EWN - Engineering With Nature

We’re getting ready to launch Season 4 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast in May. Host Sarah Thorne recently talked 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, about the EWN Podcast and what’s ahead for Season 4.   The EWN Podcast launched July 2020 and, as Todd notes, “We have been amazed by the interest in the topic and the support of our listeners. At the end of March 2022, we reached a milestone with over 16,000 individual downloads of the Podcast!” Our listener base continues to grow. The EWN Podcast has tapped into the fast growing podcast industry. One of our goals in Season 4 is to break into the top 10% of podcasts—currently those that have 333 or more episode downloads in their first 7 days of availability. Season 3, Episode 10 had 278 downloads in the first 7 days, ranking in the top 12%-15%.   Jeff adds, “It’s really been interesting to see the number of people reaching out to talk more about the episodes and expressing interest in the various topics covered.” Todd agrees, “There is clearly a strong interest and desire to engage on EWN topics and nature-based solutions to tackle complex issues, including climate change.”     The theme for Season 4 is Up, Up, Up with Nature-Based Solutions. As Todd explains, “We've entered a critical decade with respect to climate change. Harm is unfolding at a faster pace than was expected, and we need to increase the scale of our interventions. I'm excited about the idea of scaling up, up, up with nature-based solutions. To produce large-scale projects, you have to partner and collaborate at a commensurate scale, depth, and substance of the problems that you’re trying to address. This must involve partnering across government agencies and, in particular, partnering between government and the private and nonprofit sectors. To be successful, we must have a multisector conversation about nature-based solutions and how we can deliver them together.”   Get ready to join us and our Season 4 guests as we discuss scaling up the application of innovative EWN and nature-based solutions. We’ll be talking about the leadership, partnerships, collaborations, science, and technology needed to successfully address a broad a range of landscape-scale challenges.     You can join the conversation by going to the EWN website www.engineeringwithnature.org or wherever you get your podcasts.   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

Nature-based solutions – or NBS – are front and center in major policy changes in the US  (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_Investment_and_Jobs_Act) that emphasize the urgent need to take action to build climate resiliency and significantly renew and upgrade the country's infrastructure. In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are joined by Steve Thur, Director of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NCCOS is the marine science entity of the National Ocean Service, and its role is to serve the science needs of NOAA, other federal and state government partners, and decision makers. We discuss how the practice of Engineering With Nature and the application of NBS are evolving, and the importance of protecting critical coastal ecosystems. We're also telling the story of a powerful collaboration and partnership between the USACE and the NOAA.   Todd and Steve begin by talking about the challenges and opportunities in working jointly across the boundaries of organizations in a “whole-of-government” approach. Their collaboration started with a workshop in 2016 to discuss the shared interests and synergies between USACE and NOAA on using natural and nature-based features to improve coastal resilience and increase environmental value and social benefits. Six years later the collaboration is still paying dividends.   Steve’s initial interest in EWN was the opportunity to apply his personal passion – to wisely use marine resources to make society better – by using science to inform coastal management. His unusual academic background – degrees in biology and economics – come together in his focus on the wise use of marine resources.  As he explains, “EWN solutions offer us the potential for win-win-win solutions – mitigating flood risks, restoring habitats, helping with fisheries, protecting threatened and endangered species, and providing many social benefits, such as recreation. When one application or project can touch on so many societal benefits, I see that as a huge win for efficiency and it’s something we should be involved in.”   Todd relates the challenges along the coasts, home to 40% of the American population, to a previous EWN Podcast episode (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dreamt-land-rebalancing-the-system/id1528233207?i=1000552624812) where we discussed the need to rebalance California’s inland water system. “Because of the development that's occurred along our coasts in the last 150 years, we also need to rebalance coastlines and find opportunities to harmonize engineering with natural systems to make our coasts more resilient. To create that kind of integration requires USACE and NOAA, with their respective mission sets, to find the complementarity needed to pursue these kinds of integrated solutions.  NOAA-NCCOS is leaning into this with us and it's producing great outcomes.”   The first two projects that the USACE and NOAA-NCCOS collaborated on were located at Mordecai Island, NJ and Swan Island, MD, a part of the Martin National Wildlife Refuge at Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay. In both cases, dredged material was used to rebuild eroding islands, providing coastal protection and wildlife habitat, along with social benefits. Steve notes that the Swan Island Project demonstrates how a relatively small investment in science by NOAA can be used to effectively leverage larger investments by organizations like the USACE. He adds, “We're collecting this data, not only to monitor the performance of Swan Island, but hopefully to inform future similar projects done around the country. How can we demonstrate that this is effective from an engineering standpoint, from an ecological standpoint and from a social standpoint, and if it works here, what we can take and apply in different regions to ‘green up’ additional practices to get these win-win-win solutions?”   These projects have generated a lot of interest with policy and decision makers in Washington DC. As Steve describes, “We sponsored an ‘all interested’ staff briefing on Capitol Hill several years ago that had 82 participants, at least 45 of those were congressional staffers who work directly for Committees responsible for drafting legislation, for oversight of Executive Branch Agencies, and the personal staff of individual members of Congress. Having 40 or more congressional staff at one time hearing a message about partnership, engineering, and nature is unheard of. It was a tremendous success, and we came out of it with numerous follow-up actions and a lot of inquiries from people interested in learning more about what we were doing.” Follow-up included an on-site visit to the Swan Island project area with Congressional staffers, members of Congress from the area, and staff from the Maryland Governor’s office. For participants, the first-hand experience of the site visit was invaluable.   Recent outreach to policy and decision makers included a https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?p=5922 on the https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4351 by Todd to the White House Coastal Resilience Interagency Working Group in September, 2021. In March 2022 Steve and Todd, along with Dr. Sherry Hunt of the US Department of Agriculture, provided https://science.house.gov/hearings/from-gray-to-green-advancing-the-science-of-nature-based-infrastructure From Gray to Green: Advancing the Science of Nature-based Infrastructure to the House Science, Space, & Technology Committee. Steve highlighted three research gaps: the need to continue to assess performance of NBS; the need to quantify ecosystem services that NBS provide; and the need to understand the public’s perceptions of NBS. Todd reflected on the Members’ interest in how this translated to their districts: “I found it very motivating, having this opportunity to testify, and the really serious way our legislators are attending to this opportunity of nature-based solutions.” Steve added: “The Members shared some personal stories about their experiences being out in nature and looking at some of the benefits that we get from natural and nature-based features for their local communities. This really underscored for me that NBS are applicable across our great nation for both risk reduction and ecological service provision.”   We close the episode by discussing what is next for broader collaboration between NOAA and the USACE on EWN.  As Steve notes, NOAA is going to use their specialized skills and capabilities to evaluate the performance of NBS over time: “This year we're going to start a research program to look at multiple nature-based features that have already been constructed. We're going to assess them for their current status and compare those to the ‘as built’ conditions from several years ago. We hope to be able to discern how they have performed and evolved over time. We're also looking to get baseline data on new projects.” Todd adds that the need to measure performance of NBS in coastal systems is very important: “Developing resilience along our coastlines is not a battle of a few years. It's a battle of decades. We really have to take a long view, and fortunately, in the case of NBS, there are natural analogs ­– 500,000 acres of mangroves around Florida, millions of acres of wetlands along our coastlines. There's so much known about these systems already. There's an opportunity to understand the performance of these systems.” EWN also has a https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/considering-and-evaluating-the-benefits/id1528233207?i=1000539068621 underway now that will provide insights for evaluating and documenting the comprehensive benefits produced by NBS projects, including the engineering, economic, environmental, and social value of projects.   The partnership between NOAA-NCCOS and USACE really demonstrates the power of bringing people and organizations with diverse experience together to deliver nature-based solutions to produce coastal resilience.   Related Links
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/
- http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=423
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-bridges-06917310/
- https://n-ewn.org/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4174
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4351
- https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/02/01/2021-02177/tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad

