big project because it needs to accommodate a lot of water and hold it, to slow the water down, then eventually release it into the system. But most of the time it’s a public space for people to gather, to communicate, for students to recharge, for tourists, and as a place to have different events. It’s multi-use, and it’s not just solving the flood risk problem. It’s creating opportunities.” He adds: “I hope to see more of those types of projects happening in places like St. Louis, that really bring the nature-based systems that we’re talking about and solutions, but also make those places accessible for as many people as possible.” Derek, an acclaimed architect in his own right, has a book coming out soon entitled Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture. He presents the importance of understanding the massive scale of watersheds, like the Mississippi River watershed, and compares it to watersheds of the Mekong and Rhine Rivers in Asia and Europe. “The scales are radically different, but it’s interesting to assess things that don’t seem quite similar together and try to find different ways of understanding them. The speculation section, which is what we also do as designers, is where we think forward into the future. So, in the third part of the book, we have serious conversations about the future and collaboration. How do you get on the ground and catalyze communities and different groups to get together, to take action? Thinking about the whole watershed is daunting, but if you give people the tools and the language to really think about the nuances, I believe then we can start to enact change.” Jeff, Derek, and Kotch go on to talk about the importance—and challenge—of engaging a diverse set of stakeholders in landscape-scale projects. As Derek notes, “It's not just a bottom-up or top-down approach. It’s both—we need to be able to listen.” Kotch notes that a key word in stakeholder engagement is “vulnerability” both from a people and a nature perspective. “Historically, there have been so many stakeholders left behind in decision making about water. Having them as part of the process is very critical. We must reverse our approach and build solutions from the ground up.”   And, as Jeff notes, landscape architects play a critical role doing just that: “Oftentimes when talking with the public and sharing information on model outcomes you’re presenting graphs and figures. The message or the concept you are trying to convey can sometimes be missed. Landscape architects have a way of communicating with very broad and diverse stakeholders. That is where it becomes incredibly important for Engineering With Nature—to be able to highlight the engineering outcomes that can be achieved through different projects, using landscape-architecture renderings to provide a better sense of the environmental and social benefits that can also be achieved. Nature-based solutions are dynamic systems—they change over time. Landscape architects can show this progression, which, in turn, informs our adaptive management process. This becomes very important as we work with resource managers and regulatory agencies and the public to maximize the function of these projects ove

