EWN - Engineering With Nature

Latest Episodes:

Creative Applications of NBS to Protect and Preserve National Parks Oct 22, 2024

In Season 8, Episode 3, host Sarah Thorne and Amanda Tritinger, Deputy National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Brian Davis, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia (UVA), and Cathy Johnson, Coastal Ecologist, Northeast Region, National Park Service (NPS). Along with their colleagues and collaborators, Brian and Cathy are working with nature and incorporating innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) to combat the significant effects of climate change on three coastal national parks at high risk for extreme storms and rising sea levels.
Brian is passionate about the opportunity that NBS provides to protect natural resources, while also designing for people—protecting the things we value and the way we use public spaces. “Traditionally a lot of design practices saw those two things as separate. One of the amazing things that’s happening through landscape architecture and EWN and NBS is to unify those things.
Cathy is passionate about the NPS’s dual mandate of conserving natural resources and preserving cultural resources. “I feel so lucky to work here to preserve values of the NPS for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” Cathy notes that NPS’s challenging mandate is made all the more difficult by climate change and its broad scale impacts, especially along the coast.
About three years ago, Brian and Cathy formed the Preserving Coastal Parklands Team. The idea was to bring together designers and scientists, as well as engineers and other subject matter experts that could work with NPS in these different contexts and develop new nature-based solutions. Brian and Cathy describe projects that they worked on located at the Colonial National Historical Park, Assateague Island National Seashore, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park.
Asked what they have learned from their experience, both Brian and Cathy note the value of collaboration. “One of the key lessons that we took away” Brian says, “was the value of being able to work with and listen to the people that are managing the landscape—especially the Park staff, but it also other special interest groups, people that go out there for particular reasons, or have some stake in the future of the place and some ideas about it.”
Amanda reflects on how these examples of NBS can be used by others: “What you and your team are building is a framework for how to approach these issues to achieve the compromise of these multiple needs and multiple benefits. You are creating a framework that ideally could be picked up by others in similar situations.”
When asked for their calls to action to listeners, Cathy encouraged people to “Visit your parks and the other natural places around you to better understand what’s at risk from climate change and talk to other folks about it.” Brian’s call to action is one of optimism: “Sometimes, especially studying climate change, the scale of the problem can seem daunting. But just being out in these landscapes—meeting the people that work in them and visit them—leads to ideas about preserving those values and understanding better what’s possible in the future. That fills me with optimism.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/

Channeling our Superpowers for Planetary Health – Continuing our Conversation with Dr. Chris Lemon Oct 08, 2024

In Season 8, Episode 2, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, USACE, welcome back Dr. Christopher Lemon, a physician and Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine; Faculty Codirector of Clinical Programs with the Institute for Planetary Health; and Fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In Episode 1, we talked with Chris about his journey to becoming a medical doctor and an expert and thought leader in the emerging field of planetary health. In this episode, we focus on Chris’s association with the Planetary Health Alliance (PHA) and how he and PHA are helping people understand and adapt to the changing conditions posed by climate change and encouraging people to take action.
As an emergency physician, Chris is attuned to the need to take action. Noting the impacts of climate change—extreme heat, weather, drought, flooding, and disease—Chris contends that all these complicated situations boil down to the fact that Humanity is a part of this planet and that we will all be affected, “If you care about yourself, if you care about the health of your family and your loved ones, you need to act now because there is no question everyone is going to be impacted by climate change.”
Citing The 2023 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, he describes troubling trends such as heat-related deaths of adults over 65 rising by over 80% percent since the 1990s; increased frequency of heat waves and droughts in recent decades, associated with roughly 127 million more people experiencing moderate to severe food insecurity; and new locations now suitable for the transmission of deadly infections. “These impacts could be an early sign of the future that we have in store. I think we’re facing a scenario where things could be potentially catastrophic, and that also means to our health.”
Much of Chris’s efforts in this area is through his association with the PHA, a consortium of more than 450 universities, nongovernment organizations, research institutes, and government entities from more than 75 countries around the world. Launched in 2015, Chris defines Planetary health as “a solutions-oriented transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions on Earth’s natural systems and how that will eventually impact human health, as well as all life on Earth.” Essential to planetary health is the understanding that it’s not just climate change, it’s ‘everything change,’ encompassing the other ways our natural systems are destabilizing due to human influence, such as biodiversity loss, pollution, land use change, water scarcity, nutrient overloading, and marine degradation.
Looking to the future, Chris is excited about the growing movement toward planetary health. His call to action is for listeners go to the PHA website and become a part of the growing community. “This is not a website where you join and it’s just an email that comes out every so often. This alliance is a decentralized community for all stakeholders. We would love to interact and engage with you where you stand. I bet you have a superpower and an expertise that we need in the global community right now.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/

Exploring Dr. Chris Lemon’s Nonlinear Exploration of the Nexus of Climate Change and Health Sep 24, 2024

After another summer of sweltering heat, extreme flooding, and in several places, unprecedented forest fires, we're thinking even more about climate change and about the nexus of climate change and health. In S8 E1, host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Dr. Christopher Lemon, a physician and Asst. Professor, Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine; Faculty Co-Director of Clinical Programs with the JH Institute for Planetary Health; and Fellow with the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the JH Bloomberg School of Public Health. Experts project that over 3 billion people are already vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Chris is using what he calls his “superpowers” to assess how climate change is affecting people's health around the world and take action. He's passionate about making a difference in his community and across the planet.
Chris and Jeff met at a conference at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center where Chris gave a presentation on Climate Change and Global Health. For Chris, the conference was an opportunity to get in front of an audience with different backgrounds but a common interest. “We started to pick up on the mental or physical health implications of some of the EWN projects at military installations. Pretty quickly it became this great synergy of how I bring certain things to the table as part of these complex solutions.” Jeff agrees and notes the magnitude of the opportunity. “These military installations are a wonderful opportunity – across 25 million acres of land – to do something positive for the employees at the installations, the military personnel, and the communities adjacent to military installations. They all can benefit from this interaction with nature.”
Chris compares his experiences in healthcare, particularly with COVID, to the coming challenges he sees with climate change and discusses the alignment of healthcare with EWN. In both, the “traditional” approach has often been to try to control nature to an ever-increasing degree. “Right now, US healthcare contributes roughly 8.5 percent of US emissions. So, we are ‘doing no harm’ with the goal of making people healthy; and yet, ironically, because we're not working within the constructs of nature anymore, we're actually making people unhealthy.” It is this more macro view of climate change and public health that Chris is trying to address at the Institute for Planetary Health. “It focuses on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions on Earth's natural systems. But importantly, those disruptions have impacts on human health and all life on Earth. We are bringing that into the center of the conversation.
Chris’s story resonates with Jeff and what he is seeing and striving for in the EWN community: “Chris, I admire the energy and enthusiasm with which you approach the challenge of planetary health. It's quite evident that you have so much knowledge to share, as well as the energy to make change a reality.” Jeff and Sarah invited Chris back to talk more about the important work being done by the Planetary Health Alliance, a growing consortium of over 450 universities, NGOs, research institutes, and government entities who are committed to understanding and addressing the impacts of global environmental change on human health and wellbeing. Our conversation with Chris continues in Episode 2 on October 9. We hope you enjoy these special episodes!
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/

Season 8 Trailer – Channeling The Energy Sep 10, 2024

As summer wanes and we celebrate back-to-school time with students, parents, and our friends in academia, we’re pleased to launch Season 8 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast! Host Sarah Thorne recently caught up with Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, to discuss what the EWN Team has been up to over the summer, share some highlights from Season 7, and offer a glimpse of what’s ahead in Season 8.
As Jeff describes, the EWN Team has had a busy summer extending the reach of EWN by collaborating with engineering and landscape architect colleagues and working with the EWN Proving Grounds leads on larger, more ambitious projects. “We’ve started to envision really large EWN projects that will be pursued at a systems level so that we can maximize the function and benefits that can be derived from these projects. I'm really excited about having an opportunity to publish these as ‘EWN Playbooks’ and have them available soon.”
The EWN Team is also growing. Steven Bailey, a landscape architect, recently joined the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). His hire reflects the growing importance of landscape architecture in EWN. And continuing EWN’s tradition of training the next generation of EWN practitioners, Claire Middendorf, an Environmental and Ecological Engineering student at Purdue University, completed a summer internship working with Burton Suedel, one of our frequent EWN Podcast hosts.
Jeff is encouraged, and excited about the progress of EWN more broadly within USACE on the contribution EWN and NBS are making to the navigation, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration missions. “Many elements within the USACE are now focused on NBS and wanting to have NBS be prioritized across all of our business lines. The conversations we're having are focused on what can we do as an organization to accelerate implementation of NBS.”
Jeff and the EWN Team continued outreach to external partners to expand opportunities for integration of NBS. They have been reaching out to colleagues in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US and internationally to colleagues with the Environmental Agency in the United Kingdom and the Rijkswaterstaat, which is responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the Netherlands’ primary infrastructure facilities.
The theme for Season 8 is Channeling the Energy. That Jeff explains is inspired by the energy and excitement in the conversations that he has with all the EWN and NBS practitioners, collaborators and educators that he meets. “It's that energy, and it's very contagious. So, that's our theme – channeling the energy.” Listeners can expect another great lineup of episodes in Season 8, including topics such as the nexus of climate change and health, climate policy initiatives being driven by NOAA, how the Navy is incorporating NBS into their plans and projects, and some of the groundbreaking work being done by our EWN colleagues in both the policy and program areas.
Mark your calendar for the launch of Season 8 on September 25! In Season 8, Episode 1, we’re speaking with Dr. Chris Lemon, Johns Hopkins Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, and Fellow of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative. We focus on Chris’s journey into climate change and global health challenges. We hope you’ll tune in.
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/

NBS Policies and Strong Collaboration are Closing the Gaps on Climate Resilience in Arctic Regions Jul 23, 2024

The Arctic is changing more rapidly than anywhere else on earth due to climate change, and this is profoundly impacting the people that live in and depend on the ecosystems in these cold regions. In Season 7, Episode 13, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), welcome back Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. We continue our conversation on how innovative nature-based solutions (NBS) are being used in cold regions.
After recording Episode 12, Laura was headed to the Gaia Arctic Summit held in Vesterålen in Northern Norway. The summit focused on how to accelerate the transition to climate resilience in the Arctic. She returned inspired: “It was fabulous from start to finish. The landscape there is absolutely stunning, and I think seeing it really brought home how important it is that we protect this beautiful area and the people who live there.” The summit brought together people from policy, finance, business, research and innovation, and public administration. “The main message for me is the need to collaborate across disciplines in how we work every day—not just having a meeting once a year but how we work in our daily life and how we plan things.”
Laura goes on to discuss the policies, challenges, and opportunities for advancing NBS in cold regions and some of the efforts going on in Europe. She notes that there is strong explicit support for NBS within the European Green Deal and associated strategies such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030—policies designed to set goals to deliver on international commitments. One of the challenges that Laura notes is aligning policy at various levels, from the high-level European national policies to those on the ground at the local level. Jeff notes a similar challenge in the US: “Even those individuals or organizations that are receptive to the idea of NBS still have their own set of policies, rules, or regulations that they must adhere to and sometimes those can be contrary to the overall goal of integrating NBS into a landscape. We must find that common ground and be able to highlight the value of NBS and what that means for local economies, sustainability, and resilience.”
Laura also notes challenges in valuing NBS and making trade-offs are particularly evident in the Arctic. “Where we see the sea ice dissolving and opening up new transport routes and revealing previously unknown mineral resources, there are all sorts of development possibilities. How do we ensure that the Arctic is developing in a way that’s consistent with the needs and desires of the local populations?”
Looking forward, Jeff highlights the ongoing work at ERDC’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. “We are continuing to prioritize NBS and look for opportunities to integrate NBS concepts and projects into our Arctic communities. International collaboration is something that I want to see EWN continue to support.” Laura agrees with this effort and has a call to action for listeners: “I would ask everybody listening—our global community—to think about a consolidated action plan to engage the full range of stakeholders and move across borders to address the issues of climate change because climate change doesn’t stop at borders. We all have to work together. Only global action is going to have the outcome that we all need.”
We hope you enjoy our final Season 7 episodes on NBS in cold regions with Laura Wendling. Season 8 kicks off in September. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Laura Wendling at LinkedIn

Innovative Nature-Based Solutions in Cold Regions Jul 09, 2024

From Iowa to Australia to Finland, and most recently Norway, Laura Wendling has followed her passion to integrate nature with engineering and technology to create solutions that, as she says, “are workable in lots of different situations, including cold regions.” In Season 7, Episode 12, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Laura Wendling, Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Community in Trondheim, Norway. Jeff and Laura met at a recent conference sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Laura’s interest in innovating with nature was sparked in her undergraduate years while working as a research assistant on a project comping how constructed and natural wetlands purify water from agricultural runoff. “That really got me interested in understanding how we could design natural, or pseudo-natural systems that worked as well or almost as well as the natural system itself—like a real ecosystem.” As she says, her “ah-ha moment” was when she learned about the use of nature-based solutions (NBS): “To have the added emphasis on stakeholder engagement right from the beginning, and making sure that we plan projects so that we’re deriving social and economic benefit in addition to the core target of achieving some kind of ecological outcome—it just made so much sense to me.”
Today, Laura is particularly interested in how climate change is affecting cold regions. “The Arctic is warming at a rate that’s far greater than the rest of the world, and there’s been profound—possibly irreversible—effects on terrestrial, aquatic, freshwater, marine ecosystems, and the cryosphere, as well as the people who live in these areas.” Laura highlights some of her recent projects. In her work at SINTEF, she focuses on water and the environment, everything from water-cycle services and water management to the broader environmental issues associated with climate change.
Laura also talks about the importance of spreading the word about NBS, including her work as coeditor of the Nature Based Solutions Journal and Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: A Handbook for Practitioners. “We can’t do science in secret. We should be telling everybody what we’re doing and sharing our results widely, including the things that don’t work.” Laura also stresses the importance of using these indicators and measures to communicate beyond the scientific community. “To talk with people in different sectors, we need to present information in different ways. Traditionally, we haven’t been as good at talking with the public policy sector. We need better evidence that can help to underpin evidence-based policy.”
Jeff feels that Laura’s travels and experiences have really aligned her focus with the principles and practices of EWN: “Everything you describe speaks volumes in terms of your affinity for EWN. You’ve been in the United States, Australia, Finland, and now Norway. You’ve had exposure to so many diverse ecosystems and so many different people. Those opportunities to learn in those diverse environments will serve you well, both now and in the future. I know you’re going to continue to be a leader in this space.”
Jeff and Sarah invited Laura back for Episode 13 to talk about the policies that are driving strategies for including NBS in Europe.
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Laura Wendling at LinkedIn

Conversations on Climate Change with Katharine Hayhoe Part 3: Inspiring Action – Katharine’s Call to Listeners Jun 25, 2024

In Season 7, Episode 11, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), conclude their in-depth conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Part 3 of our special three-part series, Katharine talks about her role as an advocate and her mission to inspire others to take action on climate change. Her bottom line is that you don’t have to be a top climate scientist to make a difference – we can all get involved.
As a scientist, Katharine is an advocate for understanding the social science of how humans interact with information. “So often we physical and natural scientists feel like: ‘Oh, you just tell people the truth. Surely, they’ll do the right thing, right?’ Well, what social science tells us is no. If we haven’t made that head to heart to hands connection, nothing is going to happen in the right direction, especially pushing against the accumulated inertia of our fossil-fuel based economy and society.”
Katharine notes the work of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, which finds that people’s assumptions about what others think about climate change are usually wrong. “We assume that we care and very few other people do. We assume that we’re doing things and nobody else is. We assume that nobody else is worried except me and my friends. But actually, they’re already worried. They just don’t know what to do. So, they don’t want to talk about it.”
Katharine’s climate change advocacy is focused on talking about and encouraging other people to talk about climate change. She has initiated and supported multiple channels of communications on climate change, including her TED Talk in 2018, The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Fight Climate Change: Talk about It; her personal social media accounts and her Newsletter, Talking Climate; and her work with organizations like the Potential Energy Coalition and Science Moms. Jeff reflects on how inspiring and inclusive Katharine’s message is, to include scientists, ecologists, engineers, social scientists, and artists.” As Katharine describes it, “We need people painting the pictures with words, with art, with music, with visual art, with spoken art, with every way we can.”
Katharine plans to continue her tireless advocacy along many fronts. Her academic work is focused on developing and evaluating high-resolution climate projections and preparing for impacts and increasing resilience planning. As Chief Scientist of TNC, she is dedicated to supporting and advancing the work of TNC scientists. And she is going to continue her work with faith-based communities to advocate for climate action—including being the first plenary speaker at this year’s World Evangelical Alliance annual meeting.
Jeff closes by comparing her skill to another well-known Canadian, “That reminds me of Wayne Gretzky. He basically said, ‘I just skate to where I think or know that the puck is going to be.’ That’s exactly what you’re saying here. We need to be thinking well out into the future and then leaning into those certain outcomes that we can anticipate and planning accordingly.” He adds, “Katharine, the message I am really drawn to is your ‘head to heart to hands’ message. I want to use that and put it into practice in the Engineering With Nature program. It is truly inspirational.” This concludes our conversation with Katharine. We hope you enjoyed this special series! For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

