The development and operation of navigation and coastal infrastructure systems are increasingly challenged by the combined influence of weather events, climate, sea level rise, human development, and a range of environmental pressures. This reality has motivated efforts to find ways to more effectively and efficiently integrate natural systems and infrastructure systems to produce desired functions and services. Such efforts support the goal of more sustainable infrastructure that is developed and operated to produce a balanced range of economic, social and environmental benefits.
In 2010, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began its Engineering With Nature (EWN) initiative with the purpose of promoting the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic, environmental and social benefits through collaboration (www.engineeringwithnature.org). The EWN initiative includes a combination of communication, research and development, and demonstration activities that are organized to promote four key elements in infrastructure development and operations: 1) using science and engineering to produce operational efficiencies; 2) applying natural systems and processes to maximum benefit; 3) broadening and extending the benefits provided by projects to include economic, social, and environmental benefits; and 4) employing science-based collaboration to engage, organize and focus interests, stakeholders, and partners.
Through its various activities and projects, the EWN initiative has put an emphasis on innovative teaming and field-demonstration projects as a means of developing and illustrating EWN principles and practices. By drawing together project team members from research and development, field practitioners, project owners, multiple government and private organizations, and academia, we are able to combine the creativity and capability needed to successfully align natural and engineering processes in order to engineer with nature. More than a dozen EWN demonstration projects have been initiated across the United States since 2010 (www.engineeringwithnature.org). These projects are being used to illustrate advancing practice, including in the areas of: 1) sustainable sediment management; 2) engineering with natural materials and plants, and 4) the use of natural systems to support resilience. Three USACE Districts (Galveston, Buffalo, and Philadelphia) have taken on roles as EWN Proving Grounds as a way of transitioning advancements in practice into field implementation. These three Districts have committed themselves to applying EWN principles and practices across their portfolio of programs and projects as a means of pursuing sustainable infrastructure development.
This paper will describe the network of projects have been implemented by the EWN Proving Grounds and others across the USACE as a means of demonstrating the opportunity to innovate to achieve more effective and efficient integration of natural and infrastructure systems. These example projects will include: 1) innovative beneficial uses of dredged material that create natural and engineering value, 2) the operation of navigation infrastructure to enhance ecosystem function, 3) the incorporation of habitat value into existing navigation infrastructure, and 4) the development international guidelines for using natural and nature-based features (NNBF) to enhance coastal and fluvial flood risk reduction and resilience.
NNBF present a particularly important opportunity for the navigation sector because of the influence that navigation infrastructure can have on coastal and fluvial ecosystems, the vulnerability of navigation infrastructure to storms and other natural processes, and the opportunities the navigation sector has to develop projects that produce economic, social and environmental benefits. Nature-based features take a variety of forms, including reefs (e.g., coral and oyster), islands, dunes, beaches, wetlands, and maritime/riparian forests. The relationships and interactions among NNBF and the built infrastructure comprising coastal and fluvial system are important variables determining vulnerability, reliability, risk, and resilience. Nature-based features can support a range of processes, including erosion control and storm risk reduction (e.g., reefs, islands, wetlands), while protecting the economic and social functions provided by navigation channels and ports. A comprehensive approach to navigation infrastructure resilience will seek to integrate nature-based and convention structures to achieve long-term sustainable solutions.
Knowledge about the performance of EWN solutions varies, as do the methods to calculate and measure the performance of infrastructure systems generally. For example, the dynamic behavior and response of NNBF to storms can affect their future performance. Moreover, it is important to design nature-based features in such a way that they will establish and/or re-establish natural processes that will support the adaptive capacity and long-term sustainability of the features. A combination of research and field-scale demonstration projects will help support the innovation needed to engineer with nature for more sustainable infrastructure systems.