In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, continue the discussion with Mark Arax, author of The Dreamt Land. In Episode 8 we discussed Mark’s book about the history of California and “the great water experiment”, much of which has taken place in the San Joaquin Valley over the past 100 years. Today the Valley, the most productive agricultural region in the world, is running out of water due to a combination of climate change, expansion of agriculture, urban development, and a century of trying to control nature. How this system can be rebalanced is where we start the conversation.   According to Mark, “water becomes a metaphor to tell the story of California itself – the Golden State, the myth, the place where so many people have come to reinvent themselves”.  Both Mark and Todd grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, where their grandparents came to start a new life. Mark’s grandfather fled the Armenian genocide in the 1920s: “As the train was chugging into the Valley, he said, ‘it looks just like the old land’. It might have looked like the old land on the surface, but it turned out to be something quite different. So, the book is a kind of memoir – an exploration of place, people and family.” Todd’s grandparents came to California in the tumultuous 1930’s as part of the significant migrations caused by an economic depression combined with the climate hazard in the form of severe drought better known as the ‘dust bowl’ in the Midwest and Southern Plains.     Climate continues to shape California, as Todd notes, “swinging from wet to dry, wet to dry, and those swings are becoming more extreme. The Valley now is basically a human creation with the exclusion of nature bringing consequences in terms of an unbalanced condition. If, with Engineering With Nature, we can reintroduce the ‘natural’ back into the system, we can help support and achieve a rebalancing.”   There are examples of rebalancing underway. On his recent visit to the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge near Modesto, California, Todd saw how the 7,000 acre refuge is being restored “to what it looked like back in 1772 when Pedro Fegas first visited that portion of the State.” Wetlands and rivers are coming together, to store flood waters and, at the same time, contribute to recharging groundwater. He adds, “it’s landscape features like that, reintroduced into the network of agriculture, that can support the rebalancing of the system which is necessary to sustain the Valley and the people within the Valley.”   Restoring California’s natural systems will be challenging.  Mark comments that “while California is one of the most progressive states in many respects, it is one of the last to regulate the extraction of groundwater. It took us 175 years of development before we decided that people living on the land could not just dig a well and extract to their heart's delight.” In 2014 California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which requires watershed basins to have a plan to avoid drawing out more water than nature replenishes by 2034. Mark adds, “this is going to be a huge kind of correction. The ground is sinking, so much water is coming out. To come to a sustainable equation is going to require the fallowing of a million and a half acres in the San Joaquin Valley alone. But this does open up new opportunities. What do you put on that land? Do you put millions of solar panels to capture the sun and create energy? Do you let a portion of those rivers run wild again? Do you bring back the salmon runs that have gone nearly extinct?”   From Todd’s perspective, “rebalancing is hard because it involves not just the individual, but collective action. It's going to involve some pain because there's no pain-free change, especially change on a large scale. People and institutions must have time to adjust. Ultimately rebalancing should deliver a future for California, and for the San Joaquin Valley, which is even better, brighter.” His vision for the future involves “a network of natural features --like the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge – restored into the Valley that allow and support groundwater recharge and provide all the social value and equity those kinds of spaces can provide.” Mark and Todd discuss the possibility of restoring some portion of Tulare Lake, the now extinct California lake that used to cover more than 800 square miles in wet years.  It was drained in the 1920s as part of the transformation of the Valley into an agricultural center. Mark adds, “to see some of that come back would be wonderful.”   Given the urgency that climate change brings to an already unsustainable situation, there is a need and opportunity to apply EWN now as part of the solution to help rebalance California. Todd notes, “it's going to take thought, engagement and conversation. The Corps of Engineers will be doing research and demonstration projects, working with the California Department of Water Resources, along with other organizations and people in California, to try and make a positive contribution. During my recent travels, I’ve seen great interest in EWN and nature-based solutions. Our hope is to be able to contribute to that dialogue and have the kind of impact at a landscape scale that would make a meaningful difference for people and for communities within California.”   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Network of Engineering With Nature

 

• EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: The San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge: A Natural Landscape Revived
• EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present and Future from the Air
• EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: Engineering Water in California and the Case of the San Joaquin River
• San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge
• Pedro Fages expeditions to the San Joaquin Valley
• Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley

 

• EWN Podcast S2E7i: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources
• EWN Podcast S2E7ii: Integrating EWN into Critical Watershed Projects in California

 

• Mark Arax
• The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust across California
• The King of California: J.G. Boswell and the Making of A Secret American Empire
• How we drained California dry: A story of remaking the land and taking the water until there was nothing left – MIT Technology Review
• History of Water Development and the State Water Project – CA Department of Water Resources
• California State Water Project
• California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)
• Tulare Lake
• Joan Didion Essay: Holy Water

Bounded by two mountain ranges, the 450 mile long Central Valley dominates the middle of California and covers about 11% of the State. The Central Valley is divided into two parts: the northern Sacramento Valley and the southern San Joaquin Valley. Technically, because it averages less than 10 inches of rain a year, the San Joaquin Valley is a desert. And thanks to what is called the “great water experiment” of the last 100 years, it is the most productive agricultural region in the world, with more than 250 crops under cultivation. But the current system and approaches are unsustainable.   In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are joined by author Mark Arax. Mark's recent book, The Dreamt Land, describes in very personal terms the history of California’s water challenges, it’s unprecedented irrigation experiment and the emerging threats of climate change. Both Mark and Todd grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and were shaped by their early experiences, including the irrigation canals that sliced through their communities. As Mark notes: “It never occurred to me back then to ask, why are there irrigation canals? Where is that water coming from? Where is it going to? Who is it going to? This was the story of the reinvention of California.” Water became the central metaphor of The Dreamt Land. For Todd “the frogs, minnows and water striders of an irrigation canal were my introduction to aquatic ecology, which has everything to do with my career in life. It was only moving away and looking at it from another place and reading about it that I come to have a deeper understanding of what the Valley was in the past, what it is today, and some of the tensions that exist.” According to Mark, the Central Valley is “the strangest desert it can be” because of the lack of rainfall from April to October, but in the past, before people intervened, it also featured a number of significant rivers running through it, interior lakes, and in heavy snow and rain years, one of the “greatest wetlands in the world”. Those who came to California to farm this fertile ground believed those rivers had to be “conquered”. In the 1920s Tulare Lake, which would have covered more than 800 square miles in wet years, was drained using levees and pumps – extraordinary engineering that transformed the land into the richest cotton plantation in America.   Mark has spent 30 years trying to understand the history and continuous transformation of California and the Central Valley. The Dreamt Land tells the stories of the farmers, and prospectors, and miners who were drawn to California’s bounty. “The gold rush is not something of the past,” Mark says. “We had to stop the gold rush experiment because it was fouling all the rivers. But then we started the experiment of water extraction and soil extraction. That gold rush mentality has never left California.”   Todd recently toured the Central Valley by helicopter with leadership from the Corps of Engineers and colleagues from the California Department of Water Resources and saw the Valley from a new perspective. His blog, The California Swing, tells the story. He notes that the result of “mining” water through human intervention and engineering has transformed the Central Valley into a vast agricultural landscape. “California is the number one agricultural state in the country with $50 billion a year in farm-level sales. Of that $50 billion, more than $34 billion comes from the eight counties in the San Joaquin Valley. Fresno County, where Mark and I are both from, is the number one agricultural county in the US – all of this made possible by water engineering.”   One of the challenges in the West is the vast swings between droughts and floods. “All of those water moving systems in the Central Valley were designed to even out the differences, to somehow soften that swing from drought to flood,” Mark says. “It was magical. We defied gravity with that system, moving water from one end of the state where it rained, to the other end of the state, where there wasn't enough water. And we did a pretty good job. But when you look at climate change now, hitching on to the inherent wild swings in weather, all bets are off. This is what we're confronting today.”   Todd agrees, adding: “With that artificiality comes consequence, in terms of poor air quality, water quality problems, and social inequity. Almost 25% of the population of the San Joaquin Valley lives below the poverty level, alongside very significant profit and wealth being generated within and across agriculture. From the philosophical point of view, imposing artificial landscapes upon a system brings forward these kinds of tensions and problems.”   The vast pumping of groundwater has expanded agriculture well beyond what is sustainable. In the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley, portions of the land subsided as much as 30 feet. The 444-mile-long California Aqueduct is sinking, and losing the gravity flow it depends on to move water from north to south. According to Mark: “In the San Joaquin Valley, we have 6 million acres of farmland. To get sustainable, we're probably going to have to lose a million and a half of those acres. That's an extraordinary transformation backward to making this land natural.”   Todd closes the episode by acknowledging the importance of agriculture, while highlighting the need for balance: “We don’t have modern civilization without farmers and farms. Agriculture is so important to humanity, to California, and to the San Joaquin Valley. The question is balance. Understanding history is vitally important in understanding how to rebalance. How to get to a more stable equilibrium, within science – a rebalance of the system, the social and the ecological.”   In Episode 9, Todd and Mark return to continue the discussion about what must be done, and how this rebalancing could draw on Engineering With Nature approaches.   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Network of Engineering With Nature

 

• EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present and Future from the Air
• EWN On the Road Blog: The California Swing: Engineering Water in California and the Case of the San Joaquin River
• Garden of the Sun: A History of the San Joaquin Valley
• EWN Podcast S2E7i: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources
• EWN Podcast S2E7ii: Integrating EWN into Critical Watershed Projects in California
• Pedro Fages expeditions to the San Joaquin Valley

 

• Mark Arax
• The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust across California
• How we drained California dry: A story of remaking the land and taking the water until there was nothing left – MIT Technology Review
• History of Water Development and the State Water Project – CA Department of Water Resources
• California State Water Project
• Tulare Lake