Conversations on Climate Change with Katharine Hayhoe. Part 2: Taking Action and the Role of NBS in Climate Solutions Jun 11, 2024

In Season 7, Episode 10, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), continue their in-depth conversation with Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In Part 2 of our special 3-part series, Katharine talks about taking action—living according to your values and making changes that contribute to climate solutions—and about the critical role of nature-based solutions (NBS) in addressing climate change.
To live up to her personal climate action values Katharine measured her own carbon footprint 12 years ago and when she found that travel was the largest factor, she successfully transitioned over 80% of her talks to virtual. “Then the pandemic hit and I was ready to go.” She notes that when she does travel for an important event, she “bundles” other meetings and speaking opportunities around that event. “When I went to the climate COP two years ago in Egypt, I packed in 55 panels, meetings, talks, and events.”
Katharine believes that communicating the message that climate action is a collective effort that all people can meaningfully contribute to, is essential. “People are worried about climate change, but they don't know what to do about it.” Picking up the analogy she used in S7E9 comparing the work of addressing climate change to moving a giant boulder, Katharine adds: “If we feel like we’re the only hands on the boulder that we’re trying to roll uphill, we will despair. But if we realize there are millions of hands on the boulder, in every country around the world, then we realize we're not alone. That global connectivity is absolutely essential to fixing this problem.”
Katharine goes on to talk about the critical role of NBS as part of the response to climate change, noting that the IPCC estimates that 25% of present-day emissions could be addressed by NBS. “If I see a newspaper headline saying, ‘Is this a silver bullet for climate change?’, I can tell you the answer is no. But I like to say there’s a lot of silver buckshot, and nature is one of our biggest pieces of silver buckshot. I mean, 25% of the climate change pie? That is huge!” She adds that NBS also produces multiple benefits, and notes: “Nature is all through these climate solutions. In fact, I don’t think there’s any way for us to meet our commitments made in the Paris Agreement in 2015, in any way, shape, or form, if we leave nature out of the equation.”
Jeff is highly complimentary of TNC’s work on NBS and highlights the important contribution of TNC in bringing organizations together to collaborate on NBS initiatives such as the Natural Infrastructure Initiative that TNC led along with Caterpillar, USACE, the University of Georgia, and Ducks Unlimited. “When you put TNC in a room with, say, an AECOM or a Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, people start scratching their heads saying, ‘Hmm, what's this all about?’ TNC brings so much interest and awareness to this space, showing how very different entities can work collaboratively to accomplish many of the same goals and objectives that we all share.”
Our conversation with Katharine concludes in Episode 11, which posts on June 26. In our final episode of this series, Katharine focuses on inspiring action, how to learn more about climate change, and how to talk about it with others. We hope you enjoy this special series!!
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

Conversations on Climate Change with Katharine Hayhoe. Part 1: The Injustice of Climate Change May 28, 2024

Katharine Hayhoe is a world-renowned scientist, climate communicator, and passionate advocate for climate equity. She’s a climate ambassador whose message is one of hope. She has dedicated her life to motivating action. Every day. In Season 7, Episode 9, Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) joins host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), for a conversation on climate change that was so deep and wide ranging that we’re going to feature it in a 3-episode series.
Katharine was born in Toronto, Canada, and grew up in a home where science was always front and center. Late in her undergraduate studies in astrophysics, she took a class on climate change, which completely changed her educational path and led to a PhD in atmospheric science. “I found out that climate change affects us all, but it doesn’t affect us all equally. I felt if I had the skill set you need to work on this urgent global issue that affects every aspect of our lives on this planet, if I have those abilities and those privileges, I need to be using them to make a difference.”
Today, as Chief Scientist at TNC, where she can live her passion for applied science. TNC has ambitious goals for protecting and conserving freshwater, land, and the oceans. In describing the challenges of addressing climate change today, and in particular the social inequities, Katharine notes that “engaging with nature-based solutions not only addresses immediate issues of climate adaptation to heat, it also helps with air pollution, health, and flooding.”
Katharine’s message is one of hope. “I think of this as the ‘head to heart to hands’ gap. In our heads, we know global temperature is rising and humans are responsible. Around the world, the vast majority of people are worried about climate change. In the US over two thirds of people are worried. So, we’re really reaching a tipping point in terms of the head, but they don’t understand how it affects the people, places and things we love. They haven't made the head to heart connection. They still think of it as a future issue, a distant issue, and something that is not on their priority list. If we don’t understand there’s a problem that matters to us, why would we want to fix it?”
Katharine sees that as only half of the challenge. “We could have the whole world worried, but if they don’t know what to do about it, they’ll do nothing. And that’s exactly what we see in the US. Two thirds of people are worried, but only 8% are activated. That’s where the hope comes in. The hope is in connecting our heart to our hands. If I do something, could it make a difference?” Through her newsletter—Talking Climate—and many other channels, Katharine is trying to close these gaps by sharing good news and the actions being taken by people. “Because the number one thing we can do to kickstart and catalyze action is the thing that two thirds of Americans are not doing, and that is we’re not talking about it.”
Part 2 of the conversation with Katherine, includes a discussion of the critical role that that nature-based solutions play in addressing climate change. Episode 10 posts June 12. In Episode 11, which posts on June 26, the third part of our conversation with Katharine focuses on inspiring action, how to learn more about climate change, and how to talk about it with others. We hope you enjoy this special series!! For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Katharine Hayhoe at LinkedIn

Seeing the Forest for the Trees—The Value and Complexity of Forest Ecosystems May 14, 2024

How do we think about forests and their value? We know that forests store carbon, and with the climate changing, many might think the answer is to just plant more trees. Our guests challenge that conventional wisdom and, as the saying goes, help us see the forest for the trees. In Season 7, Episode 8, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by Laurie Wayburn, Cofounder and President of Pacific Forest Trust (PFT), and Nathan Beane, Research Forester in the Environmental Laboratory of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). They’re talking about how to sustainably manage forests to make them more resilient.
Laurie has dedicated her career to forest conservation and sustainability. She is an innovator, a pioneer, and an authoritative voice on forest practices and policy. Much of Laurie’s work at Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) is working with private landowners on conserving forests. “We wanted to work with what I would call the enlightened self-interest of private landowners and make it financially competitive, or even more desirable, to keep their forests as forests, not just as plantations, but to manage them as forests with the full suite of functions.”
Nathan is the leading research forester within the US Department of Defense (DoD). As lead of the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Team at ERDC, his research primarily focuses on forest communities, their function, health, management, and sustainment, and ultimately the creation of “resilient forests.” Nathan’s work addresses problems in forested lands on USACE and DoD installations. His on-the-ground research helps to inform a more comprehensive understanding of healthy forest ecosystems and how to improve their management.
In their respective roles, both Laurie and Nathan speak for the forests. As Laurie describes it, “When people use the term forestry, what they’re typically thinking about is the production of timber or fiber commodities. That phrase, ‘seeing the forest for the trees,’ is all too apt because so many people think of forests just as a collection of trees.” She describes forest systems as beginning well below the ground and ending above the canopy with trees being the most visible piece of a storehouse of biodiversity that comprises the forest overall. Nathan agrees, noting, “While forests provide key habitats for a range of wildlife, including threatened endangered species, they also generate oxygen, filter water, provide soil stabilization, carbon sequestration, ecosystem biodiversity, natural disaster mitigation, and flood control.”
Laurie has a strong call to action for listeners: “One of the most critical things I hope we can help people think about is forests are essential infrastructure, just as we think about roads or the internet as essential infrastructure. As you go about your daily life, be aware of, and grateful for, the grace and blessing of forests and return the favor. They don’t exist without people caring and being involved.”
Nathan agrees: “I’m a big advocate for that. I think it’s important to highlight that it’s critical that we understand the complexity of forests. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us, and I think it’s really important that we continue to conduct research in this space. I’m really glad to be a part of the EWN Program that supports this.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Laurie Wayburn at LinkedIn
• Laurie Wayburn at Pacific Forest Trust
• Nathan Beane at LinkedIn

Using State-of-the-Art Tools to Cocreate a Future for the LA River Apr 30, 2024

Imagine restoring a 51-mile-long concrete river—running through the heart of the Los Angeles Basin in California—into a vibrant corridor reconnecting fractured communities and ecosystems. In Season 7, Episode 7, host Sarah Thorne and cohost Amanda Tritinger from the US Army Corps of Engineers talk with landscape architects Alex Robinson from University of Southern California (USC) and Leslie Dinkin from the Kounkuey Design Initiative in Los Angeles. They discuss the use of storytelling, augmented reality, and physical modeling tools to engage people along the river in cocreating a new future for themselves and for the river.
Leslie recently graduated with dual master’s degrees in landscape architecture and heritage conservation from USC, studying under Alex and working with him at the Los Angeles River Integrated Design Lab (LA-RIDL).
Alex’s work is rooted in his personal experiences with the City of Los Angeles (LA) and its infrastructure, including the LA River, and finding out how people spend their days interacting with these interesting landscapes. Fresh out of graduate school in 2005, Alex worked on the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, one of the first of many plans for the river that tried to bring different values into the thinking about how to transform the river into something more than just an instrument of flood control. He has continued this focus with the realization that, “We were constrained by so many voices and different constituents, all speaking different languages. I thought, what if we could create a platform where we had a more collective understanding, where people could begin to speak the same language and were able to cocreate something.”
This led Alex to reach out to the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), which has hydrology modeling in its toolset. As Amanda notes, “You can see how this just clearly aligns with Engineering with Nature. At ERDC, we have numerical and physical models, but how do we get our models to talk to people? I think Leslie and Alex have done a really great job in not only creating that connection but making it meaningful.”
The product of this collaboration with Duncan Bryant, Research Hydraulic Engineer, and his colleagues at ERDC’s Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), was the development of a physical model of a section of the LA River with adjacent land owned by the city where there is an opportunity for big changes. As Alex explains, “This is the crown-jewel opportunity for changing the LA River.” To take the engagement with the model to the next level and produce something that invites people to participate in the process, Alex and his colleagues developed an augmented reality component to visually overlay information on top of the physical model. “It lets people interact—a community member can come in and make a comment, draw something, and that becomes input an engineer and a landscape architect can consider in their design process.”
Thinking about how advanced visualization tools support community engagement, Alex says, “I think the model and all the different tools we’ve developed have created this incredible common ground for people to have a conversation and have their ideas and values represented in the system.”
Amanda truly appreciates the work that Alex and Leslie are doing: “If I could just represent all of engineers for a minute, I’d like to say, thank you. Thank you for helping us communicate.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Alexander Robinson at LinkedIn
• Leslie Dinkin at LinkedIn

3D Printing Nature-Inspired Infrastructure (NII) – The Future is Upon Us! Apr 16, 2024

Imagine the possibilities if brilliant scientists and engineers could figure out how to use natural materials like silt and clay, dredged from waterways, to make nature-inspired, 3D printed structures like reefs and roots to restore habitat and protect coastal shorelines. In Season 7, Episode 6, host Sarah Thorne is joined by Al Kennedy, Burton Suedel, and Andrew McQueen from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). All three are Research Biologists in the Environmental Laboratory at ERDC. They’re discussing the 3D printing workshop they hosted in February 2024 to explore the potential of nature-inspired 3D printing. As a special feature of this episode, several of the workshop participants share highlights from the workshop discussions and the inspiration for their future work.
The Corps dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of sediment from navigable waterways every year. In Season 5, Episode 6, Lieutenant General Spellman, USACE Commander and Chief of Engineers, spoke about his 70/30 goal–achieving 70% beneficial use of dredged material by 2030. 3D printing can enable new and novel ways to use sediment as a resource and improve the Civil Works’ mission delivery, unlocking some of the constraints on traditional infrastructure engineering by using simple bioinspired design, leveraging natural geometries to produce more pleasing recreational uses, improved ecological functionality, plus economic and social benefits.
The workshop was a key step in advancing the potential of 3D printing by bringing together a diverse group of experts from government, academia, and the private sector to explore the potential of 3D printing using natural materials. Workshop breakout groups focused on four major research areas:

Ecosystem restoration and bioinspired design
Coastal resilience and sustainability
Sediment properties
Scaling up

Key discussions and takeaways from the workshop, include:

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

Synergy, engagement, and collaboration was evident throughout the workshop, and participants expressed a strong interest in continuing the dialogue. A report on the workshop results will be available on the EWN website.
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/

EWN Atlas 3 Launch Coming Soon – 58 Inspiring NBS Projects Apr 02, 2024

Innovation and collaboration are cornerstones of Engineering With Nature (EWN). Sharing projects, demonstrating outcomes, and inspiring practitioners around the world is an important part of advancing EWN. The EWN Atlas series, initiated in 2018, has been key to showcasing the incredible work happening around the world. Season 7, Episode 5, kicks off the launch of EWN Atlas, Volume 3. Host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Burton Suedel, Research Biologist at the Engineer Research and Development Center, USACE, and Zelini Hubbard, Senior Project Manager at Anchor QEA and Project Manager for Atlas 3.
The EWN Atlas series demonstrates the power of EWN in action, highlighting projects that exemplify EWN concepts, principles, and practices. Each Atlas is organized in chapters, presenting projects in various environmental contexts—beaches and dunes, wetlands, islands, reefs, riverine systems, and floodplains—as well as chapters on specific project types, such as the use of vegetation and natural materials, and environmental enhancements of existing infrastructure. Sarah spoke with five contributors to Atlas 3 whose projects exemplify the quality of EWN projects being implemented around the world:
Cathy Lear is a Senior Habitat Biologist at Clallam County. The Lower Dungeness River Project she led is in Clallam County, WA. This project incorporated nature-based solutions (NBS) to restore a floodplain.
Mary Kate Brown is Assistant Coastal Programs Director for The Nature Conservancy in Alabama. She talks about how the Lightning Point Restoration Project in Bayou La Batre, AL, used green and gray infrastructure to revitalize a culturally important shoreline.
Samantha Belcik is a Biologist and Planner with the Chicago District, USACE. She describes the Fort Sheridan Project in Lake County, IL, which used historical native plant ecotypes and natural processes to restore a coastal ecosystem.
Zoe Elliott Perkins is a Senior Coastal Engineer on the Beaches Team for the City of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. She was part of the team on the Palm Beach Artificial Reef Project in Palm Beach, Queensland, Australia, which constructed an artificial reef to provide coastal protection and recreational resources.
David Johnston is a Project Engineer and Acting Team Lead in the Waterways Section of the USACE Huntington District. He led the Ohio River Bonanza Bar Project in Portsmouth, OH, which used dredged material beneficially to create ecological habitats and restore the historical footprint.
Burton and Zelini hope Atlas 3 gets wide use. As Zelini notes, “All 58 projects really do provide interesting examples of how NBS are being applied to a broad range of challenges. I think it’s a real feat that the work of so many has been distilled down into a digestible and readable document.” Burton agrees, adding, “What we’re striving to do is to share best practices worldwide, inspire actions in others, foster the confidence in our collective vision and encourage others to incorporate NBS into their infrastructure projects.”
Jeff King, Lead of the EWN Program, notes that: “Atlas 3 really reflects the best of the best work being done by colleagues across USACE and around the world.” Jeff thanks the entire team that worked on Atlas 3, and all the contributors and adds, “I’d like to personally invite all our listeners to check out Atlas 3, and all of the wonderful work being done—it will be available in May 2024. I hope all our listeners and readers will be inspired by the projects we’re featuring.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Burton Suedel at LinkedIn
• Zelini Hubbard at LinkedIn

Catching Up with Todd Bridges – Failing at Retirement but Advancing NBS Mar 12, 2024

It’s old home week and time to get the original EWN Podcast gang back together. In Season 7, Episode 4, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program (EWN), and our friend, colleague, and inspiration behind the Engineering With Nature Program, Todd Bridges. Todd is now Professor of Practice in Resilient and Sustainable Systems in the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia (UGA). A lot has happened since February of 2023 when we celebrated Todd’s 30-year career with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), where in addition to being Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science, he founded and was the first National Lead of the EWN Program.
Having taken only a month off after leaving USACE, Todd says that he “failed at retirement. I’m as busy now, if not more so, than I was before. But I think a ‘busy life’ is a ‘happy life.’” For Todd, change is inevitable and keeps one energized: “I wouldn't trade the 30 years that I was blessed to have with the Corps of Engineers for anything. It was vastly fulfilling in so many ways, on so many levels. But change is necessary, and I’ve been enjoying embracing the change and continuing to do whatever I can to make a difference.”
We discussed some of the highlights of Todd’s busy first 11 months at UGA where he is teaching and advising engineering students about natural infrastructure, and has his first graduate student, Scott Blackstock, a Captain in the US Army who will focus his research on nature-based solutions. Todd is also podcasting at UGA, cohosting the Resilient Futures Podcast with Dr. Alicia Helmrich, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering. The Resilient Futures Podcast focuses on what it takes to create resilience in a variety of different contexts.
In addition to his teaching and advising, Todd has continued to spread the word on EWN and nature-based solutions (NBS) in many forums, including: participating in two summits hosted by the White House—the Invest in Nature Summit and the Climate Resilience Summit as well as being selected as one of 11 lead authors on the United States’ first National Nature Assessment to lead development of the chapter on “Nature and the Safety and Security of the United States.”
Todd continues to be active in the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), which he cofounded with Brian Bledsoe in 2018. As Todd explains, “Progress runs on the rails of relationships. I’m very encouraged by what I’m seeing in the growth. Today we have more than 25 partners that are committing their own sweat equity to a wide range of N-EWN initiatives.” In February 2024, Todd and Jeff participated in the Policy Forum for Nature-Based Solutions in Washington DC, sponsored by N-EWN and the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program. The Policy Forum brought together a diverse array of stakeholders, including policymakers, regulators, practitioners, academics, and others. It provided a platform for rich discussions on the transformative potential of nature-based solutions across various sectors.
Jeff and Todd are both energized by the growing acceptance of nature-based solutions. As Jeff notes, “Five years ago, nature-based solutions were not ubiquitous. Today we’re constantly talking about NBS, and more and more NBS projects are coming online.” Todd agrees: “There’s been a convergence of thinking—an alignment of need and opportunity that we need to capitalize on now if we want to really make a difference for the country and for communities.” He adds, “The future is very bright for Engineering With Nature.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn

A Personal Journey to Make NBS “Just Part of the Fabric” in the San Francisco District Feb 20, 2024

Our guest is a scientist and innovator who brings new thinking and new applications of nature-based solutions (NBS) into her work every day. In Season 7, Episode 3, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program (EWN), and Julie Beagle, Environmental Planning Section Chief for the USACE San Francisco District. Julie joined USACE three years ago desiring to make the biggest impact possible. Jeff notes that, since then, Julie’s leadership on EWN has been absolutely outstanding and her passion for NBS to address a whole range of projects in the San Francisco Bay and throughout the district is inspiring. She’s moving the needle when it comes to advancing the practice of integrating NBS into project decision-making.
Julie began her career as a field scientist working in rivers all day, on a job that let her be outside doing science. As a geomorphologist, she studied how sediment and water shape the surface of the earth. In her early career, she focused on protecting salmonid species in northern California and assisted communities in restoring rivers and explored landscape management strategies to better protect and integrate habitats. Then she worked her way downstream into more engineered flood-control channels working on issues related to water quality and the interaction of land use and development. She notes that, “over the last 15 years, climate change became the driver. I became focused on how landscapes, people, species, and ecosystems are going to adapt to this changed reality.”
As Julie describes it, the whole watershed connects. What happens in the upper watershed influences what happens down in the floodplains, tidal marshes, down to the bay and the outer ocean. “It really helped me understand this entire landscape that we have modified and are now having to adapt for all the benefits that we need from our ecosystems and lands. We have to take a landscape approach, and that’s why Engineering With Nature really resonates for me.”
One of the projects that Julie worked on right before coming to USACE was the San Francisco Bay Shoreline Adaptation Atlas: Working with Nature to Plan for Sea Level Rise Using Operational Landscape Units. This publication helps communities identify different adaptation strategies that take advantage of natural processes. Julie has translated her experience to what she is doing for USACE today with the opportunity to work in different areas and across jurisdictions. “I’ve been focused on San Francisco Bay for a long time, but I’m really excited about all these other estuaries starting to think about this Adaptation Atlas–type approach. We can help them develop these same types of toolkits and then make that connection to the dredge material that the Army Corps produces across the entire West Coast.”
Jeff notes the importance of taking what is being demonstrated in the San Francisco District and replicating it across the country. “What Julie is doing in the San Francisco District has a lot of value. We want to capture that and share the learnings and experiences you’re having as an EWN Proving Ground with the rest of the Corps enterprise.” Leveraging her role as the EWN Lead in San Francisco District, Julie’s goal is “to make NBS just part of the fabric of the way we do business.” Jeff agrees, “I want this to be something that we use time and time again. NBS should become integrated into all our project decision-making. That is real culture change, and Julie’s leadership is a great example.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Julie Beagle at LinkedIn

Advancing NBS through Building Relationships in the Pacific Region Feb 06, 2024

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are of growing interest in many parts of the world as scientists, engineers, policymakers, and others look for new ways to address climate change challenges. In S7, E2, host Sarah Thorne is joined by EWN cohosts Burton Suedel, and Amanda Tritinger. Their guest is Paul Cruz, Sr. Program Manager in International and Interagency Services in the USACE’s Pacific Ocean Division. They’re talking about advancing NBS by building relationships with colleagues in the Pacific region.
With a military background and experience in planning and security cooperation, Paul describes his work as: “I tell people I went from the 8-crayon box set to the 200-crayon box set with a pencil sharpener on the back, working with all these scientists, engineers, and research personnel on new and exciting topics and capabilities that we bring to the table as we engage our allies and partners all around Asia. And certainly EWN was one of those capabilities.”
While assisting the Philippine Navy with dredging efforts for their Navy Bases, Paul met with the Philippine Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). “We took advantage of the opportunity to support their dredging challenges because it was helping facilitate the military side, and we started to see a real growing relationship between the USACE and the DPWH—two agencies that have a lot of the same mission sets.” This led to additional engagements on typhoon recovery and flood control, and reclamation projects with the Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In March 2023, Amanda participated in a technical exchange hosted by the Taiwan Water Resources Agency (TWRA). Over 100 participants from academia, local and federal agencies, and NGOs took part and expressed a great deal of interest in the knowledge that the USACE and TWRA had to share. As Amanda notes, “We enjoyed participating in the panel. I believe to this day we're applying what we learned and brought home to our respective countries.” Burton followed this up in October 2023, attending the Taiwan International Water Week hosted by TWRA. “It was a great opportunity to share some of our best practices and try to relate them in ways that the next generation of professionals—scientists, biologists, engineers, and other disciplines—can pick up on.”
In the Portland District in 2022 and in the Seattle District in 2023, USACE hosted technical exchanges with delegations from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT). Both countries face similar issues in their coastal environments. As Amanda describes it, “I saw a lot was multi-issue problems in Japan with compounding effects—flooding, plus wave action on storm events, and the most subsidence I'd ever seen, plus the risk of volcanic activity. While multibenefit may be seen as nicety for us, for Japan, it’s a necessity.”
These examples underscore the value of relationships in the Pacific Region. As Paul notes, “From a military perspective, we don’t do anything anymore alone. It’s always together.” For Burton, “To me, it’s mutual learning. I’m always pleasantly surprised how engaged and engaging the participants are and how much progress they have made to incorporate innovative EWN principles and practices into their projects.” Amanda adds: “Building deep relationships that are sustainable is so important. I think to progress the practice and support a sustainable future, we need to engineer with nature, but we need to engineer with humanity too.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Burton Suedel at LinkedIn
• Paul Cruz at LinkedIn

Regenerative Land Management—Nature Already Has It Dialed In Jan 23, 2024

Welcome to a new season of the EWN Podcast! Our guest has a bold vision for natural, holistic land management. He's not just thinking about how water harvesting and land management can complement or even replace traditional water resources engineering, he's putting it into practice. In Season 7, Episode 1, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, and Ricardo Aguirre, Director of Land Management and Water Security for WEST Consultants (WEST) in Arizona and Executive Director of the Drylands Alliance for Addressing Water Needs (DAAWN).
Ricardo is an engineer, rancher, consultant, and an accredited holistic management professional and educator. He has 25 years of experience working on hydrology, stormwater management, flood control, and groundwater recharge. Ricardo grew up on a cattle ranch and cotton farm in southern Arizona. The farm failed, and his family urged him to get away from agriculture, but his mother sensed that water was going to be the future in the Southwest and recommended he become a water attorney. Instead, he chose civil engineering with a focus on water resources. Following graduation from the University of Arizona, he worked at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) while completing a master’s degree at the University of Illinois.
After working in land development, Ricardo’s career brought him back to his family’s lands but with new perspectives on land management and water use. He started his own firm, Holistic Engineering and Land Management, then joined WEST to pursue his vision for regenerative land management. Regenerative land management, Ricardo explains, “is understanding nature’s patterns and working with nature to maintain landforms, specifically in this case, grasslands that do the yeoman’s work in the carbon and water cycles.” One of the core principles in this system is the need for megafauna, large livestock such as sheep and cattle. Ricardo says that, “in temperate environments, megafauna prevent forests from moving in on grasslands; and in arid environments, megafauna prevent grasslands from becoming a desert.”
To better understand these relationships, Ricardo and WEST have created a demonstration site on land purchased by WEST that used to be part of Ricardo’s family’s ranch. They are conducting a project to compare the impact of conventional grazing—a small number of animals in a very large area for long periods of time (months to years)—to high-density grazing—a larger number of animals in a very small area for very short periods of time (hours to days). As Ricardo explains, this high-density grazing concentrates and evenly distributes the beneficial animal wastes and the trampling of plants back into the soil to feed beneficial soil organisms. The animals then don’t come back to this land until the space is ready to be grazed again.
Also, in alignment with the principles of EWN, Ricardo is committed to advancing the practice of working with nature through training. He is an accredited professional with the Savory Institute and trains land managers in holistic management: holistic financial planning, holistic ecological monitoring, holistic land planning, and holistic planned grazing. In 2024, Ricardo will offer training courses through DAAWN, the nonprofit Savory Hub, one of a network of local learning centers affiliated with the Savory Institute that offer services to support local farming, ranching, or pastoralist communities, tailored to their specific needs.
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Ricardo Aguirre at LinkedIn

Continuing the EWN Journey Jan 09, 2024

It’s a new year and we’re kicking off a new season of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast! Season 7 launches on January 24. Host Sarah Thorne recently caught up with Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, to discuss highlights from Season 6 and give us a glimpse of what’s ahead.
The EWN Podcast launched in July 2020, and as Jeff notes, “One of the biggest highlights has certainly been the number of listeners that are coming to our space. For those out there, thank you so much for listening. He adds, “We really appreciate the interest and the support of our listeners from around the world. Everywhere I go—meetings, conferences, workshops—people are listening to our podcast, and they are truly engaged. They love what we’re doing. It’s incredibly exciting to get that kind of feedback.”
Sarah and Jeff review highlights from Season 6—the theme was Expanding the EWN Lattice. The wide array of topics covered included the historic wildfire season in Canada that dramatically affected air quality across Canada and in many US states; the application of nature-based solutions (NBS) in the Boston area to address sea-level rise, reduce flooding, and build coastal resilience; new guidelines for the application of thin-layer placement of dredged materials; the importance of dunes in the coastal environment; preservation of historic, culturally significant St. Croix Island by using NBS; and the science behind the importance of nature to health and well-being.
Season 6 featured a broad range of researchers, practitioners, and leaders—scientists, engineers, landscape architects, authors, and others—within the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) other US federal agencies, industry, nongovernmental organizations, First Nations, and others. All focused on innovative approaches to incorporating nature-based solutions into their work and encouraging others to do so. Sarah notes the synergy that continues to build among EWN practitioners, “All of these people are bringing their passion. I hope the work of all the people we’ve had on our podcast inspires the next generation to really dig in and learn these new techniques and advance the practices of EWN and NBS.”
The theme for Season 7 is Continuing the EWN Journey. As Jeff explains, “We want to continue on this journey—keep sharing more of the wonderful topics that come our way and the interesting people we are blessed to get to know on this journey. ‘Continuing the EWN Journey’ conveys that. Listeners can expect another impressive lineup of shows in Season 7, including episodes on innovative technologies; government policy related to nature-based solutions; discussions with international practitioners; conversations with leaders from not-for-profit organizations, agency partners, and Engineering With Nature USACE District Proving Grounds; along with coverage of important EWN events. As Sarah says, “So many people are really making a significant contribution to advancing NBS and EWN. We want to share their stories and their passion.”
Mark your calendar for the launch of Season 7 on January 24! In Episode 1, we’re speaking with Ricardo Aguirre, a rancher, practicing engineer, and educator who’s doing groundbreaking work applying EWN-type approaches to land management. He talks about how traditional practices have negatively impacted landscape and soils, particularly with respect to climate change. He is thinking about things differently in terms of holistic water harvesting and land management practices that can be more effective. We hope you’ll tune in.

A Conversation with Florence Williams about The Nature Fix Dec 12, 2023

Can nature make us happier, healthier and more creative? The simple answer is yes … and it’s been scientifically proven. In Season 6, Episode 10, hosts Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, USACE, welcome Florence Williams, a renowned journalist, author, speaker, and podcaster who spent over three years traveling around the world talking with leading scientists about how to quantify the benefits of nature on people’s health and well-being. Florence joins us to talk about her book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, and what she has learned on her journey.
As a contributing editor for Outside Magazine, Florence is sometimes assigned stories; but when she was asked to write about the science behind why we feel good in nature, the assignment immediately spoke to her. What started out as a magazine story ended up as a book. In writing The Nature Fix, Florence was motivated by what she calls our “epidemic dislocation from the outdoors,” which involves the shift to moving to cities and simply spending less time outside. Florence notes the growing volume of scientific study in this area. “There’s a ton of mounting evidence. When you consider all these different scales and types of studies, it becomes really, really powerful.”
Florence likes to “witness the science”. The first stop on her journey was Japan, where a physiological anthropologist, Yoshifumi Miyazaki has been studying “forest bathing”. Florence explains “forest bathing is the idea of being in a nature space, almost like sunbathing.” She notes that after just 15 minutes of sitting in the woods or walking around trails there are significant positive physiological changes on metrics like blood pressure, respiration, heart rate, and hormone levels.
On another stop, Florence met with David Strayer, a cognitive neuroscientist. He believed that he got his best ideas after being on the river and became interested in the “three-day effect”—a term coined by a bookseller in Salt Lake City who noticed that some “magic” seems to happen after three days outside. Florence joined Dr. Strayer’s class, Cognition in the Wild at the University of Utah, when they went camping in the desert. “It was a helpful way for me to start to frame some of the theories about what’s going on in our brains and then of course to experience some of it too by spending three days outside.”
When asked about potential learnings for EWN, Florence notes the importance of designing spaces, especially in urban areas, where our senses can come alive in a comfortable way. “When we’re in modern life and in our cities, our senses are assaulted in ways that we just accept and don’t really think a lot about.” On a trip to Seoul, South Korea, she visited the Cheonggyecheon canal that had been redesigned to be a natural space. “They daylighted it and landscaped it and put trees around this canal. Acoustic engineers came up with water features and a walking path. When you descend into this lovely trail, you don’t hear the traffic noise. You hear the sound of water and birds.”
Florence believes that these kinds of urban natural spaces should play a significant role in infrastructure projects. Her call to action is this: “We can construct our lives in a way that helps facilitate our mental health; that should be a priority for all of us and for our children and for our neighborhoods. I really encourage people to get involved with their communities, encourage more trees, more playgrounds, more parks, more recess for kids.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
· Jeff King at LinkedIn
· Florence Williams – Naturefix at LinkedIn

Advancing the Practice with New Guidelines for Thin Layer Placement Nov 28, 2023

The USACE dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of sediments every year as part of their mission to ensure that ports and waterways remain open to traffic. In S5E6, we talked with Lt. Gen. Spellman, the 55th Chief of Engineers and the Commanding General of USACE, about his 70/30 goal to increase the beneficial use of these sediment from about 30% up to 70% by the year 2030. Supporting the USACE environmental protection and restoration missions, this ambitious goal calls for innovative uses of sediment. Our guests are advancing the practice of thin layer placement (TLP) through the development of new guidelines based on leading practice applications.
In Season 6, Episode 9, hosts Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Lead of the EWN® Program at USACE, welcome Candice Piercy, Research Environmental Engineer at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), USACE; Ram Mohan, Senior Principal at Anchor QEA and Adjunct Professor at Texas A&M University; and Monica Chasten, Coastal Engineer and Project Manager in the Philadelphia District, USACE. Candice and Ram coauthored the recently published Guidelines for How to Approach Thin-Layer Placement Projects with their colleague, Tim Welp, a renowned dredging expert who passed away in 2021. Tim was the inspiration behind the guidelines, and this episode is dedicated to him. Monica is an innovator and leading light in the dredging community with responsibilities for keeping open the coastal navigation channels in NJ and Delaware. She was an early adopter of EWN and one of the first movers of beneficial use of dredge materials.
TLP is defined as the purposeful placement of thin layers of sediment (e.g., dredged material) in an environmentally acceptable manner to achieve a target elevation or thickness. As Candice explains, “TLP really reflects a different approach where we’re purposefully placing the material in relatively thin lifts to accomplish an ecological objective. We’re often doing this because the natural process of sediments collecting in our marshes is not sufficient for it to keep up with rising sea levels.”
Early in his career, Ram wondered whether dredged material could be used as a resource to improve coastal habitats. TLP essentially consists of spraying dredge material so that it rains down in a very gentle manner. Rom notes, “Whether you place it over a marsh or in a subaquatic habitat, this low stress placement method allows it to gently deposit over the existing bottom, making it very conducive to future recovery within two to three growing seasons.”
Monica gets passionate about sediment and doing the right things with it. “Prior to becoming a Project Manager for navigation projects, I was working on beach fill projects for the Corps where every grain of sediment is incredibly valuable. Then I moved into the navigation world in the back bays in NJ where we were basically throwing beautiful sediment away. Looking at all types of sediment and how we could use it innovatively became a mission for me.”
Jeff notes, “Sediment is supposed to move and be transported by natural processes in various areas of estuarine systems. When we take it out, we’re starving the wetlands. With TLP, these systems are going to be much better off.” Jeff adds that LTG Spellmon’s 70/30 goal and the new guidelines are game-changing: “I talk with practitioners all over the country, and I know people have been eagerly awaiting them. They are really going to move the needle.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Candice Piercy at EWN
• Ram Mohan at LinkedIn
• Monica Chasten at EWN