At least one in six people in England are at risk from flooding from rivers and the sea. Climate change means that sea levels will continue to rise, and the frequency and severity of floods and storm surges will only get worse. In Episode 9, hosts Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are talking with two guests from England’s Environment Agency (EA) in the United Kingdom (UK). Julie Foley is Director of Food Risk Strategy and National Adaptation; and her colleague, Jon Hollis, is the Nature-Based Solutions Senior Advisor. They are leading a comprehensive effort to create a nation that’s ready for and resilient to flooding and coastal change now and in the future.   Julie has a 20-year career living and working with flooding and has seen firsthand the impacts of coastal flooding on communities. She has managed the operational teams responsible for the Thames’ flood barrier and other associated flood defenses along the Thames estuary. About 3 years ago, she became the director of flood risk strategy where she has applied to the national scene her personal experience working with communities.    Jon, who grew up in the Fens, a low-lying part of the UK protected by sea defenses, studied remote sensing and cartography to better understand the natural environment. When he joined the Environment Agency, he worked on flood risk maps and programs to reduce flood risk. He led the £15 million natural flood management program and is mainstreaming natural flood management by acting on the learning of that program. Julie and Jon’s focus is on improving the environment through flood and coastal risk management and strengthening resilience to climate extremes by using nature-based solutions (NBS).    Todd recently visited Julie and Jon and their EA colleagues and had the opportunity to visit several of their projects featuring Engineering With Nature or nature-based solutions: “Seeing the natural flood management projects across the islands is very impressive—the substance of the work that they’re doing and how they are integrating nature with flood risk management engineering.”   Climate change is affecting sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and flood risk. England’s Environment Agency is taking action, and as Julie notes, the focus on nature-based solutions is shaping policy: “Our Chief Executive has this wonderful saying, ‘Our thinking needs to change faster than the climate.’ That means we need to think really fast and really differently. That has meant a significant transformation in some of our thinking around what flood and coastal risk management means in this country—putting climate adaptation right at the heart of that.” Julie describes how this has shifted the Environment Agency’s thinking from flood protection to flood resilience and embracing a much broader set of solutions: “We are looking at nature-based solutions and not just thinking, ‘How do we build higher and higher walls,’ and things that our communities don’t largely want to see anymore. They’re actually asking us to think differently and offer solutions that are better for their local places and the kind of things that their communities actually want to see.”   Jon adds, “One of the great things about natural flood management, nature-based solutions, working with natural processes, or Engineering With Nature, is that a lot of people can have a role in this now, whether it’s in their local community or within the boundary of their own property. They can understand it and can make a real difference. And it’s not just a theory; it’s practice.” He describes one project undertaken in primary schools in London, where planters were built into the playgrounds next to the school buildings to capture water from the roofs: “They’ve got plants in them, they look beautiful and hold water. The planters save the water going into the river network. But the real benefit isn’t just the flood risk side of things and the environmental outcomes, it’s the fact that young students and teachers got involved. I’m passionate about this because it is bringing people together with what’s going on in their environment, which is so important now.”   Having visited more than a dozen projects in England, Todd comments, “Using an American phrase, what I see happening in England is they’re just ‘getting after it.’ The level of substance of the work that’s underway in terms of nature-based solutions is impressive. The deliberate way the Environment Agency is undertaking these projects and the level of engagement with communities and partner organizations really exemplifies how a government organization undertakes innovation and solutions that are different than maybe what have been used in the past.”   Julie and Todd talk about the importance of using the right language to mobilize people, giving them a vision that feels bold. The vision Ensuring progress towards a nation ready for, and resilient to, flooding and coastal changes—today, tomorrow and to the year 2100 does just that. Julies adds that it is critical to follow through with action noting that NBS projects need to be “mainstreamed” and not just second-best solutions. Todd notes how being intentional and clear in a strategy about the desire to innovate isn’t always easy for organizations, particularly for government, but he has seen many examples in England, including the Ellis Meadows project, which is a great example of innovation that is very meaningful to the community.    The primary objective of the project was providing flood water storage for the city of Leicester but also included a hard path used as a walkway and cycleway that connects different parts of the city. As Jon notes, “This project starts from a natural perspective of wanting to reduce flood risk but then delivers these other wider benefits too. Bringing all the different people together, engaging with the community to find out how they would use the space, giving them a voice in helping to shape design, has made a ‘good’ project, an ‘excellent’ project.”   Julie agrees, emphasizing that people and communities need to be given a license to be more innovative and fund projects that perhaps wouldn’t conform to traditional cost benefit rules: “We’ve also been able to try and better estimate the wider multifunctional benefits that come with projects like this. The environmental movement calls it ‘stacking.’ It’s just a bit of a jargon, but the more benefits you can stack, the more funding you can get from lots of different sources.”   One of Julie’s motivations for taking on her current role was the opportunity to produce a national strategy for flood and coastal erosion risk management. It was a 2-year collaborative process involving local authorities, infrastructure providers responsible for the road and rail networks, water companies, farmers, land managers, the insurance sector responsible for flood insurance, professional organizations, and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs). “We had them all involved in having a role in shaping what we wanted to do with our future flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy. They all called for us to think differently because we have this climate emergency that needs to be central to that strategy.” She describes the challenge as “really scary,” noting that the UK has a huge coastline and some of the fastest eroding shorelines across Europe.    The intention was to do things differently on politically difficult coastal challenges, with a strategy that involves planning, adapting, and potentially transitioning people away from places in which they’d been living for a very long time. As Julie says, “It’s so important when you do these kinds of things to have a really high level of political support, particularly for something that is very bold and transformational. You need the political support, and you also need a huge number of partners, friends, and allies.” [Editor’s note: In the episode, Julie mentions George Eustice as the current Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Since the recording, the UK has selected a new Prime Minister, leading to a new Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ranil Jayawardena.]   The strategy focuses on 3 ambitions: climate resilient places, growth and infrastructure, and a nation ready to respond and adapt to flooding and coastal change. “When you look at the three ambitions,” Julie notes, “the word ‘flood’ isn’t there. That was super intentional because, yes, it’s a flood and coast erosion risk management strategy, of course, but we wanted ambitions that were all about climate, multiple outcomes, and putting the context of our work within a much wider setting.”   The Environment Agency, Todd adds, has responsibilities that in the US are handled by USACE, FEMA, the EPA, and other agencies: “The Agency’s efforts are quite impressive. They are ‘calling their shots’ at a level of specificity and detail that’s admirable. They’re moving in a particular direction and being bold and saying specifically what they wish to achieve by what year. That’s real strategy work at its best from what I have observed.”    As we wrap up the episode, Jon comments that “it’s been inspirational working with Todd and his team on the NNBF Guidelines and the EWN Atlases—both are beautiful publications. I think we get a lot out of the relationship both ways and realize how many of the barriers, challenges, and issues are very similar in