Imagine if we could use plants to help solve complex engineering problems, while enhancing natural ecosystems. And what if we could use plants – and the process of planting – to restore damaged ecosystems, and in the process, build community resilience? Our guests are doing just that, and a lot more!   In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, are joined by Tosin Sekoni, Research Ecologist, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Art Froehlich, CEO of AgriView, and partner in The Communities for Life Network. They’re talking about the importance of plants in the design of natural infrastructure to increase both ecosystem and community resilience. As Jeff notes: “The idea of plants being the fulcrum, engaged on multiple levels of creating benefit, really aligns with the EWN Program and how we seek to enhance social, economic, and environmental benefits.”   Tosin and Art’s deep connections to farming have shaped their respective life’s work. Tosin grew up in Nigeria and enjoyed spending time with her father on his hobby farm. In college, visiting national parks and wilderness areas reinforced her love of nature and her desire to focus her career on working on environmental issues. Over the past few years with USACE, she has been focused on how plants can be used to provide multiple benefits, especially in the context of climate change. She notes that plants, historically undervalued resources, can help regulate micro-climates and mitigate erosion and desertification. And when plants die, they become a major component of soil aggregate. Tosin is lead author on a new manual being developed within the EWN Program entitled Engineering With Nature: Integrating Plant Communities into Engineering Practice.   Art grew up on a small farm in Saskatchewan with livestock and crops. His study of soil science as part of his agriculture degree fueled his “preoccupation with the top meter of soil that drives absolutely everything. How can that top meter of soil be made more productive, more sustainable, and more environmentally supportive?” Art believes that agriculture is an important element in addressing climate change. “When first introduced to Engineering With Nature, I had never heard of it, but inherently, it was part of everything that we do on the farm. I'm a firm believer that agriculture, globally, can play a huge role in solving our climate issues if we go about doing things the right way.”   Art’s focus on using plants that are more water and nutrient-use efficient, drove his lifelong interest in agriculture-based philanthropy. Through a partnership with Jack Neufeld, founder of the Communities for Life Network foundation, Art and his family translated their passion and agronomy expertise into helping improve nutrition for the people living in the arid, mountainous community of Manchay, Peru. Over time they realized that in addition growing plants and crops, the foundation could help produce other benefits for the community such as increasing the organic matter in soil, using wash water from homes to create simple irrigation systems, providing better seeds and tools, and hiring a local agronomist. The gardening school they started has had about 400 women graduate from the six-month program. Their next objective is to help the community gardeners produce more food than they need so they can create economic benefits by selling their crops at local markets or to neighbors. According to Art: “The changes have been rather dramatic, not just providing more and better nutrition to the families in the area but seeing the enthusiasm of the gardening school participants. Most of the graduates were farmers who left the Eastern part of Peru where the Shining Path revolutionaries were. We’re rekindling their love of farming while helping them become self-sufficient and resilient.”   Innovation is a key part of both Art and Tosin’s work.  One example is Tosin’s field workshop with the Galveston District. The workshop was designed to demonstrate how plant species could assist in securing and supporting engineered structures in a dredge material placement area, such banks, and dikes, by attenuating waves, helping to restrain shore movement, building elevation, and increasing the strength and effectiveness of the structures.  The result was a self-perpetuating ecosystem that provided habitat for wildlife. Through this and subsequent workshops with federal and state agencies, academia, and non-government organizations, Tosin and her USACE colleagues continue to demonstrate the importance and value of using plant species to create ecosystems and innovative eco-engineering solutions.   Art talks about one of the unique innovations being deployed in Manchay, Peru – an arid, mountainous region, “Cloud catchers”, which are sheets of fibrous mesh or cloth, are strung up in higher elevation areas to extract water from fog in the clouds.  This water is then used by the community for watering livestock and for irrigating gardens. As Art notes: “Innovation is all about getting the community involved. Don’t come in as the great hope for their salvation. Really understand what their needs are and try to fulfill that.”   Listeners are encouraged to consider using plants to protect and restore ecosystem and produce social and economic benefits. According to Tosin: “No matter how small or how big, you can always incorporate planting into your immediate environment. I have seen examples of people building ecosystems in their own yard, gardening in their backyard, or their front lawn. Just go ahead -- plant species are so important.” Art adds: “Think small, think local regardless of where you are. The best solutions are done at the local level.”  Jeff wraps up the episode with his own call for action: “For our practitioners and others in communities that are thinking about how to create resilience, or how can you create more benefit for a community, stop and reflect about plants, plant species, and what might be opportunities to integrate plants into these various projects.”     Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Jeff King at EWN
• Network of Engineering With Nature

 

• Tosin Adetayo-Sekoni at LinkedIn
• Tosin Sekoni at EWN
• Tosin Sekoni at Lamar University
• ERDC Corporate Communications Office – Courtney would know.

 

• Art Froehlich at LinkedIn
• Communities for Life
• ‘Cloud catchers’ aid parched Peruvians