A Transformative Year for Designers Kotch and Derek Nov 07, 2023

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? It has been a year since Season 4, Episode 10 when we first asked that question of our guests, and now it’s time for an update.
Hosts Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), welcome back Kotchakorn Voraakhom (“Kotch”), an international member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and founder of Bangkok-based company LANDPROCESS, and Derek Hoeferlin, Chair of the Landscape Architecture program at Washington University in St. Louis. Derek and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts have been hosting Kotch on her year-long appointment as Designer-in-Residence, sponsored by the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
Reflecting on her expectations for her year in St. Louis, Kotch said, “It is like a journey. When you travel into some new place or experience, you're expecting one thing; but when you actually go through it, you run into different things that you were not expecting.” Kotch spent her time learning from the St. Louis community and, as she says, listening to the ecology of the Mississippi River. Kotch taught Derek’s students at Washington University, held several workshops with community members, engaged with a range of people from USACE, and talked with people in small towns along the Mississippi who are dealing with perpetual flooding. Her residency has “been a pause to relearn what I have learned. As a practitioner, you want to conquer the world. You want to change the world. But in the end, you just have to let the world change you as well.” As she notes, “Nature has the final word.”
Derek relates a similar kind of experience in wanting to change the world, while also being influenced by it. His journey has been a 15-plus-year project to investigate what he calls “watershed architecture” and his interest in how watersheds can reflect a tipping point in time. Derek has been influenced by large-scale climate-related disasters and thinking about what it means to design buildings in that context. “As designers, we look at these larger-scale events and watersheds and what they mean for design decisions. Specifically, how can we engage water better within our design decisions. That's where we are right now with our conversation with the Engineering With Nature Program. We’re trying to think of a much more holistic way to bring communities into the next phase of this transformation.” These are some of the themes that Derek addresses in his recently published book, Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture.
Jeff notes the inspiration that Derek and Kotch’s work together brings, “To be able to address these issues concerning climate change really is going to take us getting to know one another, to understand and appreciate our uniqueness as individuals, but also how do we harmonize as humans. Please keep pursuing and delivering good strategies and good solutions that will help us get past these existential threats. What you both are doing is incredibly inspiring for future landscape architects and others.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Kotchakorn Voraakhom at LinkedIn
• Derek Hoeferlin at LinkedIn

A Conversation with Passionate Dune Stewards Oct 10, 2023

If you've ever walked along a beach, you’ve likely noticed the dunes, the mounds of sand that have been formed by the wind. But have you ever thought about what those dunes do and how important they are? Perhaps not; our guests certainly have. In Season 6, Episode 7, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Amanda Tritinger, Deputy Lead of the Engineering with Nature Program, and her US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) colleagues Duncan Bryant, Research Hydraulic Engineer, and Nick Cohn, Research Oceanographer. All three are affiliated with the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory at the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center. They’re passionate about “dune stewardship,” protecting and restoring the dunes that create resilience for coastal communities. As Amanda describes it, “People tend to overlook dunes and the role they play in the defense of our coastlines during hurricane seasons.”
Duncan explains that dunes are formed by a combination of sand, wind that shapes the sand into mounds, and vegetation. They’re much more complicated than just the mounds of sand we see. Dunes are naturally very dynamic. They can form and grow. They can be eroded. They can shift. Nick adds: “A lot of these storms in the Outer Banks and elsewhere where we have big wind events during storms actually grow dunes pretty substantially, but what we hear in the news all the time is how storms erode dunes. That’s why they’re so complicated. Sometimes it’s just about the details; if there was one foot more of storm surge, that dune would get eroded out. So, we do lots of research both in the field and the laboratory and with models trying to understand what details matter about our prediction of dunes.”
Dunes are a critical nature-based solution. As Nick explains, “Dunes serve as a topographic high that prevents high water from flooding people’s property and critical infrastructure. And they’re a really cost-effective, natural form of infrastructure to prevent flooding. As we get through the end of hurricane season, I think we always try to make the case that dunes are a valuable form of coastal protection that can be put almost anywhere throughout the world, without hard structural solutions.”
Amanda underscores the potential value of dunes for coastal resilience: “I think expanding the use of dunes is an exciting prospect. Everybody in the coastal community has some major storm event, some hurricane, that sticks in their mind. For me, it was Hurricanes Matthew and Irma. For both, I was in northeast Florida, and we did forensic studies before and after each of those storms. You could walk up and down the coastline and just see the difference. The communities that had older, more natural dune systems got out almost unscathed, whereas the communities that had newer dunes or no dunes saw a lot more damage after the storms.”
Amanda’s call to action speaks to her passion as a dune steward: “Understand the dunes. Take the time to learn the dune story. If you go to the beach and you appreciate the water, that magical place where the water meets the land, where we get to touch the rest of the world, know the story of the dune. It provides that ecological benefit. It takes care of the communities behind it. It’s dynamic. It’s exciting. It’s doing its job if it’s disappearing and it’s doing its job when it builds itself up. Just appreciate the dunes when you’re out there. I just think if more people knew the dunes story and told each other about it and knew just how magical that thing they walk over on the way to the beach was, that that would just be a win in itself.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Duncan Bryant at LinkedIn
• Nicholas Cohn at ResearchGate

Preserving an Important Historical Island with Nature-Based Solutions Sep 26, 2023

This episode starts with a story. In 1604, 79 members of an expedition from France, including Samuel de Champlain, came to Saint Croix Island off the shores of Maine and New Brunswick to set up a colony in the new land. They called it l’Acadie—Acadia. Over the severe winter of 1604 to 1605, 35 of the settlers died, likely of scurvy. In the spring, members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe befriended the French survivors and brought them food; and, ultimately, their health improved. In the summer of 1605, the survivors moved the Acadia settlement to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, and the rest is history. The Acadians went on to play an integral part in the histories of Canada, the United States, and France. Today, that 6.5-acre uninhabited island and its very significant history is threatened by high tides, shoreline erosion, powerful winter storms, and more—all exacerbated by climate change.
In Season 6, Episode 6, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, US Army Corps of Engineers, and the USACE Project Lead for collaboration on the Saint Croix Island activities; Donald Soctomah, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Passamaquoddy Nation; Becky Cole-Will, Chief of Resource Management for Acadia and Saint Croix Island National Parks, US National Park Service; and Amy Hunt, Senior Project Manager at EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc. in New Hampshire. They are working together to figure out how to use nature-based solutions to protect and preserve Saint Croix Island and its unique historical significance.
Each of the guests speaks to the unique nature of Saint Croix Island and their personal affinity to it. Donald notes that “Saint Croix has always been a special place, not just for the one winter that the Acadians spent on it but also for the last 15,000 years of Passamaquoddy history.” The guests also note the Island’s importance as a symbol of the impacts of climate change. As Donald notes, “When I look at the Island I see a symbol of the change that’s going on related to climate. Because right before your eyes, you can see the rising ocean, the erosion, the shrinking of the Island. Every time I look at that Island, I think about climate change and the importance of trying to make other people aware of it.”
In June of 2023, the National Park Service hosted a workshop that brought together about 25 participants—biologists, geologists, engineers, planners, policymakers, and Tribal officers—to discuss the challenge and the opportunity and learn more about the history of the Island. The purpose, as Amy describes it, “was to ask the right questions and cast a really wide net then whittle it down to a few specific priorities.” Becky adds, “The first day we spent thinking about what could be done. Then people had an opportunity to get out there and see the Island and say, ‘I get it now.’ There was a lot of reality checking and ground truthing that was fascinating to hear.”
Jeff appreciated the guests sharing their insights and perspective. He noted that the work is ongoing: “We’re just getting started. Brian Davis at the University of Virginia has been working collaboratively with the project partners to come up with designs and renderings that we want to discuss with Donald and the Passamaquoddy Tribe to ensure that we’re integrating traditional ecological knowledge along the way. I’m excited about where we’re headed and the opportunities this project will offer.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Amy Hunt at LinkedIn
• Rebecca Cole-Will at LinkedIn
• Donald Soctomah at LinkedIn

Reflections on the Summer of 2023 and What’s Ahead for the EWN Program Sep 19, 2023

As fall gets into full swing, we’re kicking off the second half of Season 6 of the EWN Podcast by talking with members of the EWN leadership team about what they’ve been working on and what’s ahead. In Episode 5, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the EWN; cohost Amanda Tritinger, Deputy Program Manager, EWN; and Courtney Chambers, Communications Lead, EWN.
The summer of 2023 was an unprecedented summer in many ways. As Sarah notes, “Mother Nature certainly demonstrated that climate change is upon us.” Jeff agrees, revisiting the topic Canada’s worst wildfire season ever, covered in Season 6, Episode 4, as well as the wildfires that devastated Lahaina, Hawaii. He also talks about the extreme rainfall and flooding in the southwest caused by Tropical Storm Hillary and the extraordinary flooding and devastation caused by Hurricane Idalia to the big bend area of Florida. As Jeff notes, “People in all parts of the US, Canada, and around the world are experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand.” This global wakeup call is challenging and motivating for the EWN Program. Jeff notes that there are 49 active research projects being led by personnel at the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center to address the climate change imperative by integrating nature-based solutions.
As Communications Lead, Courtney Chambers is responsible for sharing the incredible work that is going on with EWN. In her discussion with Sarah, Courtney describes some of what she has been doing to support the development and promotion of publications critical to broadening the reach of EWN, including the next volume of the EWN Atlas series, which captures the essence of EWN and nature-based solutions through images. As Courtney notes, “If you’ve seen Atlas I or II, you know that these books really showcase the potential for EWN and the diversity they can include.” Sarah adds, “You’re helping to share the stories of all of the brilliant scientists, engineers, landscape architects, and other collaborators—and the EWN projects that they’re working on—to inspire others. It’s important work.”
Sarah also speaks with Amanda Tritinger. Amanda shares highlights from her recent trip to Taiwan, coordinated with the USACE Pacific Ocean Division (POD). She was invited to talk about opportunities to engineer with nature as part of the information and technology exchange with the Taiwan Water Resource Agency. “The TWRA has a lot of really cool projects. It was exciting to share what EWN has going on but also to learn a lot of what Taiwan has been doing.” Amanda notes that through the POD they have been involved with a lot of opportunities in Southeast Asia with colleagues in Japan and Vietnam. “It’s really exciting that the world is a big place and what seems like a problem can be its own solution through the use of natural infrastructure and better understanding the environment around us.”
In closing, Jeff notes, “The climate change that we’ve all been experiencing is really challenging and motivating our EWN colleagues and collaborators to be innovative—to conduct research and field work on a range of projects that can help mitigate the impacts of climate change and help communities adapt and become more resilient. I really look forward to sharing some of the truly groundbreaking work underway on future episodes of the EWN Podcast. I don’t think we’re going to run out of interesting things to share with our listeners!!”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Courtney Chambers at LinkedIn

2023—The Worst Wildfire Season in Canada—What Can We Learn About Prevention? Jul 25, 2023

In late June, while preparing for this episode, there were over 500 wildfires burning across Canada. Smoke from the wildfires was affecting millions of Canadians and Americans across a wide swath of North America with air quality indexes reaching extreme levels. As of the posting of this episode (July 25, 2023), the number of wildfires burning across Canada had grown to over 1000 with 660 classified as “out of control”. Our timing to have a conversation about wildfires with a prominent Canadian scientist could not have been more relevant.
In Season 6, Episode 4, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Anabela Bonada, Manager and Research Associate at the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. Among other things, Anabela is an expert in forest fires and has been actively involved developing a user-friendly guide for residents to simplify the recommendations in Canada’s National Wildfire Guide.
Canada’s wildfire season started early this year. Anabela puts the current situation into context: “The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center reports that [as of July 5] over 85,000 square kilometers, or almost 33,000 square miles have been burned so far. This is equivalent to a little bit more than New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, in Canada, combined or a little bit bigger than South Carolina in the US. This is already the worst wildfire season on record for Canada.”
She notes that with climate change, drier and warmer seasons are expected going forward in Canada and the US, particularly in an El Niño year. “For North America, it means that we’re going to see drier, warmer climate in the West and Northwest, areas that are usually wildfire prone, and parts of Canada. The expectation is more wildfires—in size and intensity.”
There’s a lot of work underway in Canada to raise awareness about wildfires and to make communities more resilient. The Intact Centre, in collaboration with FireSmart Canada, has developed easy to follow guidance for homeowners and for communities to get ahead of wildfire risks. As Anabela notes, “There are things that you can do around your home, from simple, moving any combustible material 10 meters (about 33 feet) away from your home, to more complex, like considering a Class A roof that is resistant to wildfire.”
Anabela goes on to note that a more nature-based solution is to focus on changing the natural drivers that lead to extreme wildfires rather than fighting the fires after they have started. “So, our focus needs to shift from suppression to prevention as we consider nature-based solutions to wildfire.” Anabela’s call to action with regards to wildfires is, “We need to take action, now—all the way from policymakers right down to every individual.”
Jeff agrees and adds: “I am thinking about collaboration and the fact that wildfires really don’t respect borders. What can we be doing now and in the future? I want to think about what kind of collaborative research is needed and how we pursue that—including how natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions can be used in advance of a wildfire event but also following wildfire events.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Anabela Bonada at LinkedIn

Inspiring Action on Oceans' Role in Climate Change Jul 11, 2023

“The Ocean holds the keys to an equitable and sustainable planet. Join the revolution to unlock innovative ocean science solutions.” That is the opportunity and challenge posed by the Ocean Decade, the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). Launched in January 2021, the Ocean Decade provides a convening framework for a wide range of stakeholders across the world to engage and collaborate outside their traditional communities to trigger nothing less than a revolution in ocean science. This is clearly a topic to explore on the Engineering With Nature® Podcast.
In Season 6, Episode 3, host Sarah Thorne is joined by cohost Amanda Tritinger, Research Hydraulics Engineer in the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory of the Engineer Research and Development Center, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Amanda was recently named Deputy Program Manager for EWN. Together they welcome Courtney McGeachy, Director of the Ocean Visions – UN Decade Collaborative Center for Ocean-Climate Solutions. Amanda and Courtney recently met at the State of the Coast Conference in Louisiana where they were on a couple of panels together, including one discussing nature-based solutions (NBS). Amanda thought Courtney would be an inspiring guest, and she certainly was.
The Ocean Visions – UN Decade Collaborative Center is a partnership with Ocean Visions, Georgia Tech, and the Georgia Aquarium. Courtney describes Ocean Visions as a nonprofit startup focused on innovations and solutions for the fight against climate change. The UN’s Ocean Decade is designed to take us from “the ocean we have to the ocean we want.” The Ocean Decade has seven desired “Ocean Outcomes,” including a clean ocean, a healthy and resilient ocean, a productive ocean, a predicted ocean, a safe ocean, an accessible ocean, and an inspiring and engaging ocean. “I think these are all important because they touch on not only everything that we need from a scientific lens but also what we need from a personal and community lens. There’s no point in making the ocean safe and healthy if it’s not accessible to all of us.”
Courtney notes that there are a lot of different opportunities when it comes to nature-based solutions. “We want to make sure that we are creating opportunities to leverage these nature-based solutions to help fight climate change. I think Jane Lubchenco said it best. We were sort of trying to change the narrative from the ocean being a victim to the ocean being a solution to help us fight climate change.”
In closing, Courtney summarizes her “call to action” for policy and decision makers. “Give innovations and solutions a fighting chance. With every solution, there are risks and side effects. So, I encourage policymakers to think of the ocean and climate crisis as a public health crisis because they’re quite similar. I would also encourage policymakers to find the resources. Step up to the plate financially.”
Amanda’s call to action is to not put solutions into a box—consider this OR that. “Why not both?The huge takeaway from this conversation is that there are cobenefits. There’s a toolbox—a suite of tools—there’s no reason we can’t combine them. There’s redundancy in our resilient solutions that work together and, while protecting our communities, can also protect our citizens while helping to protect our ocean, which is our incredible resource that we might taking for granted right now.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Amanda Tritinger at LinkedIn
• Courtney McGeachy at LinkedIn