As students head back to class, Episode 8 of the EWN Podcast focuses on foundation of EWN—the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM/STEM). In several episodes of the podcast, we’ve touched on the importance of encouraging students—the next generation of scientists, engineers, and EWN practitioners. Here we feature some additional discussion from guests from two episodes this season talking about STEAM/STEM and their advice to students.   In Episode 1, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, spoke with Amanda Tritinger, Assistant Program Manager for the EWN Program and a Research Hydraulics Engineer at the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Matt Bilskie, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. Matt is the Lead of the Coastal Ocean Analysis and Simulation Team (COAST), a research team that develops computational hydrodynamic models to simulate astronomic tides, wind waves, storm surge, and rainfall runoff in coastal and oceanic environments.   Matt focuses on two important points. First, that one doesn’t have to be “good at math” to pursue a STEM-related career. Admitting that he was not particularly good in math, Matt noted that “math is just a tool. There are many tools that you can have in your tool belt and still follow your passion in a STEM-related field.” He also stressed the importance of listening and learning from others who have had experience in the areas and issues that you’re working on, adding “one day you will be that person providing expertise, and other people will listen to you.”   Amanda builds on Matt’s advice, noting that if someone is struggling to understand a topic, “don’t get frustrated when you don’t get a topic right away”—there are numerous resources available to help, from books, to YouTube, to podcasts. She also underscores the value of the “A” in STEAM, encouraging students to keep up with the Arts: “There can be so much innovation brought to the science if you’re investing in the ‘art’ part of your brain.”   Jeff agrees: “It takes many different backgrounds and skill sets to solve very complex problems like the ones the EWN Program is working on. Matt and Amanda are two excellent computer modelers; but we also need biologists, ecologists, landscape architects, social scientists, and economists, all working collaboratively, to be able to deliver very meaningful solutions. So, there’s going to be a home for every student today in one of these disciplines. And you’ll have the opportunity to work with many other talented people to solve the different challenges that we're facing.”   The conversation wraps up with encouragement to students to be curious, keep an open mind, and be holistic in their approach to challenges. Always look for opportunities to make a difference.   In Episode 6, Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, had the opportunity to talk with Colonel (P) Antoinette Gant, Commander and Division Engineer of the South Pacific Division (SPD), who is a strong advocate for STEAM/STEM, especially for unrepresented populations. She shares her personal journey with students whenever she has the opportunity: “I learned that less than 3% of African American women were engineers. So, the road less traveled was something that I liked. I like math and science. Anytime I can get in front of a group, I talk about the importance of STEAM/STEM.”   COL Gant’s advice to students: “Take every opportunity that is afforded to you. Don’t sell yourself short, even if it’s something that you’re not as comfortable with. You don’t want to know how many times I’ve been in situations where I haven’t been comfortable with something and just been thrown into the fire. And I figured out how to actually make it happen, and not by myself but with my teammates right by my side. Do not be afraid of what could be, and just give yourself the opportunity to be able to be the change that you want to see. Do the things that you one time thought were truly impossible, because if you don’t dream big, then why do we dream even at all?”   Todd adds, “Science and technology and engineering and mathematics are so important for us to understand how to pursue new approaches, distributed engineering approaches across the landscape to complement more conventional engineering and Engineering With Nature. I’m so glad that Colonel Gant also mentioned how important the humanities are, art and history and literature, because if you don’t know how you got where you are, you’re likely to maybe not understand where you need to go and maybe what to avoid in the future. It’s important that we find opportunities to draw from multiple fields and practices and disciplines as we Engineer With Nature.”   Episode 8 closes with Todd’s advice to students: “Develop and follow your passion. It’s so important that you understand what motivates you personally, what you are passionate about, and then you pursue and develop a career that supports that.”   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Jeff King at EWN
• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Amanda Tritinger at EWN

 

• Matthew Bilskie at UGA
• Matthew Bilskie at LinkedIn
• Coastal Ocean Analysis and Simulation Team (COAST)
• Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS)

 

• EWN Podcast S4E1: Scaling Up, Up, Up with CSTORM and EWN
• EWN Podcast S3E3: The Next Generation Makes the Future of EWN Even Brighter

 

• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn

 

• COL Gant at USACE South Pacific Division
• COL Gant at LinkedIn
• USACE South Pacific Division

 

• EWN Podcast S4E6: A Conversation about Leadership and EWN with Colonel Gant, Commander of the USACE South Pacific Division