https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?p=6272, Applying EWN Strategies at National Parks and Refuges, we featured a robust discussion about the significant impacts of climate change on National Parks and Wildlife Refuges and how Engineering With Nature approaches are being used to protect these precious natural resources and make them more resilient. In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, continue the discussion with Rebecca Beavers, Coastal Geology and Adaptation Coordinator for the National Park Service and Scott Covington, Senior Ecologist for Refuges within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They’re talking about the importance of connecting people with nature through the parks and refuges and helping them to better understand climate change.   The 2016 https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/10-31-2016-handbook-release.htm, which Rebecca co-edited for the National Park Service, emphasizes the importance of letting people see the challenges facing the parks, along with how nature-based solutions are being deployed. Rebecca describes how the Park Service is adapting to climate change, including how the Service interacts with visitors and other stakeholders: “Some of our parks, for example, https://www.nps.gov/caha/index.htm, are incredibly low lying. People have to watch for timing for when they can actually visit. It doesn't have to be a Nor'easter storm pushing a lot of water into the shoreline. Some of our parks, such as https://www.nps.gov/guis/index.htm, can see flooding due to a large rain event.” As a result, the National Park Service and partners such as Western Carolina University are conducting https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/vulnerability.htm, looking at where trails, parking lots, and campgrounds are located and having to make some difficult choices. “Part of our mission is for visitor use today, and for the enjoyment and use for future generations. So, we’re looking at what we can do now, but also planning for the future and looking at where some of those major impacts are coming from, not only coastal change, but also climate change.”   Scott notes that for some people, “the proof is in the pudding”. Comparing an area before and after a project is often the best way to help people understand what is being done to protect refuges. He describes challenges related to a 4,000 acre https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Prime_Hook/what_we_do/marshrestoration.html at the https://www.fws.gov/refuge/prime_hook/ on a barrier island: “It took a lot of effort by the Refuge to communicate and convince people that we're not going to compromise the integrity of their town. We're not going to affect your road to get to your beach. That’s what happened historically. The road often flooded, and the community was really afraid that the work that we were doing was going to make the problem worse. But by broadening the beach, bringing in more coarse sand and gravel to that area, as the storm surge hits that beach, it loses energy, and it starts dropping the sediment out. Since the project was completed in 2016, flooding the town and the road doesn't happen anymore. We were able to use an EWN approach to fix the problems.”   Scott goes on to describe the “phenomenal wildlife benefits” from this project: “We’ve never had Piping Plovers, a threatened species, nest there.  Now we have Piping Plovers and Least Terns nesting, and Horseshoe Crabs are using the area. So, not only have we provided the community a benefit, we’re actually accomplishing what we set out to do with wildlife.”   Rebecca adds that sometimes the mission on a project can change with stakeholder input. She describes how the initial intent of a project at https://www.nps.gov/cana/index.htm in Florida was to protect some archeological resources, while providing some additional natural resource benefits: “As the project has grown over 14 years, we have seen a lot of stakeholder engagement, over 64,000 volunteers. This major lagoon restoration project has improved water quality, reduced the nutrient load, and increased clarity of the water. At http://shuckandshare.org/projects.html, we're looking at a successful community-based, partner-driven restoration. We've seen 91 oyster reefs restored and over two miles of shoreline stabilized. This has been a phenomenal project.” Rebecca goes on to describe how over 700,000 pounds of oyster shells that would otherwise go to a landfill are being used to help stabilize a section of shoreline: “These are the kinds of projects that appear to be a great win-win, but they also take a tremendous amount of collaboration and partner effort.”   Rebecca and Scott encourage listeners to get involved with their parks and refuges.  Rebecca charged listeners to explore and support their national parks: “These parks are special places set aside for the benefit of all people. They are your parks. They are your refuges. Visit them. Learn about them. Talk about them and where you can, advocate for them. Because as Scott said, funding is a challenge for managing some of these places that are threatened by some of these major climate change impacts.”   Scott asked listeners to think about the natural features in their community and what is important to them personally: “What are the natural features that you're really interested in? Do you enjoy kayaking? Do you enjoy fishing? Go visit your local refuges. Look at what benefits they provide to you and think about that in the context of sea level rise. What other benefits are they providing? However you want to define it, there are more benefits than just the fact that it's pretty to look at, or it provides a place for wildlife. There are multiple benefits that come from protecting and using nature to help us restore systems.”   Jeff wraps up the episode by thanking the National Park Service and the Wildlife Refuge System for being wonderful partners, commenting that the EWN Program is going to be collaborating on more projects to build resilience in parks and refuges: “We’ll be looking at some really different strategies and solutions that we'd like to be able to deploy and evaluate their performance. Through these projects which incorporate EWN approaches, we hope to help preserve parks and refuges for future generations.” Related Links
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/
- http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-king-85195413
- https://ewn.el.erdc.dren.mil/bios/bio_king_jeffrey.html
- https://n-ewn.org/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4174
 