Nature-based Coastal Resilience in Urban Settings Jun 28, 2023

The City of Boston is experiencing climate change and taking action to build urban resiliency through their Climate Ready Boston initiative. In Season 6, Episode 2 of the EWN® Podcast, Host Sarah Thorne is joined by Co-host Andrew McQueen, Research Biologist in the Environmental Laboratory of the Engineer Research and Development Center, USACE, and Joe Christo, Managing Director of the Stone Living Lab in Boston, Massachusetts. Both are passionate about integrating nature-based solutions (NBS) into resilience projects to help address coastal and inland flooding in Boston and beyond.
Stone Living Lab's mission is to conduct transformative research and outreach to make vulnerable regions adaptive to climate change while enhancing natural and built environments. Andrew and Joe first started working together at the Stone Living Lab’s first in-person conference, Nature-Based Coastal Resilience in Urban Settings, held in Boston, MA from April 26-28, 2023 where Jeff King, EWN National Lead, and Andrew served as Conference Committee Members. The conference brought together top experts from academia, industry, government, and environmental consulting firms to have meaningful discussions and exchange ideas on the latest advancements in using NBS to address climate change risks and sea-level rise in coastal urban environments.
Andrew describes the nexus between critical infrastructure and the risk associated with coastal hazards: “We have this risk to deal with and one of the big questions is how do we buy down that risk? What opportunities do we have to manage our infrastructure, manage these environments, to offset that risk?” Storm surge associated with sea level rise and climate change is an area of focus for both USACE and the Stone Living Lab.
Joe talks about the imperative to build coastal resilience: “Climate change is, and will continue to increase coastal and riverine flooding, as well as other hazards like storm water flooding and extreme heat. With Hurricane Sandy, having barely missed Boston, the city knew it needed to prepare for more events like this, and for climate change. Climate Ready Boston was launched in 2016, covering a range of climate hazards and vulnerability assessments, looking at exactly what can be done throughout the city, working with community groups and residents and consultants. It has resulted in these Coastal Resilience Solutions reports that cover the 47 miles of coastline and really looks at how the people and neighborhoods of Boston can adapt.”
Andrew and Joe are both very positive about the outcome of the recent conference and optimistic about the opportunities for continuing their collaboration. As Andrew puts it, “One thing I observed during the conference was the immense diversity of technical backgrounds, which I thought was extremely interesting. I think everything that we're working on with nature-based solutions is inherently multidisciplinary. We need everyone sitting at the table to talk through these issues. The Stone Living Lab conference was a perfect venue. The momentum that's growing for nature-based solutions is particularly exciting.”
Joe adds, “It's so important to avoid the doom and gloom that can come with working on climate change and instead focus on the opportunities and the positivity, and really embrace the way that we're all trying to work together on these challenges. It was so nice to be able to come together in person and just learn from colleagues and share ideas about how to collaboratively do this work in positive ways.”
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Andrew McQueen at LinkedIn
• Joe C h risto at LinkedIn

Jeff's Vision for Expanding the EWN Lattice Jun 13, 2023

The theme for Season 6 of the EWN Podcast is “Expanding the EWN Lattice.” Host Sarah Thorne is joined by Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, to discuss his new role as the EWN National Lead, his vision for EWN, and what’s ahead for 2023. Jeff says he was thinking about the growth of crystal structures—like ice crystals—that grow in three-dimensional, symmetric patterns. It is a metaphor for how he sees the EWN Program growing, expanding in a structured way, interconnecting in a specific manner.
“When I think about building out all the elements that support and enable expansion of nature-based solutions—really it’s the people, it’s the projects, it’s the policies that determine what can and can’t be done, and it’s also the geography.” He adds, “So highlighting all these pieces and how they fit and intertwine so completely to form a lattice is the focus of this season of the Podcast. We’ll highlight innovative EWN topics and nature-based solutions.”
Sarah notes that, while the theme was intriguing, “it may be a bit geeky.” But it accurately reflects where EWN is going: “It’s growing in a very holistic way. The projects are larger, more complex, with many more partners and collaborators, and working with people at the community level. It’s a good picture and theme for Season 6.” Collaboration is key to Jeff’s vision for EWN. The partners in the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN) are making significant contributions to the advancement and integration of nature-based solutions (NBS) for resilience strategies. “We want to continue to build on, grow, and enhance those connections and the added value they bring, not just for the EWN Program, but for all who want to see NBS prioritized as an additional tool in the toolbox for resilience.”
As Jeff notes, having a unified approach to NBS across federal agencies is a key priority of this Administration. And with increasing opportunities to incorporate EWN into future projects, communities are eager to be actively involved. “Communities and stakeholders want to see NBS as part of an overall strategy for creating resilience, while creating additional value for their communities, whether it is social benefits or environmental benefits.”
Jeff adds that Season 6 will also feature some of the exciting work being done on the military side of the Corps’s portfolio. “We’re working with more than 17 different installations around the country to have NBS included as part of their resilience strategies. We’re talking about the opportunity to create system-scale resilience inside and outside the fence line.” Jeff’s vision for EWN revolves around a large team dedicated to advancing the principles of EWN. Currently the EWN portfolio comprises over 60 active R&D projects, marking the highest number in EWN history.
Leading each of those projects is a principal investigator who is working with his or her team to deliver the products that advances practice and understanding of NBS. “Part of my vision is to open that aperture larger and bring those individuals into this Podcast to share their stories and offer highlights of what’s been happening with their research.” He adds, “To accelerate the adoption of EWN, we need a much larger network and people that are all rowing in the same direction.
That’s where “Expanding the EWN Lattice” really comes into play. We want to harness that energy across the large, multidisciplinary team representing a broad range of organizations that are really moving the needle in this space. That to me is doable and we will accomplish it.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
• Jeff King at LinkedIn
• Sarah Thorne at LinkedIn

Season 6 – The Engineering With Nature Podcast: Expanding the EWN Lattice May 30, 2023

Get ready for an exciting new season of the Engineering With Nature Podcast! Season 6 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast launches on June 14. Host Sarah Thorne recently caught up with Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program, to discuss highlights from Season 5 and give us a glimpse of what’s ahead.
The EWN Podcast launched in July 2020. With over 35,000 downloads to date, there’s a lot of interest in the topics discussed. As Jeff notes, “I just can’t believe the success we’ve seen in Season 5. When we kicked off Season 5, we had just over 24,000 downloads; and now as we kick off Season 6, we are over 34,000 downloads.” He adds, “I receive so much positive feedback from our listeners. Everywhere I go, people want to talk about the podcast. So, I know the EWN Podcast is reaching a lot of people out there, and we want to continue to do that.”
Season 5 featured a broad range of EWN practitioners and leaders—scientists, engineers, policymakers, and others—within USACE, other US federal agencies, academia, industry, and nongovernmental organizations. All focused on innovative approaches to incorporating nature-based solutions into their work and encouraging others to do so. Sarah and Jeff review highlights from Season 5 episodes, and note that it was a particular privilege to have Lt. Gen. Spellmon, 55th Chief of Engineers and the Commanding General of the US Army Corps of Engineers, as a guest on Episode 6. His leadership, vision, and insights on innovation and partnerships and thoughts for the future were truly inspirational.
Sarah and Jeff also discuss the significant transition within the EWN Program with the retirement of Todd Bridges, the former National Lead for EWN. As Jeff describes, “We celebrated the retirement of a very close friend and colleague Dr. Todd Bridges, who retired at the end of February. We did a special episode, Episode 7, where we asked Todd to offer his thoughts on being in this role for such a long period of time. It was certainly inspirational, and he is definitely a visionary leader for Engineering With Nature.” Sarah concurs, adding, “It was my pleasure to work with Todd for the past 15 years, including on the initial development of EWN. Under Todd’s leadership, Engineering With Nature was initiated in 2010 as a little project on the side of the desk, and now it’s a global movement.”
Season 6 continues discussions of EWN and the application of nature-based solutions under the theme of Expanding the EWN Lattice. As Jeff explains, “I really am excited about having a new season to tee up, where we can really explore a lot of diverse topics.” Drawing inspiration from the three-dimensional nature of a crystal, he aims to expand the lattice of Engineering With Nature, considering all the interconnected facets, such as people, policies, research, and landscapes. Together, these elements create a larger, more encompassing feature that is EWN.
Expect an impressive lineup of guests in Season 6, including scientists, engineers, landscape architects, government leaders, industry professionals, and representatives from First Nations. Each guest will offer unique perspectives on what’s happening in their respective fields, the opportunities they see, and what it all means for Engineering With Nature. The Season will kick off with Episode 1, featuring an in-depth discussion with Jeff about his passion and vision for Engineering With Nature as the new National Lead.
Mark your calendar for the launch of Season 6 on June 14! We hope you’ll tune in.
For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/
Related Links •
Jeff King at LinkedIn •
Sarah Thorne at LinkedIn

Building Coastal Resilience with Nature and Insurance Apr 11, 2023

Climate change is increasing coastal hazards and putting people who live and work in coastal communities at risk. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, welcome back Mike Beck, Director of the new Center for Coastal Climate Resilience at the University of California in Santa Cruz. Mike was a guest on Season 1, Episode 6. Mike is actively working to understand the role that ecosystems play in providing natural defenses for both people and property. By combining innovative nature-based solutions with insurance incentives, he hopes to significantly increase coastal resilience. The State of California recently invested $20 million into UC Santa Cruz to establish the Center for Coastal Climate Resilience. As Mike says, “Climate change is no longer a ‘future’ problem. It’s a ‘here and now’ problem. So, the State Legislature is investing in actions toward solutions that we need to be able to adapt and build resilience to these changes.” Mike notes that the Center is committed to a diverse approach, focusing both on nature-based solutions and on underserved communities. “A couple of things that we hope will really set the Center apart are that, even though we are university based, we are very solutions oriented. We really need to think about ways to understand the risks that some of these underserved communities are facing.” As Mike described in his previous appearance on the EWN Podcast, there is a positive symbiotic link between nature and insurance. Natural features can provide protection against insured property damages from storm surges, and incentives in insurance policies can encourage property owners to build and sustain such natural features. He expands on that concept in this episode by describing the larger roles of nature and insurance in helping to build more resilient communities, noting that reefs and wetlands reduce waves and storm surge, thereby reducing the amount of flooding and erosion. The need to reduce risk was the impetus for the recent Coastal Climate Resilience Symposium, a collaboration between UC Santa Cruz, the California Ocean Science Trust, the California Department of Insurance, and the Engineering With Nature Program. Held at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at UC Santa Cruz, the symposium brought together coastal scientists, insurance industry experts, and representatives of state and federal agencies. As Mike describes it, “The purpose of the symposium was to get these diverse thinkers together to talk about how we reduce risks for these communities using both nature and insurance.” Jeff adds, “The idea of public-private partnerships figures into the equation for success. We can have government and the private sector working together to advance the development of infrastructure—in this case, having the insurance industry investing in natural infrastructure features that provide some degree of risk reduction.” Mike and the Center have formally joined the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN). As Jeff says, “This expands our long-time collaboration with Mike and gives him and his team, along with his students, the opportunity to collaborate with the other diverse member organizations. Having Mike there to offer his perspective, his knowledge, and be able to teach and inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists is just fantastic.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/ Related Links • Jeff King at LinkedIn • Mike Beck at LinkedIn

Foundational Research on Rebalancing with Blue Carbon Mar 28, 2023

Coastal ecosystems provide an essential part of the solution to global climate change, along with along with providing other benefits such as wildlife habitat and shoreline protection. Carbon that’s stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, is called “blue carbon”. We’re talking with leading scientists about their foundational research into how blue carbon is helping to address climate change. Hosts Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are joined by Lisa Chambers, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Central Florida; Jenny Davis, Research Ecologist with the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), in the Beaufort Lab, Marine Spatial Ecology Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and Jacob Berkowitz, a Research Soil Scientist and Lead of the Wetland Team with the Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC), US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). As Lisa explains, blue carbon refers to carbon stored in coastal marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses. The “blue” term differentiates it from carbon stored in other ecosystems such as terrestrial forests. Lisa notes that coastal ecosystems actually sequester significantly more carbon than most terrestrial forests. And importantly, they store it for long periods of time below the ground in the soils. Restoring these ecosystems and protecting these old stores of carbon is critical. Jenny explains: “When we take core samples down in those deep marsh sediments, in some cases, it’s 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. It’s important to think about how long it took to build that store of rich carbon and if you lose it, how long it’s going to take to replace it. It’s really important to preserve it.” There’s increasing interest by the US Department of the Defense (DoD) and across US federal agencies in understanding carbon dynamics and identifying opportunities to increase the sequestration of carbon. As Jacob explains, he and Lisa were asked by the EWN Program to investigate blue carbon within the context of the Corps’s ecosystem restoration and navigation programs, including beneficial use of dredge material to restore and create coastal habitats. “We’ve been looking at blue carbon within an applied research context to see where opportunities exist to maximize the storage of carbon within these coastal systems.” This research is important, because as Jeff notes, it links to EWN’s objective of creating environmental and social benefits, in addition to the Corps’ navigation-related mission objectives. “On average, USACE produces about 200 million cubic yards of dredge sediment every year. The idea that we could use this dredge sediment to out-compete sea level rise and replenish salt marsh systems while increasing the potential to sequester carbon is a very good thing. I’m really excited about this work.” “Whenever we can get USACE and NOAA collaborating on these kinds of topics, it really does accelerate our understanding of these complex systems and processes,” Jeff says. The goal is that this foundational research Jenny, Jacob, and Lisa are conducting will ultimately lead to actionable beneficial use of sediments guidance for practitioners in the field. Jeff adds, “Everybody’s thinking about this, and we’re seeing entities like Department of the Navy or Army including blue carbon or carbon sequestration in their climate-action strategies and plans.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/ Related Links • Jeff King at LinkedIn • Lisa Chambers at UCF • Jenny Davis at NCCOS • Jacob Berkowitz at ResearchGate

Visionary Ideas for Restoring America's Estuaries Mar 14, 2023

Over 40% of Americans—that’s 130 million people—live along the coasts of the United States. That high concentration of people is putting a lot of pressure on sensitive coastal ecosystems. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, the new National Lead of the Engineering With Nature® Program, are joined by Daniel Hayden, President and CEO of Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE). RAE, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting and restoring bays and estuaries along the coasts, has a bold vision for the future where EWN and nature-based solutions play a critical role. RAE was founded in 1995, in part to bring together the coastal restoration conservation community. Starting with 10 members, the organization has grown significantly. In December 2022, RAE held its 11th Coastal and Estuarine Summit in New Orleans. With over 1300 attendees representing a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations that work in coastal restoration and protection, this shows the growing interest in protecting and restoring our coasts. An estuary is a place where one body of water meets another, typically a river into a bay or ocean, or a river into a large lake. The East, West, and Gulf Coasts are all home to estuaries, as well as the Great Lakes region. As Daniel describes, “These areas play a critical role in flood and storm surge protection, as well as ecological functions, such as providing habitat for fish and wildlife.” Daniel joined RAE in 2020, with a commitment to move the organization forward on its 2019 Strategic Plan while building support for increased funding for conservation and getting more people involved in protecting and restoring estuaries. Personally, he wanted to create a platform for thought leadership. “There’s a lot of different benefits we can communicate about, and that’s really exciting because we can bring many different communities together around something that’s very important.” Environmental justice, social equity, and community empowerment are at the forefront of RAE’s work. Daniel discusses RAE’s responsiblity to ensure that positive investments go into underrepresented and underserved communities. Jeff notes how RAE’s focus aligns with EWN and the Biden Administration’s Justice 40 Initiative: “The federal government has made it a goal that 40% of overall benefits of federal investments will flow towards disadvantaged, marginalized communities for things like clean energy and affordable housing, cleaning up areas that have been contaminated over the years, and of course, climate change.” Looking to the future, the opportunities for RAE and EWN to work together are “tremendous.” “Thinking about the amount of infrastructure that the country needs to maintain, rebuild and expand over the coming decades,” Daniel says, “we really need to be very thoughtful about how we invest. It’s not rebuilding what we had but making sure that infrastructure reflects the climate and the economy we want to have for the future.” Jeff adds, “As we think about climate change and the uncertainty associated with a 10-year or 20-year time horizon, we need to offer communities, stakeholders and decision makers the best available information and tools to make informed decisions. This is an important role for EWN. And, coming back to the RAE Summit, we’ll continue to support this incredible venue for sharing best practices and technologies. It is key to advancing nature-based solutions.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/ Related Links • Jeff King at LinkedIn • Daniel Hayden at LinkedIn

Celebrating the 30-Year USACE Career of Todd Bridges Feb 28, 2023

This very special episode of the EWN Podcast features Todd Bridges, Founder and National Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program. We’re celebrating his 30-year career and retirement from the US Army Corps of Engineers (on February 28, 2023), and discussing his visionary leadership of EWN and what’s up next for him. Host Sarah Thorne is joined by Dave Trafford, Producer of the EWN Podcast, and Chief Executive Producer, Story Studio Network. Sarah opens by sharing about her long collaboration with Todd: “Todd, I’ve had the opportunity to work with you the past 15 years—literally half of your career. It’s been a tremendous opportunity for me both personally and professionally; and for that, I truly thank you. I’ve sure learned a lot. It’s been really inspirational, watching you follow your passion and seeing the tremendous accomplishments that you’ve had with EWN and on so many other fronts.” Reflecting on his 30-year journey with the Corps, Todd says: “What resonates most with me are my reflections of and gratitude for the people that I’ve had an opportunity to meet, develop relationships and work with, on meaningful topics. It’s a personal hobby of mine to collect people’s stories, and I have a rich treasure box of stories about people that I’ve met and interacted with and enjoyed over the last 30 years.” Todd began his career in, as he says, “a very pragmatic way”. While completing his doctoral work at North Carolina State University and needing a job to support his family and expectant wife, he received a hand addressed envelope with a job announcement from the Waterways Experiment Station (the predecessor of the today’s Engineer Research and Development Center [ERDC]). “I frankly admit that I had no idea what the Army Corps of Engineers was. I read through this job announcement, and I had a passing thought that somebody was playing a practical joke on me because the description of what they were looking for was exactly in alignment with what I had been doing my doctoral research on. I called them. I applied for a job, and the rest is history.” Todd is recognized for his passion for his work. As he says, “It’s so important to be invested in what you’re doing, and you can’t manufacture it. There’s no artificial source for it. What you’re good at, and where you can make a difference, is very strongly associated with what moves you personally. For me, this area of work—humanity’s relationship with nature—is motivating for me on so many levels.” Looking to the future of EWN, Todd is optimistic and confident that EWN is in good hands. “As I’ve said before, the future for Engineering With Nature is bright. The reason is a combination of many things, but one of the fundamental reasons is that the team is strong, within the Corps and with our partners and stakeholders. They are well positioned to move forward and make great progress. I look forward to observing and contributing to that as I can. I’m just so impressed by the team members across our organization, including Jeff King who takes over as Lead of the EWN Program. I’ve sometimes said he’s my right hand, but that’s quite inadequate. I could say he’s my right side. I’m looking forward to watching him take EWN to the next level.” After taking what he calls a “breather month”, Todd will become a professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Georgia. “I’m very much looking forward to having the opportunity to work with people and organizations across the country and around the world that want to move forward and to make progress in this area of work. And I’m really looking forward to spending time and effort investing in the next generation.” 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 • Sarah Thorne at LinkedIn • Dave Trafford at LinkedIn