Welcome to the summer feature podcast miniseries—EWN On The Road. As we teased in Episode 5, in this special series, Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, is sharing some highlights of his travels across the country over the past 2 years visiting people, places, and projects relevant to EWN. The miniseries includes 4 episodes and will post August 3, 10, 17 and 24:  

• Episode 1—The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge: A Natural Landscape Revived
• Episode 2—The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present, Future and from the Air
• Episode 3—The Heartland Tour: Five Rivers in One Day
• Episode 4—Rivers as Resources to be Valued

  We hope you’ll find these special podcast episodes enlightening and easy listening for your summer travels. You can read more about Todd’s travels and see additional pictures in the EWN On The Road blog on the EWN Website.    In Episode 4, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges continue their discussion on rivers—their role and value. In the winter of 2022, Todd and his wife (and trusty driver), Anita, traveled nearly 8,000 miles through eight states on the “Southwest Swing” of the EWN On The Road tour. They visited the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead on the Nevada and Arizona border, which is at its lowest level in its history, an alarming indication of the megadrought that has gripped the Southwest. As part of the trip, Todd spent some time exploring the Los Angeles River in California, what he calls, “an important case example of river engineering in the twentieth century.” The Los Angeles River travels 51 miles through the greater Los Angeles area, with nearly a million people living within 1 mile of it. Because of challenges related to flooding and the natural movement of the course of the river, it was “locked down,” engineered into an unchanging, unnatural, concrete channel. This unusual situation caused Todd to ponder whether rivers are “problems to be solved” or “resources to be valued.” To help answer this question, Todd spent time talking to people living and working nearby about what they want the river to be. “I met more than 20 people from a whole variety of organizations that have been working for many years to reintroduce the ‘natural’ into the Los Angeles River. And I think what people are looking for is to reconnect to the river. One group was focused on restoration at the Sepulveda Basin, a large 2000+ plus acre area next to the river with huge potential to become basically the Central Park of Los Angeles, or like the Golden Gate Park of San Francisco. . . . There’s just a tremendous amount of interest and growing momentum to create value by reintroducing the ‘natural’ into the Los Angeles River.” There is a significant opportunity for EWN to be part of this transformation: “I’m quite hopeful that we’re going to be able to collaborate in this space so the Los Angeles River can become a model for how we can reengineer to harmonize the natural with human communities.   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• EWN On The Road
• LA County Department of Public Works – LA River Master Plan
• LA River Master Plan
• EWN Podcast S3E4: Engineering With Nature for Safe and Livable Cities

Welcome to the summer feature podcast miniseries—EWN On The Road. As we teased in Episode 5, in this special series, Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, is sharing some highlights of his travels across the country over the past 2 years visiting people, places, and projects relevant to EWN. The miniseries includes 4 episodes and will post August 3, 10, 17 and 24:  

• Episode 1—The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge: A Natural Landscape Revived
• Episode 2—The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present, Future and from the Air
• Episode 3—The Heartland Tour: Five Rivers in One Day
• Episode 4—Rivers as Resources to be Valued

  We hope you’ll find these special podcast episodes enlightening and easy listening for your summer travels. You can read more about Todd’s travels and see additional pictures in the EWN On The Road blog on the EWN Website.    In Episode 3, Todd Bridges talks with host Sarah Thorne about part of the trip that he and his wife Anita—the unofficial EWN driver—took in the summer of 2021, traveling across 14 states from Mississippi to Montana and back in what Todd calls the Heartland Tour. On one day of the tour, August 7, they visited five rivers in one day—Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers near Missoula, Montana, and the Jefferson, Madison, and Missouri Rivers near Bozeman, Montana—experiencing a wide range of history between people and rivers, as Todd says, “damming, contaminating, undamming, restoring, exploring, experiencing.” He adds: “That day made a strong impression upon me, to see so many different contexts and to link together a whole range of human activity. We’ve seen that whole progression over the last 150 years, and it was revealed in that day when we visited five rivers. . . . I was thinking a lot about what the rivers had been before people began to, if you will, ‘mess with them,’ engineer them for a variety of purposes. I was also thinking about what the future of our relationship will be with rivers and how we can apply the principles and practices of Engineering With Nature to recover some of the services and some of the values that rivers can provide to us, while at the same time reduce some of the challenges that climate change and other pressures are bringing to our rivers.”   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• EWN On The Road
• EWN On The Road: The Heartland Tour Stops 14–17
• Clark Fork River Mega Site
• Clark Fork Coalition
• NPS: Three Forks of the Missouri – Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
• Montana FWP: Anaconda Smoke Stack State Park