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-beavers-ph-d-7a850b11/
- https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/10-31-2016-handbook-release.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/vulnerability.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/caha/index.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/guis/index.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/cana/index.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/cana/index.htm
- http://shuckandshare.org/projects.html
- https://www.ucf.edu/news/disney-pays-kudos-to-ucf-biologist-for-efforts-to-save-local-lagoon/
- https://sciences.ucf.edu/biology/ceelab/restoration/
- https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/Coastal-Adaptation-Case-Studies-508.pdf
- https://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisit/ship-island.htm
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Climate change and the imperative to take action now is top of mind following the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The effects of climate change – rising sea levels, changing temperature and precipitation patterns, wildfires  and many other changes impact vulnerable natural resources, including national parks and wildlife refuges. In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are joined by Rebecca Beavers, Coastal Geology and Adaptation Coordinator for the National Park Service and Scott Covington, Senior Ecologist for Refuges within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rebecca and Scott share a strong commitment to protecting our national parks and wildlife refuges by making them more resilient to the changing conditions exacerbated by climate change. Teddy Roosevelt established the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1903 at Pelican Island, Florida, originally a five-and-a-half-acre island dedicated to saving Brown Pelicans from being over-harvested for their feathers. Sea-level rise and erosion have reduced Pelican Island to about two acres. “Thanks to an Engineering With Nature solution put in place about 20 years ago, that trend has been reversed,” Scott says. Pelican Island now stands at about three acres.  Scott describes how climate change is affecting refuge management today: “Refuges are typically established with a specific purpose, like protecting waterfowl, but because of the impact of climate change, we may not have waterfowl there anymore. We really need to be shifting our mindset about how we are managing that specific refuge, looking from a broader context, thinking about things like biodiversity. We want to look at the shorebirds, the wading birds, or whatever species and habitats are in that particular area and plan for species that are probably going to be leaving the area and new species that will probably be coming because of the shifts in climate.” Rebecca sees similar threats in her work with the National Park Service: “Many of these parks are changing in tremendous ways. Drought in the west is often followed by wildfire and following wildfire we’re seeing landscape changes from major debris flows–cascades of water and rocks that come down the hillsides. These can affect homes, infrastructure, along with the habitats of the plants and animals which are very much affected.” Rebecca adds that the effects on natural features can be significant, “A freshwater marsh may become brackish where it has some of the saltwater components, or it may become a fully saline marsh–what we call a saltmarsh.” These changing conditions add complexity to the challenge of protecting and preserving the parks, along with the many physical structures of historical significance. “We also have to look at some of the other stressors that we put on the landscape. In some of these places we built dams that are great for hydroelectric power, but it also has an impact of holding up sediment further up the watershed.” Rebecca and Scott share several examples of EWN approaches being used to protect parks and refuges and make them more resilient.  At Fort Pulaski National Monument, on the Savannah River in Georgia, and Fort Massachusetts, on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Mississippi, beneficial use (BU) of sediment reduces coastal erosion and returns beneficial sediment to the system. Thin layer placement (TLP) of dredged sediments builds up sinking wetlands at the Chafee Refuge in Rhode Island, and in turn, protects and preserves wildlife habitat. Scott says, “Sea level rise is starting to eat away at the marsh, and we're having some marsh die off, along with the plants. With TLP, we’re taking some dredge materials and actually stacking it on top of the marsh to buy some time. We've added a little bit to the elevation, and that gives vegetation a shot in the arm.” Rebecca adds that TLP was used on the Big Egg Marsh Project in Jamacia Bay, Gateway National Recreation Area, New York in 2003.  The Marsh is currently being resurveyed to provide insight into the effectiveness of the project and natural adaptation.  Collaboration is a key theme throughout this episode.  The leading-edge work at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the adjacent Harriet Tubman Underground Railway Park in Maryland is a great example of NFS, NPS, USACE, and several other non-government organizations working together to protect the marsh and this important historical landmark.  According to Scott, “This is a really good demonstration project to show what you can do when you work together with what nature gives you.” In closing the show, Jeff notes, “I’m truly moved by the energy and the enthusiasm and the wonderful examples that have been shared. Thank you to the Wildlife Refuge System and the National Park Service for being wonderful partners throughout the years. Their work is really accelerating practice and will continue to do so.” In Episode 6, Rebecca, Scott, and Jeff return to talk about working together on adaptive management strategies for the parks and refuges, and what individuals can do to help protect and preserve these priceless resources.   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Jeff King at EWN
• Network of Engineering With Nature
• EWN Atlas Series
• Rebecca Beavers at LinkedIn
• National Park Service Coastal Adaptation Strategies Handbook
• Olympic National Park and the Elwha Valley
• Fort Pulaski National Monument
• Gulf Islands National Seashore
• Fort Massachusetts – Gulf Islands National Seashore
• Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge
• Gateway National Recreation Area, Jamaica Bay Unit
• In the Field: Restoring Big Egg Marsh
• National Park Service Climate Change Response Program
• National Park Service Coastal Geology Program
• Scott Covington at LinkedIn
• Climate Adaptation Science Centers
• Climate Change Page at USFWS
• National Wildlife Refuge System
• National Wildlife Refuge System History
• Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge
• John H. Chafee National Wildlife Refuge
• Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
• Hurricane Hugo
• Hurricane Sandy
• EWN Podcast S3E4: Engineering With Nature for Safe and Livable Cities

How can Engineering With Nature approaches make urban landscapes more livable? In this episode, host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, the Army’s Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science and National Lead for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature Program, are talking with planners from two very different cities – New York City and Fort Collins, Colorado. Our guests are Adam Parris, Deputy Director for Climate Science and Services at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency, and Jennifer Shanahan, Senior Watershed Planner in the Natural Areas Department, at the City of Fort Collins, Colorado. Both are working to support their city’s efforts to make urban communities safer, more sustainable, and more resilient.   Cities are increasingly important. As Todd notes, “in 1950, about one third of the world's population lived in a city. Today, half of the world's population lives in a city and estimates are that by mid-century, nearly two-thirds of the world's population – over 7 billion people – will live in a city. We need cities to be safe and livable and support human well-being.”  Confronted with the challenges of climate change – extreme heat, drought, flooding, and so on – integrating EWN approaches, including natural infrastructure, is critical to making cities safe and livable. Fort Collins and New York City demonstrate the value of such approaches.   In Fort Collins, situated in Northern Colorado where the mountains meet the plains, the Cache la Poudre River flows through the heart of downtown. The city owns most of the floodplain. Jen and her colleagues are responsible for a variety of initiatives, from monitoring the overall health of the river and the floodplain, to bringing science into decision-making that enables integrated management to support multiple uses of floodplain properties. They are also working on several restoration projects in collaboration with multiple stakeholders. The city manages 40,000 acres of nature and more than a hundred miles of walking and biking trails which allows residents abundant access to nature. As Todd describes it, based on a recent visit (https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4226), “People who work in downtown Fort Collins take time out of their lunch hour to walk these trails. You could be in the middle of nowhere for all you know, walking this beautiful trail, but you're right next to your office and downtown Fort Collins.”   In contrast, New York City, with a population of over 8 million people, is a much larger and more complex urban setting.  Still, as Adam says, “we have many pockets of nature. I'm heartened by the fact that there is nature everywhere in New York City. We have 10,000 acres of natural areas, accessible by walking, by bike, by subway and people really value them. But it's not what people traditionally think of in New York City – Times Square or Lower Manhattan.” He adds, “if you take the subway to the Broad Channel Station, you can walk a short distance to the https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/jamaica-bay-wildlife-refuge.htm and you are in the National Park System. More people visit the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge every year than Yellowstone Park, even though it’s only a small fraction of the size of Yellowstone.” In his role at the Mayor’s Office for Climate Resiliency, Adam and his colleagues work with multiple city agencies to help build a more vibrant, resilient, and just city for residents and visitors.   Making city landscapes safe and resilient is imperative. As Todd notes, “there are 225,000 square miles of paved surface on the planet – that is the size of Texas. That asphalt and concrete creates vulnerabilities in extreme precipitation events.  We saw a recent example where people in New York City drowned when heavy rain from the storm remnants of Hurricane Ida flooded parts of the city.”   Jen and Adam are both working on mitigating the risks of climate change, including extreme weather events and flooding, by integrating EWN approaches into their urban landscape initiatives. Jen talks about how the Poudre River experiences extreme floods, droughts, fires in the watershed, and urban encroachment. She and her colleagues are working to reconnect the river with its broad flood plain: “By combining engineered approaches with more natural approaches, there is a lot of opportunity to improve the safety and the resilience of each local ‘reach’, or every mile along the river. When we allow the river and the floodwaters to connect to the floodplain, a whole lot of wonderful ecological processes naturally occur.”   Adam describes the need for green infrastructure such as rain gardens, bioswales, and green roofs to slow water down, and keep it from getting into the stormwater system and buildings. “So far, we've been able to install 11,000 curbside rain gardens throughout the city and 70 ‘bluebelts’ – areas where we try to control flood waters by using nature and following the flow of water and where it wants to go, as opposed to having all this water hit impervious surfaces and entering into the storm system.” The benefits are significant: “As we manage storm water during heavy rain events, there's less untreated water flowing into our coastal waterways and the coastal waterways are cleaner. We've seen water quality improve in areas like Jamaica Bay and along the waterfront.”   Todd wraps up the episode by highlighting the need for integrated approaches. “In cities – which are going to be increasingly important to the vast majority of humanity – how do we integrate engineering, and architecture, and infrastructure with nature? We need to recognize that we must incorporate nature into cities so we can preserve our own humanity. There’s a tremendous opportunity and Fort Collins and New York City really provide great examples of what progress looks like – how they are making their cities safe and livable for people by integrating nature into their landscapes.”   Related Links
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/
- http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=423
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-bridges-06917310/
- https://n-ewn.org/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4226
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Law_Olmsted
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford
 