A Conversation about EWN, Innovation, and Leadership with LTG Spellmon Feb 21, 2023

In this episode, Lieutenant General Scott Spellmon joins Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science and National Lead for the Engineering With Nature (EWN) Program, and host, Sarah Thorne, as their special guest. Lt. Gen. Spellmon is the 55th Chief of Engineers and the Commanding General of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). We’re discussing the role of EWN, the importance of innovation, partnerships, and the General’s perspective on priorities for the future. Lt. Gen. Spellmon opened the conversation by emphasizing the importance of EWN and thanking Todd for his leadership: “It’s important to all of us, not just us within the Army Corps of Engineers but certainly with our many partners, our elected leaders, and, frankly, the American people who live, work, and recreate on the water. They all want to see us succeed as we continue to endeavor to engineer more with nature in everything that we do across our great country. I have committed to this in congressional testimony, and I'll just say it upfront—we’ve got to do more of this in our projects and in our programs. A personal thank you, Todd, for your great leadership in working to help us advance EWN across the Corps.” As the top leader of USACE, Spellmon notes the challenges USACE faces due to increased demand and explosive growth—USACE has gone from being a $20 billion program historically to now over a $90 billion program. “That massive program, that massive workload, is our number one challenge but also our number one opportunity. We really have to be innovative in taking the team that we have today that was structured for that $20 billion program and transforming it into one that can deliver on a $90-plus billion program. And innovation is key, thinking about things differently and executing them differently out in the field. There are so many opportunities with EWN that are going to help us get after this challenge.” A challenge that both Spellmon and Bridges have encountered is the perception that EWN is an alternative to traditional engineering approaches. As Spellmon notes, “One of the challenges that we have within the Corps is that too many folks have the mindset that we’re advocating for EWN as a substitute for [traditional] engineering solutions, and that’s not what we’re saying. EWN compliments our engineered solutions. We have to find those cases where we can really get some complimentary effects—multiple benefits to our engineering designs.” Todd adds, “We need to get past the nature or engineering paradigm. It’s a false choice—either this or that. It’s finding the balance and the combination and for us to be more explicit about how nature contributes to the value of our overall system in terms of the benefits to engineering and economics, but also the social resilience that our communities need, as well as the environmental resilience.” As we wrap up the episode, Spellmon talks about building the US Army Corps of Engineers of the future. He focuses in on diversity of thought: “We have so many projects across this country and project delivery teams working where we don’t look like the communities in which we work. Now we have the data to support our workforce demographics, so we are actively working to increase the diversity of thought within the organization because I think diversity of thought is going to bring this organization into the future.” 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 EWN • Todd Bridges at LinkedIn • LTG Spellmon at LinkedIn • LTG Spellmon at USACE

Accelerating NBS Progress through N-EWN Multisectoral Collaboration Feb 08, 2023

The Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), introduced in Season 1, Episode 10, is a community of researchers, practitioners, and educators who are working together to advance the practice of Engineering With Nature (EWN). In this episode we’re talking with N-EWN’s visionary leadership about what’s been accomplished and what lies ahead. Host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, National Lead of the EWN Program, welcome back Brian Bledsoe, Director of the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) at the University of Georgia, and our guests, Ellen Herbert, Senior Scientist, Sustainability and Nature-Based Solutions with Ducks Unlimited, and Chris Mack, Principal, Coastal Engineering Lead and Regional Coastal Solutions Director with Stantec. There has been a significant amount of progress with N-EWN since it was initiated in October of 2020. N-EWN currently has 30 researchers involved in its initiatives; dozens of projects underway; and many new partners, including Ducks Unlimited and Stantec. Bringing academia, government, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector into the Network has been critical to N-EWN’s success. These public-private relationships and partnerships are decreasing the lag time from R&D to practice for nature-based solutions. As Todd notes, “It’s great to see the Network expanding. It’s very encouraging and inspiring when you look at the organizations, their depth of experience, and what they bring to the game. When you combine all that with EWN, we can really make progress.” When N-EWN was first introduced in S1 E10, Todd suggested that the objective was nothing short of a revolution, “The revolution is going quite well. We’ve expanded our communications very significantly, sharing, networking across the Corps through our EWN Practice Leads and our EWN Cadre practitioners across the country. N-EWN plays an important role in this advancement.” Brian highlights the significant progress being made in the academic sector. “We’ve got academic partners in all the major biomes across the US. We’ve made some good progress setting up a long-term network of test beds. We hosted a National Academies workshop on infrastructure that was really inspiring. There’s a lot of synergy among the academic partners and the private-sector partners in terms of developing training and upskilling opportunities.” Ellen adds that “Multisectoral collaboration has allowed us to have a common vocabulary across federal, state, and NGO partnerships. My grandest hope for is that we can get to a place with lots of discussion and plenty of robust science so we can really put nature-based features and natural infrastructure on the same level playing field as traditional gray infrastructure.” Chris notes how things have changed since his early career when he was working for the Corps. “What you’ve historically studied is brick, steel—hard, rigid structures that can resist a particular force. But with the blending of the network of biologists, ecologists, and other disciplines, we’re asking, ‘Hey, did you know we can solve the same challenge using natural and nature-based solutions?’” Todd feels that there is a growing acceptance that change is needed. “Combining the collective experience of a diverse network of committed organizations is the way we accomplish that acceleration and practice—that’s the value of N-EWN.” For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/ Related Links

Measuring What Matters Jan 24, 2023

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

What do You Want to Know about Nature? The National Nature Assessment Jan 10, 2023

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

Nature-Based Solutions from the Halls of the Exec Office of the President Dec 13, 2022

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)

ERDC Labs Collaborating on Leading Edge 3D Printing Nature-Based Solutions Nov 29, 2022

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

Realizing the Value of Nature Nov 15, 2022

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

Nature-Based Solutions to Landscape-Architecture Challenges Oct 05, 2022

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

How England's Environment Agency is Boldly "Mainstreaming" NBS Innovation Sep 21, 2022

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

Thoughtful Advice for STEAM/STEM Students Sep 06, 2022

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

Rivers as Resources to be Valued Aug 23, 2022

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

The Heartland Tour: Five Rivers in One Day Aug 16, 2022

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

The San Joaquin Valley: Past, Present, and Future, from the Air Aug 10, 2022

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 2, Todd Bridges shares his perspective on the transformation of the wider San Joaquin Valley where he grew up. In December 2021, he took a helicopter tour of the Valley with an eye toward the landscape transformations that are evident. In 1772, Pedro Fages and his company—the first Europeans to visit the San Joaquin Valley—described the valley as filled with a diversity of wildlife and immense lakes and wetlands. The arrival of the Spanish, other Europeans, and eventually the Americans transformed California’s landscape. Dams, reservoirs, levees, canals, pumps, tunnels, and pipelines associated with the major rivers were the tools used to transform the San Joaquin Valley, draining the wetlands and lakes, resulting in a system that is unsustainable. As Todd describes it, “It’s clear to me that today’s and tomorrow’s climate cannot be reconciled with current practices in the valley and its landscape. It’s also clear to me that nature provides a source of hope for the valley’s future. A new balance could be achieved by resurrecting natural features and processes that were ‘engineered out’ of the Valley in the 20th century. Applying the principles and practices of Engineering With Nature could provide the means to realign the social-ecological system for enduring sustainability, water, and social resilience, and to produce the diversity of benefits and values that nature can provide.” Related Links

EWN On The Road: The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge: A Natural Landscape Revived Aug 04, 2022

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 this epsiode, Todd Bridges talks about his visit to the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge where he observed the effects of restoration efforts and ongoing management of the area by the US Fish and Wildlife Service; the California Department of Water Resources; the US Army Corps of Engineers; and River Partners, a nonprofit engaged in river and riparian restoration in the region. Over the last 15 years, 600,000 native trees have been planted as a part of the restorations. As Todd describes it, “The landscape that is emerging from these efforts is getting close to what I imagine Pedro Fages and his companions saw as they became the first Europeans to venture into the San Joaquin Valley in 1772.” Aligning natural and engineering processes produces a host of environmental, social, and economic benefits for flood risk management. “My visit to the Refuge has inspired me to think about how Engineering With Nature could support scaling-up restoration and nature-based solutions across the San Joaquin Valley and the nation to achieve a balance between humans and nature on our shared landscapes.” Related Links EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn EWN On The Road EWN On The Road: The California Swing San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge San Joaquin River Restoration Program USFWS San Joaquin River Restoration Program River Partners San Joaquin River NWR CA DFW San Joaquin River Restoration Program EWN Podcast S2E7: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources USACE Lower San Joaquin River Project

A Conversation about Leadership and EWN with Brigadier General Kelly, Commander of the USACE South Atlantic Division Jul 19, 2022

Leadership and vision are essential to implementing Engineering With Nature to create landscape-scale climate resilience. We’re focusing on leadership and EWN in conversations with two inspirational USACE Division leaders – Colonel (P) Antoinette Gant, Commander, and Division Engineer of the South Pacific Division (SPD), and Brigadier General Jason Kelly, Commander of the South Atlantic Division (SAD). In Episode 7, 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 BG Kelly about the challenges facing the South Atlantic Division. From restoration in the Everglades, to deepening the Charleston Harbor, to ongoing flood control initiatives, to disaster preparedness, we’re talking about the leadership needed to address landscape-scale challenges in innovative ways and how Engineering With Nature is an important part of infrastructure solutions. With an education in mathematics and statistics from Georgia Tech, BG Kelly spent the first 20 years of his career as “time in a formation with a rifle and a pistol” leading men and women as soldiers. When he took command of the Norfolk District in 2015, he was unsure if he would be as excited about navigation, recreation, aquatic ecosystem restoration, and regulatory permitting as he had been about preparing soldiers for combat, but he found that he was: “I'm curious by nature, so, this job certainly fits the bill. I come into work every day and have the opportunity to engage subject matter experts, folks that know more—have forgotten more—than I'll learn during my tenure as the Division Commander in SAD. We're all committed. We're all trying to deliver for the nation.” He is driven by curiosity, a desire to collaborate, and a personal quest to become a better communicator: “I strive to better communicate as an ambassador for the great work that's happening in my organization. I'm excited about what we're doing.” The South Atlantic Division faces many challenges—and opportunities—from hurricanes and impacts from climate change, to moving populations, and a range of issues related to aging infrastructure. The USACE is leading innovation to deliver 21st century engineering and infrastructure solutions that leverage EWN to solve problems and create value. From BG Kelly’s perspective, leadership is critical: “I think it's important that the senior most members of our organization lean in. As the senior leader in the South Atlantic Division, I am afforded the opportunity to know the EWN solutions that are available, but that's not always the case for some of the practitioners in the districts. I think it's important that the senior-most leaders get active, specifically with my position as a Major Subordinate Commander, sitting at the nexus of execution in the districts and policy in Washington, DC – rules and tools – trying to make all of that come together so we can do some collateral good. I don't think it happens without that nudge from leaders. Leadership matters.” Todd agrees: “Hearing leaders talk about, communicate, and message about EWN and innovative approaches, is so important for the vertical team within the Corps, but also to our sponsors and stakeholders and those that we're building things for. They need to hear us talk about what we're trying to do and how we're going to achieve it.” BG Kelly notes that strengthening communication is being strongly promoted by the Honorable Michael Connor, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works as one of his ‘lines of effort’, along with other factors that directly relate to EWN: “His insistence that we strengthen communications and relationships to solve water resource challenges, is front and center. I try to do that from my perch in Atlanta. His insistence that we modernize our Civil Works programs to better serve the needs of disadvantaged communities means ‘full contact.’ We’ve got to get out and be talking and be active to understand people’s needs. His ask that we build innovative climate resilient infrastructure to protect communities and ecosystems brings us right into this space of EWN and incorporating natural and nature-based features. Figuring out how to make these priorities part of all that we're doing is something I'm excited about. Those lines of effort are from our most senior leaders. And they are essential to solving the water resource challenges faced by the USACE.” SAD’s Civil Works program is diverse. It includes commercial navigation, flood and storm damage risk reduction, and ecosystem restoration for ports, navigation channels, and waterways in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. As BG Kelly notes, “These are places that are critical to our economy, places that are consistently and persistently in the news. Everything we do matters.” He relates a string of challenges, from disaster response in Puerto Rico to Everglades Restoration, to the rebuilding of Tyndall Air Force Base (see EWN Podcast S1E3), to projects in the ports of Savannah, Mobile, Charleston, and Miami, in response to climate change and resilience. “It's an exciting time. We have some complex challenges, and we've got talented folks. Each day, I say thank you for our success—we're winning. But when I say thank you, I'm asking for more. I've got another problem that I need my team to take on. For me, the reality is that we've got more work than time, and time is absolutely not on our side. But I'll tell you, SAD is game.” As Todd notes, “The Division is waging a different kind of battle that is relevant to our discussion of EWN—from the 20th century engineering approach of trying to conquer nature, to now trying to embrace nature—essentially partnering with nature—by applying EWN principles and natural and nature-based solutions to create infrastructure solutions that enhance community resilience and diversify value. BG Kelly agrees: “I think we've got to reframe our thinking to solve these complex challenges—think about how we can, and quite frankly, should be partnering with nature. One of the things I struggle with is our plan formulation. Our processes don't always lend themselves to that solution set. I think what Mr. Connor has asked us to do in modernizing our Civil Works program is to figure out how to make sure we're valuing these solutions. We have to think through cost sharing requirements for non-structural natural and nature-based features that would encourage communities to do some things differently. It will also encourage our engineers to think about those solutions in a different way.” Project decision making in USACE is changing. As BG Kelly notes, “I've engaged key stakeholders to alert them that the Army Corps of Engineers is not wedded to only concrete and steel. As a leader I'm trying to telegraph my thinking that we’re going to make the decisions that consider natural and nature-based features—ways that we partner with nature. Everything is on the table to solve the challenge.” Todd adds that the USACE Chief of Engineers, Lieutenant General Spellmon, uses an image of the USACE logo as a Castle where the drawbridge is down and the windows are open: “I think that imagery is so good because we need to open up as an organization so that we can co-develop solutions with our partners and with our communities. Some of us are going to be interested in the numbers and the math, and some of us are going to be interested in the bugs and the bunnies. But we can come together in an open process of co-developing solutions.” BG Kelly agrees, noting the diverse group of stakeholders who are impacted by Corps’ decisions: “Collaboration is a very key ingredient. We're talking about America's water resources, rivers, wetlands, inland and coastal waterways and billions of dollars in recreation and commerce. I think you have to let everyone under the tent and when we are making decisions, when we're trying to think about these competing alternatives. I'm an advocate for all things being considered and letting that be our point of origin as we move forward. With this approach, I think we'll get some good outcomes.” Todd agrees: “It's a positive time within the Corps, with LTG Spellmon and Mr. Connor's leadership, and yours, BG Kelly. With the organization, the potential, and the strong program the Corps has, we must embrace the idea of delivering projects and innovating at the same time to be the organization that we need to be today, as well as in the future.” A great example is the South Atlantic Coastal Study. It is the largest coastal risk assessment ever conducted by the Corps. According to BG Kelly, it covers more than 60,000 miles of shoreline, six states, and two territories: “It's just a mammoth undertaking and a great example of our goal to maximize the use of research and development, while promoting community resilience through partnering. It’s a great illustration of our effort to overcome those institutional barriers that I mentioned and adapt to climate change and sea level rise in our quest to better partner with nature.” Leadership is critical, and it is evolving. As Todd concludes, “BG Kelly, you're bringing people with you, you're not directing them. As you know, you don't really get effective change through exceptional force. You’re describing a kind of social leadership. That's what we need to make progress as the Corps of Engineers, and progress with our partners, for the benefit of our communities. I think the future of Engineering With Nature in the South Atlantic Division is bright, bright, bright

A Conversation about Leadership and EWN with Colonel Gant, Commander of the USACE South Pacific Division. Jul 18, 2022

Coming Soon: Two Inspirational Conversations about Leadership and EWN Jul 14, 2022

We’re really excited about our upcoming episodes 6 and 7. Tune in July 20th as we discuss leadership and Engineering With Nature with two inspirational USACE Division leaders – Colonel (P) Antoinette Gant, Commander, and Division Engineer of the South Pacific Division (SPD), and Brigadier General Jason Kelly, Commander of the South Atlantic Division (SAD). Leadership and vision are essential to successfully incorporating Engineering With Nature and nature-based approaches into climate preparedness and resilience solutions to address landscape-scale challenges. In Episodes 6 & 7, 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 talk with COL Gant and BG Kelly about the some of the challenges facing their Divisions, how Engineering With Nature approaches are a key part of the solutions, and about the leadership needed to address landscape-scale challenges in innovative ways. Stimulating, thought-provoking and truly inspiring!! The future of EWN is bright.