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-parris-b048b96/
- https://www1.nyc.gov/site/orr/index.page
- https://www.nps.gov/gate/learn/historyculture/jamaica-bay-wildlife-refuge.htm
- https://www.centralparknyc.org/
- https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dep/water/types-of-green-infrastructure.page
- https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dep/water/the-bluebelt-program.page
- https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/orr/pdf/Cool_Neighborhoods_NYC_Report.pdf
- https://naturalareasnyc.org/wetlands
- https://naturalareasnyc.org/map
- https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/STEW-MAP/nyc/
 
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-work-shanahan-a2185649/
- https://www.fcgov.com/naturalareas/
- https://www.fcgov.com/poudrereportcard/
- https://www.fcgov.com/utilities/what-we-do/stormwater
- https://www.poudrewatershed.org/
- https://watercenter.colostate.edu/prti/
 
- https://www.caterpillar.com/en/news/caterpillarNews/sustainability/natural-infrastructure-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter.html
- https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/36507
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This episode exemplifies our theme for Season 3 –Creating the Future with EWN. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are talking with three PhD students who are doing truly groundbreaking work: Matt Chambers from the University of Georgia, Joseph Holway from Arizona State University, and Justine McCann from the University of Oklahoma.   These students represent three of the academic institutions associated with the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN) initiated in October of 2020. Education and research are at the heart of the N-EWN. In this episode, we discuss the journeys of Matt, Justine, and Joseph–how they got interested in environmental science, engineering, natural infrastructure, EWN, and their plans for the future. Their paths have similarities: a personal interest in the environment, early exposure to environmental issues, finding an academic advisor whose interests aligned with their own, and then pursuing a PhD focused on a passion. These students are committed to making a difference.   Joseph describes how, as a child, he fell in love with the Grand Canyon and spent a lot of time there, then spent a semester there as an undergraduate that transformed into a years-long job running around the Grand Canyon doing science. “I was like, wow, you’re going to pay me to do these things? I wanted to work towards being more than a lab technician. I met my advisor, Dr. John Sabo, who was doing work in the Mekong River Basin; and now I’m in Cambodia working with fish and looking at how the amount of water and the timing of the water affects a fishery in Southeast Asia on the Mekong River.”   With a background in Mechanical Engineering, Matt struggled to find a long-term path that suited him. He took environmental science courses that aligned with his interest in environmental stewardship. These courses eventually led him to Dr. Brian Bledsoe’s lab where he is working on riverine systems and flood management infrastructure using nature-based features. Dr. Bledsoe is the Director of the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems at the University of Georgia. As Matt describes his work, “Utilizing nature-based features that already perform natural processes that manage floodwaters will be one way that we can make those systems more resilient in the face of climate change.”   Justine has a background in geology. A strong field program at Penn State introduced her to the complex problem of mine drainage prevalent in the coal country of Appalachia. After doing some consulting, she found her path forward: “When I heard my current advisor, Dr. Bob Nairn, talking about that at the Geological Society of America meeting, I thought his approach to it was very interesting.  because it’s such a low-energy approach to solving such a complex problem. I thought it would be a great fit for me to work on these more innovative strategies.”   When talking about the future, the students focused on the key elements of EWN: using science and engineering to produce operational efficiencies to better understand systems and achieve desired outcomes by leveraging natural processes and working collaboratively with local communities. As Justine puts it, “I think that there’s a lot to be said about considering how to work with nature instead of imposing our will on nature. That’s a lot of what EWN is about.”   Joseph’s vision is for future generations to be able to appreciate rivers as he does: “I want to work in a space where I can ensure that rivers are going to flow as wild and as free as possible, but it’s kind of balancing all of the services that rivers provide. In places where there's going to be dams, we can manage them in ways that are least to people downstream, whether it’s fishing for livelihoods or recreating on boats.” Joseph is also dedicated to sharing his knowledge and passion by mentoring and teaching future scientists through the NexGen Mekong Scientists program. Through this program, Arizona State University and the U.S. Department of State partner to build a network of young scientists in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Joseph says it is a two-way street: “As much as I’m able to provide, I feel like I’m getting more back from the folks that are here. There’s a tremendous amount of knowledge that each individual person that I work with in Cambodia has.”   Matt adds that, even as grad students, they can help dispel uncertainties around the application of nature-based solutions through the research projects they are working on. “Then maybe we can get to a place where this is commonplace for engineers, for general engineering practice. I think that would be a big step forward in a transition to a more environmentally sustainable world.” Jeff agrees: “As a graduate student, you may feel sometimes like you’re not quite ready or in a position to be able to communicate information about your work and why it’s important because you’re so relatively new in that career track. But that’s just not true. You’ve got very important messages to share, and you need to be finding those opportunities to get out there and tell people your story.”   November 8 is STEM and STEAM Day, which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The purpose is to inspire students. Joseph, Justine, and Matt offered advice to future students, assuring them that there's no one path; take your time; you don’t have to have it all figured out right now; and above all, follow your passion. As Joseph says, “I wish I’d have learned in grade school that we know so little. There’s so much exploration that’s out there to be discovered. Let your curiosities run wild, dream big and most importantly, embrace, celebrate, and lean into your failures.” Justine adds, “Follow what you’re actually concerned about, like climate change, and put your energy into working on solutions.”    Matt directed his advice to parents: “Take your kids outside. Go somewhere wild and with some acreage and try to open their mind to ideas in science and environmental stewardship. Do everything you can to set them up for an organic experience of total and complete awe with the natural world.”   Jeff wraps up the episode by sharing his excitement for the future: “We are in good hands with this next generation. I feel so good about the passion, the intensity, and the intellect that students—not only the three that we have here today, but students around the globe—are going to bring to this space and help us overcome all the challenges that we have in front of us today.”   Related Links

• EWN Website
• ERDC Website
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Jeff King at EWN
• Network of Engineering With Nature
• University of Georgia, Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems
• Brian Bledsoe at UGA
• University of Oklahoma Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds
• Robert Nairn (thesis advisor for Justine McCann)
• John Sebo, Audacious Water (thesis advisor for Joseph Holway)
• NexGen Mekong Scientists
• Royal University of Agriculture
• STEM and STEAM at Wikepedia
• USACE National STEM Awareness Program
• STEM/STEAM Day

 

• EWN Podcast S1E10 Collaborating with Academia to Create EWN-Focused Scientists and Engineers

EWN Podcast S3E2: Considering and Evaluating the Benefits of Natural Infrastructure

In Episode 1 we discussed the unprecedented opportunity presented by President Biden's January 2021 Executive Order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, to incorporate Engineering With Nature approaches into major infrastructure and climate resilience projects. Factoring the benefits and costs of nature-based solutions into decisions about infrastructure investments is a critical step on the path to sustainability.  This episode continues the discussion with our guests, Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for EWN; Sarah Murdock, Director of US Climate Resilience and Water Policy at The Nature Conservancy; Justin Ehrenwerth, President and CEO of The Water Institute of the Gulf; and Mindy Simmons, Senior Policy Advisor, Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Business Line Manager at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.   Clearly defining the benefits and costs of nature-based solutions is the lever that will determine whether organizations will apply such approaches. As Todd explains it, “For organizations making investments in such strategies, they need to understand, at a fundamental level, the value of these investments. What does natural value mean in the context of that organization’s policies and business processes?” The progress of recent decades in ecosystem service and natural resource economics needs to be translated into practice to realize the true opportunity of engineering with nature.   Within the U.S. Army Corps Engineers, applying standard approaches to cost benefit analysis to natural infrastructure projects has presented challenges and exposed gaps in the process. According to Mindy, “you can’t compare ‘average annual habitat units’ to the dollars and cents that we calculate for the benefits and costs of projects motivated by conventional economic outputs. They’re different ‘currencies’ and neither approach is a good way of accounting for the types of benefits that we typically associate with nature-based solutions, which would include things like flood storage created by a wetland, or health benefits to a disadvantaged community by using an EWN approach versus a sea wall.”   The implications of this challenge are significant.  As Justin notes, “when you don't quantify the environmental and social benefits, not only does that project not move forward for funding, but it sends a message that it's going to be a really high mountain to climb, to actually design, fund, and implement such a project.”   Recent Corps’ policy guidance attempts to address this challenge by calling for consideration of the comprehensive, economic, environmental, and social benefits in its decision framework. As Mindy says, this will allow the Corps to “more clearly demonstrate a significant value to our communities in a way that decision-makers can see and understand beyond just the dollars and cents.”   Sarah is optimistic about this change: “The measuring of ecosystem services, the value of nature to people, the value of water quality, the flood risk reduction, the drought risk reduction – that is going to be a game-changer in driving investment to nature. This will allow us to properly communicate to the public – and the public then communicates with members of Congress and their staff about the benefits of these investments. If we can get it right, then we further increase our ability to unlock the federal, state, and local dollars for nature-based investments.”   Policy research is needed to inform policy development and application to keep pace. Justin and his colleagues at The Water Institute of the Gulf are working with the Corps to assess previous projects with EWN features, in order to inform recommendations on benefit evaluation methods for future projects.  Justin says, “for any methodology to be ultimately adopted by a federal agency like the Corps, it must be rigorous.” Todd adds: “What we're seeking here is to operationalize an advancement in practice, that includes the practical consideration and inclusion of nature in infrastructure projects that is routine – not exceptional – an integrated approach that combines human engineering and nature in a true system that sustains and delivers value.”   As we wrap up this episode, Todd summarizes the significant value potential of working with nature: “There are so many opportunities to create value for all people through investment in nature. And we can create this additional value in ways that compliment human engineering. That is the key point that needs to be raised up the flagpole to the highest point. I'm excited about the future.”   Related Links

• Todd Bridges at EWN
• Sarah Murdock at LinkedIn
• The Nature Conservancy
• Justin Ehrenwerth at LinkedIn
• Justin Ehrenwerth at The Water Institute of the Gulf
• The Water Institute of the Gulf
• Mindy Simmons at LinkedIn
• USACE Ecosystem Management and Restoration Research Program

 

• USACE: USACE awards $10.8M contract to complete Hamilton City levee improvements
• USACE: Hamilton City Flood Damage Reduction & Ecosystem Restoration
• River Partners: Hamilton City Project, Construction Leveraged for Conservation
• USACE: Working to Safeguard Hamilton City