Introducing the EWN On The Road Feature Podcast Jun 28, 2022

Welcome to Episode 5! Today we’re kicking off the summer season with a road trip! Host Sarah Thorne is joined by 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 to talk about a new podcast mini-series. Over the past 2 years, Todd has been traveling across the country to visit people, places, and projects and he’s been reflecting on his experiences by writing a travel blog. We’re bringing highlights from the EWN On The Road blog to a podcast format—easy listening for summer travelers! In the summer of 2021, Todd and his wife and the unofficial EWN driver, Anita, traveled across 14 states from Mississippi to Montana and back in what Todd calls the Heartland Tour. “It was mind-altering for me,” Todd says. “It’s so important to me, and I think to most of us, to put ourselves in places and in contexts to stimulate our minds, our creativity, and our thinking. Over the course of a month and 5,547 miles, it just changed the way I thought about the land, the landscape, nature, the relationship of people to nature, what we’ve done in the past collectively to nature, and what we need to do to remedy our relationship with nature.” During the trip, Todd was posting his thoughts and observations to the EWN On The Road page on the EWN website. “I’ve had the opportunity, really the blessing, professionally to have traveled extensively, not only across the United States, but in other countries around the world, to see projects incorporating nature-based solutions and natural infrastructure—what we talk about as Engineering With Nature—in a whole variety of places and to talk with the people who made those projects happen. I became increasingly convinced that I needed to share those experiences with others so, in a sense, they can also participate in those experiences and that learning that I was able to engage in by being there and having my feet on the ground or in the water and seeing those projects.” Todd describes how he was struck by the vast agricultural landscapes and the relationships between the land, the communities, and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. And he appreciated the opportunity to visit with USACE colleagues, including Eddie Brauer (St. Louis District, Heartland Tour Stop #3) and David Crane (Omaha District, Heartland Tour Stop #6) the two USACE Riverine EWN Practice Leads, whose work and projects represent the future of sustainable infrastructure development. In the winter of 2022, Todd and Anita headed out on the Southwest Swing, traveling nearly 8,000 miles through 8 states to visit more people, places, and projects, including Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, which is at its lowest level in its history, an alarming indication of the megadrought that has gripped the Southwest. Its current water level is at 35% capacity, for a reservoir that supports 40 million people. Lake Powell upstream on the Colorado River is also at a historic low. A paper recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change highlights that this is the most intense drought in the region in 1200 years. Todd notes, “The need is intense to make use of new ways—natural infrastructure—to address the cycles of drought and flooding that occur in the Southwest.” The California Swing in 2021 and continuing in 2022 makes a personal connection for Todd who was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California. As discussed on previous EWN Podcast episodes S3E8 and S3E9 with author Mark Arax, the water infrastructure story of California, as Todd notes, “is complex and impressive on any scale. It is the most complex water engineering of any place in the world and has created the $50 billion California agricultural powerhouse.” With that comes unprecedented challenges—social, environmental, and economic. Todd delves into these challenges and associated opportunities in upcoming EWN On The Road podcasts. During this summer’s EWN On The Road podcast mini-series Todd reflects on his 13,000 miles of travel across the country: “Maybe during this holiday time over the summer, listeners will be stimulated to think beyond the interstate—get off road and think about what they see and their relationship personally, or collectively with their community, with nature and how improving that can serve the greater good.” 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 EWN On The Road: The California Swing EWN Implementation Cadre Rapid intensification of the emerging southwestern North American megadrought in 2020–2021 – Nature Climate Change Journal EWN Podcast S2E7: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources EWN Podcast S3E8: The Dreamt Land – California Water, Sustainability, and EWN EWN Podcast S3E9: The Dreamt Land – Rebalancing the System EWN Podcast S4E2: High Energy Roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads

Leveraging Federal Partnering to Infuse Nature into Urban Community Resilience Jun 15, 2022

Welcome to Episode 4! We’re discussing the role of EWN and nature-based solutions (NBS) in addressing urban challenges to build community and regional resilience. Host Sarah Thorne is joined by new co-host, Burton Suedel, Research Biologist at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); Abby Hall, Senior Advisor on Local and Regional Planning, with the Office of Community Revitalization, at the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA); and Jim McPherson, Federal Coordinating Officer for Region 1, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Jim has had a long career in disaster response, first with the U.S. Coast Guard, where he participated in the response to Hurricane Katrina, now a Federal Coordinating Officer with FEMA. Jim’s current role is coordinating all federal agencies in a disaster, including USACE: “One of my favorite agencies to work with is the US Army Corps of Engineers because they are the nation's toolbox. They can do anything.” Abby grew up in rural Oklahoma as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and studied anthropology at Stanford University. Her environmental education work at the EPA focused on helping people gain more access to green space in their day-to-day lives, whether it be big city parks, urban trees, community gardens, or creek trails. This led to her focus on green infrastructure for disaster resilience: “Resilience is a community's ability to survive disasters and to be ready for the impacts of climate change, protecting public health, delivering environmental justice, preserving a culture, strengthening the local economy, for long-term success of the community overall, not just in the context of natural disasters.” The EWN Program has a relatively new focus on urban landscapes and the environment. As Burton notes, “EWN has funded a research task specifically looking at how EWN concepts and principles have been and could be incorporated into urban settings and landscapes. There are multiple challenges at the urban level. We're thinking about managing flood and storm risk. We want to improve the ecosystem functions associated with community infrastructure. And we also want to improve the water quality and flood protection in these areas and by so doing, improve the public health and social benefits.” The focus of EPA’s Greening America’s Communities Program is similar. Abby says, “It's one of my favorite things I get to work on at EPA. It's a design assistance program for communities where EPA and a team of landscape architects and urban designers come to a community and hold workshops with a range of local perspectives to put together a vision for what green infrastructure solutions should literally look like. We're talking to the school kids who need a green street to walk from home to school. We're talking to the farmers who need a space in town to create a farmers’ market. We’re really bringing together different perspectives to design that green infrastructure and people love the approach because it's fun, it's engaging and it's visual. Whether it's a city or a tribal community, they can use the pictures created to fundraise and actually get their designs built.” The EPA, working with FEMA and a regional land use agency in the San Francisco Bay area, developed the Regional Resilience Toolkit to help regions and communities to become more resilient. It presents a 5-step process to bring together government and non-government regional partners to produce the top priorities for resilience investments across a region to plan, fund and build large-scale green infrastructure. The process meets FEMA’s requirements for its hazard mitigation planning program, which means the priority action is eligible for FEMA funding. And as Burton notes, “The Toolkit is a really good enabler, not only for the EPA, but as a way to collaborate with USACE and others looking for increased inter-agency collaboration, and perhaps for conducting pilot projects and other projects going forward.” Jim emphasizes the importance of these approaches being actionable. “It's very important that we do these studies, but it's more important that we have an action plan. FEMA is really results-driven. We're action-orientated we don't just want to pass information.” As an example, Jim describes a coordinated response to homelessness in Hartford, Connecticut: “FEMA was putting everybody into a hotel during COVID, but people weren't getting any services, they were basically just housed. Then we got together with fed, states, locals, our USACE Lead Field Coordinator, and she starts looking at all the types of things that we could bring into this hotel -- organic gardening, vertical gardening, having residents compost leftover food from local restaurants, putting solar panels on the roof and having some who are formerly homeless people get training. Now we’re using all the wraparound services from the federal, state, and local governments. When we talk about vulnerable populations, there has to be a solution. It can't just be identifying that we have a housing, a homeless situation. What am I going to do about it?” Taking a holistic approach to building community resilience is a key theme of this episode. Abby comments that, “EPA’s Equitable Resilience Assistance Program reflects a priority across the federal government to look at how equitable our programs and funding are. We're working with states and tribes, focusing on large funding streams, starting at federal sources and flowing through states and tribal governments, and how can those be more thoughtfully distributed.” As the episode wraps up, Burton emphasizes the growing need to renew existing infrastructure, relating how the concrete and steel structures constructed over the past 100 years must be modified, repaired, or replaced. “When we replace this infrastructure, we need to think about ways we can increase the value associated with it, going beyond intended engineering objectives, to include environmental, social, and economic benefits. One of the best ways to do that is to incorporate nature-based solutions into these projects to provide greater benefits.” Collaborating with agency partners to bring a full slate of expertise and resources to address multiple challenges at the community level is really the key to building resilience. Related Links

EWN Practice Leads Sharing Expertise through the EWN Cadre May 31, 2022

In https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/high-energy-roundtable-with-the-ewn-practice-leads/id1528233207?i=1000562006094 we had a high energy roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads who play a critical role in broadening and expanding the application of Engineering With Nature practices and nature-based solutions within the US Army Corps of Engineers. In Episode 3, the EWN Practice Leads return to talk about how they’re solving challenges, advancing EWN implementation through the https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=2871, and sharing what they are learning with other practitioners. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined again by a roundtable of the EWN Practice Leads. Elizabeth Godsey is the Technical Lead for Coastal Engineering and Regional Sediment Management with Mobile District; Danielle Szimanski is a Project Manager and Ecologist with Baltimore District; Eddie Brauer is a Senior Hydraulic Engineer with St. Louis District; and Dave Crane is an Environmental Resource Specialist with Omaha District. We asked each to talk about their current projects. Danielle, a Coastal Practice Lead, describes her work in the Chesapeake Bay where rising sea level is already occurring and is expected to increase. She and her team are restoring barrier islands and marshes to combat the loss of habitat and for flood risk management of inland areas. “Being able to restore these marshes, especially if they're degraded and fragmented, and being able to stave off that future loss and stop them from turning into open water is critical for the Chesapeake Bay.” Danielle also discusses work underway at Deal Island: “The Deal Island project is a maintenance dredging project on the Wicomico River. We're going to use the dredge material to restore approximately 70 acres of degraded and fragmented marsh. This will restore that wetland for migratory birds, and provide nesting habitat specifically for the Saltmarsh Sparrow, which is a threatened species.” She adds, “there's been a lot of work with other federal, state and non-government agencies to create this design and complete pre- and post-monitoring to assess how these wetlands are actually going to provide habitat once they are created.” Elizabeth, also a Coastal Practice Lead, has worked on a number of coastal restoration projects in the Gulf to restore habitats for threatened and endangered species including sea turtles and piping plovers: “In Mississippi alone we've restored over 2,500 acres across the coastal zone habitats, including beach, dune, wetlands, and island restoration. That's about 2000 football fields of restoration work in that state alone.” She’s taking that first-hand knowledge and experience and, as a Practice Lead, sharing leading practices and key learnings with others: “The biggest thing that we're doing is our monitoring and adaptive management. It's a long-term look at the project performance and the ecological benefits that come from the projects. We give that back to scientists, to universities, to people at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and the US Geological Survey (USGS) so they can improve their modeling tools and reduce uncertainty in their predictions.” She also stresses the importance of combining multiple benefits to help achieve whatever the mission goal is, whether it is storm risk management, navigation and economic benefit, or ecosystem protection and restoration: “We're able to integrate each of those benefits and provide that value-add to the nation. We’re getting that message out and showing people how to do that, and how you communicate the benefits of this approach to decision-makers.” Turning to the Riverine Practice Leads, Eddie describes the importance of taking a holistic perspective of riverine systems. “There are so many people that have a day-to-day connection to the river beyond just the projects that the Corps is doing. It's our responsibility to ensure that we account for everyone's needs on all the projects that we construct. To do that, it's critical to understand that each project is part of a broader system.” He goes on to describe a project that the Corps participated in on the Madeira River in Brazil, the largest tributary of the Amazon River and a critical navigation corridor for transporting goods and people. “It was extra critical for us to be to take a watershed approach, to understand the system before doing anything. We spent four years studying the system prior to making a single recommendation. Through this analysis, we understood that because of the geology of the river, we were able to manage it in smaller reaches instead of very large engineering projects, similar to what you'd see on the Missouri or the Mississippi Rivers. We were able to nudge the river through potentially temporary river training structures and spark natural geomorphic processes to accomplish our goals, as opposed to using a brute force engineering approach.” Dave is working on a project on a 12-mile stretch of the Platte River that runs through the city and county of Denver where the Corps had built dams in the past. By rethinking the approach and applying EWN principles, he and his team are achieving multiple benefits: “We’re doing things like completely removing or modifying drop structures in the river that allow for better fish passage and better in-channel habitat, while also helping to reduce sedimentation the channel. In some areas we're able to pull back the riverbanks to allow more flood water conveyance capacity. Working within an urban area, that has a very direct and large connection to a much larger landscape, laterally and upstream and downstream.” Working together, the four Practice Leads have learned from each other and developed shared priorities. As Elizabeth notes: “Connecting practitioners of different backgrounds like us with this overarching vision of Engineering With Nature was the thing that really made it easy for us to figure out our group's strengths and differences; how we could come together and work, and also what those priorities needed to be, because we could find those common grounds across the landscape.” One of their top priorities was expand the practice of EWN across the Corps. In 2021 the Practice Leads established the EWN Implementation Cadre. As Dave explains, “It’s an informal internal network of EWN and natural and nature-based features practitioners. We have a space where we connect and share experiences, knowledge, ideas, upload documents to a shared drive and have discussions online.” Danielle describes the process of sharing that goes on across the Cadre: “The key word that we were looking for, for the Cadre hub was ‘crowdsourcing’. Project managers from anywhere in the country that have become a member of this hub can pose a question to the entire group, the multiple hundreds of Cadre members.” As Eddie notes, in addition to leveraging resources and connections, the Cadre provides an opportunity to bring new ideas into the Corps. According to Jeff, the Cadre as an unqualified success: “When the Cadre was launched, the Leads invited anyone within the Corps who was interested in learning more about the EWN Cadre to attend their opening webinar – 800 Corps employees participated in that first meeting! And the interest has continued. It's just been incredible to see the number of people coming to this space, wanting to learn more about Engineering With Nature, offering their thoughts, and their questions. Creating this repository of information has become so valuable. It's a special place and just a real testimony to the hard work that the Practice Leads are doing.” Related Links
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/
- http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-king-85195413
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=494
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-godsey-p-e-b85793a8/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4136
- https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Program-and-Project-Management/Civil-Projects/MsCIP/
- https://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisit/ship-island.htm
- https://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisit/cat-island.htm
- https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/3706/1/ERDC-TN-EWN-15-2.pdf
- https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Portals/46/docs/program_management/mscip/docs/AppS%20-%20MAM%20Plan%20with%20appedices.pdf and Adaptive Management
- https://cesamusace.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=ea29cd4e1f3b432e8c520df3fb7a9f8b-Dauphin Island
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-szimanski-74892821a/

High Energy Roundtable with the EWN Practice Leads May 17, 2022

Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 4! EWN Practice Leads play a critical role in broadening and expanding the application of Engineering With Nature practices and nature-based solutions. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), are joined by a roundtable of EWN Practice Leads who are all with USACE. Elizabeth Godsey is the Technical Lead for Coastal Engineering and Regional Sediment Management with Mobile District; Danielle Szimanski is a Project Manager and Ecologist with Baltimore District; Edward Brauer is a Senior Hydraulic Engineer with St. Louis District; and David Crane is an Environmental Resource Specialist with Omaha District. Consistent with this season’s theme—Up, Up, Up, with Engineering With Nature—EWN Practice Leads were established to enable the continued expansion of EWN. According to Jeff, “Back in March of 2021, we were experiencing a lot of growth within the EWN Program, and we realized that for this growth to continue, we really needed to reach beyond this national-level program and get out into the field more. We strived to identify individuals who would help us grow the program so, we put out a call internal to the Corps. Eddie, Elizabeth, Danielle, and Dave stepped up and answered the call. It’s been really exciting working with all four of them.” The Leads had various levels of experience with EWN, but all were motivated by an opportunity to help expand the application of EWN principles and practices throughout the Corps by acting as the connection between the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and the districts. Elizabeth called it an “aha moment,” describing it as “a leadership opportunity to be a mentor and to connect other practitioners with cutting-edge science and engineering with nature solutions.” Danielle was excited about signing on: “I love the idea of sharing opportunities for EWN with others that haven’t had that experience before—being able to put EWN at the forefront and show that even if you haven’t done it before, you don’t need to be afraid of it.” As Jeff says, it’s a two-way opportunity: “For me sitting at a higher level, I do engage with the Corps’s districts quite a bit, but there’s an opportunity to learn more about what’s happening on the ground. The Practice Leads provide incredible insight that helps EWN leadership really get the full picture of what is happening in the districts and where future opportunities are located. All four Leads are dedicated, motivated, and really inspire us to do more.” The Practice Leads lead the https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=2871—an informal network of US Army Corps of Engineers practitioners, representing a variety of disciplines across the enterprise, that is working to advance the application of EWN principles, practices, and technologies to deliver nature-based solutions (which will be discussed in more detail in Episode 3). The Leads represent two practice areas—Coastal and Riverine. We discuss their experiences applying EWN in their districts and share how EWN approaches, including large, landscape-scale nature-based features, can be translated to other practitioners. Elizabeth, a Coastal Practice Lead, describes the challenges Mobile District is facing along the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast associated with tropical storms, heavy rainfall, and rising seas: “Those coastal hazards can increase the stressors to our natural and manmade systems that serve as a frontline of defense and increase the risk to our growing coastal populations, critical infrastructure, as well as nationally significant habitats and species. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Congress authorized the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program to address long-term risk reduction. An element of this was to restore offshore Mississippi barrier islands. This resulted with estimated annual storm-damage-reduction benefits of over $20 million to the mainland coast.” These were also discussed in https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/expanding-engineering-with-nature/id1528233207?i=1000513320370. Danielle, a Coastal Practice Lead, describes work being doing in the Chesapeake Bay on the https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?p=6547 that has been mentioned in previous podcast episodes (https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/collaborating-to-create-wildlife-habitat-while-restoring/id1528233207?i=1000492118642 and https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/scaling-up-up-up-with-cstorm-and-ewn/id1528233207?i=1000559504626). The Swan Island restoration is intended to work as a natural breakwater against storm impacts to protect coastal areas by using dredged material to increase elevation, along with vegetation (on shore and submerged). The data gathered is being used to improve modeling. “There’s been a lot of work across agencies to be able to combine all this information together for the https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/Fact-Sheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/476697/coastal-storm-modeling-system/ model so we can use it, not just in the Chesapeake Bay but across the nation for other island restoration projects, to be able to reduce these storm impacts.” A couple of articles about the model have already been published; and once finalized, the model will be available for anyone to use. The hope is that it will enable completion of more natural breakwater projects by the Corps. As Jeff notes, sharing how EWN is being applied in the districts is important as it serves as a model for other districts. Eddie, a Riverine Practice Lead, describes some of the challenges St. Louis District faces in its riverine systems, which he notes have been engineered for decades. “We're having to go back and reimagine the way that we’re implementing solutions, finding other ways that we can, for instance, have navigation on a system but also create additional habitat without increasing flood risk. It’s really important to understand that there are many people with diverse needs out there that we need to accommodate. The solution to both of these problems are Engineering With Nature fundamentals—looking at this as a system and incorporating other people’s benefits and needs and partnerships.” Dave, a Riverine Practice Lead, has been doing innovative work in Omaha District: “It’s been neat finding ways to incorporate nature-based features, not only in ecosystem restoration projects but across the full spectrum of our mission.” He adds, “There’s a lot of talk about aging infrastructure throughout the country. Maybe levees aren’t something that a lot of people think about when they think about aging infrastructure, but some flood risk management infrastructure, including levees, are almost a hundred years old. In large rural areas along the Missouri River, they’ve been damaged by floods and been repaired in place. Over time, it takes a toll. As we repair flood risk management infrastructure, we’re partnering with conservation programs and NGOs and thinking differently about constructing things like setbacks. These can help address ecosystem restoration while improving the infrastructure because you’re able to rebuild to modern levee design standards that are more resilient and can withstand over topping without as much erosion damage.” As we close, Jeff highlights the value of the EWN Practice Leads: “This group of Practice Leads are creating real boots-on-the-ground projects and they’re expanding the practice of EWN in their own work, while also being leaders, coaches, and mentors for others that they work with on a regular basis.” Sarah and Jeff invite the Leads to return for Season 4 Episode 3 to talk about how they’re solving challenges, advancing EWN implementation through the EWN Cadre, and sharing what they are learning with other practitioners. Related Links
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/
- http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-king-85195413
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=494
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-godsey-p-e-b85793a8/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4136
- https://www.sam.usace.army.mil/Missions/Program-and-Project-Management/Civil-Projects/MsCIP/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-szimanski-74892821a/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4141
- https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/Fact-Sheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/476697/coastal-storm-modeling-system/
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Scaling Up, Up, Up, with CSTORM and EWN May 03, 2022

Welcome to the first episode of Season 4! Our theme is Up, Up, Up, with Nature-Based Solutions and we have a fabulous line-up of guests who are going to join us and talk about the climate change imperative – and the opportunity to collaborate on developing and implementing landscape-scale projects. Host Sarah Thorne and Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature Program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, are joined by two guests. Amanda Tritinger is the Assistant Program Manager for the EWN Program, and a Research Hydraulics Engineer at the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Amanda is also a future cohost of the EWN Podcast. Matt Bilskie is Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. Matt leads the http://coast.engr.uga.edu, a research team that develops computational hydrodynamic models to simulate astronomic tides, wind-waves, storm surge, and rainfall-runoff in coastal and oceanic environments. They are talking about how their work on innovative modeling will help project teams incorporate nature-based features into their coastal storm planning efforts. Amanda and Matt met at the University of Central Florida and share a passion for applying math and science to make the world a better place by helping coastal communities thrive. As part of her education, Amanda used numerical models to predict erosion and accretion in marsh environments in a national estuarine research reserve. In the process, she fell in love with the coast, which led to her PhD and ultimately her work with USACE. Matt, a native Floridian, witnessed the devastation caused by the very active hurricane seasons of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Atlantic_hurricane_season and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Atlantic_hurricane_season early in his college days. This experience, along with his interest in computers and coding, led to his study of coastal storm surge and flooding. Today, Amanda and Matt are actively involved in the https://n-ewn.org/ (N-EWN), a collaborative effort between USACE and the University of Georgia’s https://www.iris.uga.edu/. They’re excited about their work together using the https://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/Media/Fact-Sheets/Fact-Sheet-Article-View/Article/476697/coastal-storm-modeling-system/, or CSTORM. CSTORM is a very robust tool developed by Dr. Chris Massey at USACE’s Engineering Research and Development Center that, in real time, couples storm surge and wave modeling. CSTORM can model different scenarios for storm timing, whether a storm hits at high or low tide; how strong the winds are; how fast the storm is moving; and different sea-level-rise conditions. As Amanda says, “Using CSTORM, we're able to look at historical storms, and synthetic storms. We can look at a thousand different storm scenarios before those storms are seen and predict what would happen during those given events, and we can look at role of natural infrastructure on our coastline. We're able to share those storms with our partners at University of Georgia and have them run them through their different setups and do scaling that Matt has been working on.” An example schematic workflow for ERDC's CSTORM-MS. Source: ERDC CHL Fact Sheet. Matt’s focus is scaling up this modeling to evaluate natural infrastructure features in both inland and coastal areas. He’s using CSTORM to run various scenarios: “We’re thinking about flood-plain reconnection, removing or moving levees back from the immediate vicinity of the riverbank. We're talking about utilizing what exists and what nature does so well and its adaptation through wetlands, salt marshes, mangroves, oyster and coral reefs, barrier island systems, beach and dune systems, and many others. In a nutshell, when we're thinking about these natural features, we're really wanting to work with nature rather than keep nature out like we've done in the past with concrete, and levy and sea wall structures. So, it's a new paradigm in how we're approaching coastal engineering – a more holistic view.” He goes on to describe some of the initial work modeling the effects of the North Carolina Outer Banks barrier-islands system using various scenarios to assess the protective benefits of these barrier islands during extreme storms and hurricanes. “Based on what we’ve learned, we can help others better utilize these natural barriers in future planning.” Jeff highlights the importance of modeling the role of nature-based solutions, such as barrier islands: “This type of research illustrating the importance of the Outer Banks can be extrapolated to illustrate the importance of other island features too, and where it could be opportunistic to be able to create more islands in vulnerable areas along our coast. Those created islands, perhaps through beneficial use of dredged sediment, create more resilience. Matt’s work is helping us understand that island systems can be valuable in other areas as well.” The https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?p=7972 will help project teams use the data generated by the model to inform their planning for restorating and creating natural features. Amanda is enthusiastic about the potential use: “We'll have 63 million nodes that include the entire North and South Atlantic coasts. We run all these different storms through them and get all this amazing data. Then we host that data on the https://chs.erdc.dren.mil/ so that anybody in this country, anybody in the world, can go get that data and readily figure out how best to incorporate natural features into their projects – and the benefits of doing so.” The CSTORM Toolkit will provide practitioners with a faster way to assess a broader range of natural features, which ultimately will lead to more EWN innovation. Using CSTORM to conduct landscape-scale modeling for flood risk management, Matt explains, “allows us to modify the landscape then look at the hydrodynamic response from a flood, in terms of water levels, currents, waves, and so on. If we're talking about protecting communities from floods, we need to scale up to maybe miles, or tens of miles, to assess our nature-based solutions and implementation with these communities. It’s very important that we study this, generate the science, and provide design guidelines to the water community so nature-based solutions can be implemented in the real world.” As Jeff notes, this modeling not only informs the design of natural features but also helps practitioners understand how these features will last over time and what efforts may be needed to maintain them through adaptive management. “With the tools that are being developed now, practitioners, in time, would be able to see – based on the different influences in the system – how an island feature, for example, may start to erode through natural processes. By understanding of the life expectancy of these features, we can then determine the optimal time to replenish or renourish those systems to ensure that we are getting the desired outcomes – the resilience and the engineering outcomes or maintaining the ecosystem service function. I think that's incredibly important work.” What’s next? According to Amanda, her future will be focused on developing innovative, holistic systems-based solutions to coastal challenges, incorporating her passion for math and models. For Matt, “We’re at a critical time in our country’s history, and really the world, in how we are adapting to nature and how we are learning from past errors. We're at a turning point where we're able to really merge these issues that are compounding on us with climate change and engage coastal communities. One of my passions is to integrate our work with coastal communities and really understand where they're coming from, their cultural practices, their viewpoints. What are their actual problems? And then to design our tools and our frameworks to help them design solutions that will protect their communities in the present and for the future.” Related Links
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/
- http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-king-85195413
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=494
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-tritinger-963123211/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=3995
- https://n-ewn.org/
- https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4174
- https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/collaborating-to-create-wildlife-habitat-while-restoring/id1528233207?i=1000492118642

Up, Up, Up with Nature-Based Solutions Apr 12, 2022

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

USACE, NOAA and the Value of Partnership Mar 15, 2022

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

The Dreamt Land: Rebalancing the System Mar 01, 2022

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

The Dreamt Land: California Water, Sustainability, and EWN Feb 15, 2022

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

Plants as Eco-Engineers and Drivers of Community Resilience Feb 01, 2022

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

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

Parks and Refuges Embrace the Future Through Adaptive Management, Planning and Partnerships Jan 18, 2022

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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Applying EWN strategies at National Parks and Refuges Nov 30, 2021

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

Engineering With Nature for Safe and Livable Cities Nov 16, 2021

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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The Next Generation Makes the Future of EWN Even Brighter Nov 03, 2021

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

Considering and Evaluating the Benefits of Natural Infrastructure Oct 19, 2021

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

Special Engineering With Nature Podcast: Follow-up to the Natural and Nature-Based Features Guidelines Launch Oct 05, 2021

Over 700 people attended the live launch of the International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management on September 16, 2021. Host Sarah Thorne talks with Todd Bridges, Lead, Engineering With Nature, United States Army Corps of Engineers, about the importance of the Guidelines. This effort was the culmination of five years of collaboration to develop the Guidelines, 1000 pages of knowledge, information and experience about the use of natural nature-based features for flood risk management and, the 150 page Overview that is intended to be more accessible, to a broader range of readers beyond the technical community. As Todd notes, “we've developed some thoughts, ideas, and information that we believe will help practitioners, agencies, authorities, and organizations and communities around the world pursue this idea of combining nature with engineering and infrastructure to develop better systems that perform in a sustainable and enduring way into the future.” Listeners can watch the event and download the The International Guidelines on NNBF for Flood Risk Management at www.engineeringwithnature.org. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN EWN NNBF Guidelines Project

Evolution of Nature Infrastructure Policy Oct 05, 2021

President Biden's January 2021 Executive Order, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, emphasizes the urgency of taking action to build climate resiliency and specifically calls for the inclusion of nature-based solutions. Combined with the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act approved by the US Senate in August, 2021, which describes major infrastructure projects to be undertaken, these represent an unprecedented opportunity to incorporate Engineering With Nature approaches into infrastructure policy and projects. Our guests are 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. The evolution of infrastructure policy can be seen, in part, through our experience with storms. As Todd notes, “following Hurricane Katrina, our collective focus was risk reduction. After Hurricane Sandy, the focus expanded to include resilience. Those events, separated by several years, intensified the dialogue, in a positive way, on engineering with nature and nature-based solutions.” Work done by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Cape May, New Jersey before Hurricane Sandy demonstrates the importance of natural infrastructure to storm risk reduction. Working with USACE, an ecosystem restoration project was undertaken that included holistic dune restoration, hydrologic improvements, and habitat restoration. According to Sarah, “before the project there was a history of flooding of the communities behind the preserve area. After Sandy, the dune restoration stood up and those communities only experienced negligible flooding.” The Water Institute of the Gulf (TWIG) was founded in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Justin describes the opportunity for incorporating natural and nature-based solutions “to create a blended approach that addresses the need for built infrastructure, married with natural infrastructure. For example, levees and flood walls blended with barrier islands and marsh to create a multiple lines of defense strategy that ultimately yields not only economic benefits through the protection of property and businesses and communities, but also social and environmental benefits.” Significant hurricane and storm events have clearly shaped policy at the federal level, but as Mindy notes, the Corps has been implementing engineering with nature solutions for over a century, describing the Yolo Bypass, designed by the Corps in the 1930s that helps divert flood water near Sacramento, California, while also providing valuable fish and wildlife habitat. From Mindy’s perspective, “hurricanes over the past century have brought a lot of attention to the Corps’ capabilities and Congress has provided direction through Water Resource Development Acts (WRDA) requiring the Corps to explicitly consider natural and nature-based solutions for flood risk management, hurricane and storm damage reduction and ecosystem restoration.” The benefits of employing natural and nature- based infrastructure is significant. Our guests believe that expanded value can be “unlocked” by including nature-based solutions, or natural infrastructure, as an integrated part of infrastructure investment. According to Sarah, “if we equate nature as a form of infrastructure, we can unlock the trillions of dollars that this world spends and invests in more traditional infrastructure and really think equally of nature as delivering a lot of the services that are essential.” Measuring those benefits is the focus of our discussion in Episode 2. As Todd says, “Our ability to describe, define substantiate the benefits and the costs related to nature is really the key to opening up a treasure box of natural value that all people can benefit from.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn 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 EWN Podcast S1E6: Assessing the Value of Natural and Nature-Based Features in Coastal Storm and Flood Risk Reduction Executive Order No. 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Season 3 Trailer: Creating the Future with EWN Sep 29, 2021

Season 3 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast launches October 6. It’s been a big year for Engineering With Nature! Host, Sarah Thorne, recently talked with Todd Bridges, Lead Engineering With Nature, United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), about why and what’s coming up in Season 3. As Todd notes: “there's a whole range of things that make this year a big year, including the fact that Congress recognized Engineering With Nature in very formal way by including it within the budget, which brings importance and urgency to execute.” We’ll be talking about the new policy directives and measuring the benefits of natural and nature-based solutions. Our guests from the new EWN Proving Grounds – Mobile District, San Francisco District and St Louis District – will discuss how they are integrating EWN approaches into their work. And we’ll talk about EWN’s recently launched International Guidelines on the Use of Natural and Nature Based Features for Flood Risk Management that provide technical practitioners the tools and knowledge needed to plan, design, engineer, and construct NNBF projects. In Season 3, our focus is on creating the future with EWN. As Todd says, “the idea of nature-based solutions has a history that goes back many decades, but it's gained focus, credibility and energy in the last 10 years or so. It is emerging and growing and dynamic. It's exciting to be a part of that.” Join us for Season 3 as we discuss the how innovative EWN approaches are being applied to a range of challenges including climate change, coastal resilience, flood risk management, and more. 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 LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN NNBF Guidelines

Special Engineering With Nature Podcast: Natural and Nature-Based Features Guidelines Launch Sep 04, 2021

After years of development and collaboration with 150+ contributors and authors, from 70+ organizations, from 10+ countries, the International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management are being released on September 16, 2021. Host Sarah Thorne talks with Jeff King, Deputy Lead Engineering With Nature and Todd Bridges, Lead, Engineering With Nature, United States Army Corps of Engineers, about how the guidelines came about and why they are so important to practitioners working on flood risk management and coastal resilience challenges around the world. What: Launch Event Announcing Publication of The International Guidelines on NNBF for Flood Risk Management When: Thursday, 16 September 2021 at 10:00 AM US Central Daylight Time Watch Here: https://youtu.be/sX5SjBjxits More Info: https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4351 Please extend the invitation across your networks. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN EWN NNBF Guidelines Project

Part 2: Nature-Based Solutions for Infrastructure, the Global Sand Crisis, and Wealth Distribution Aug 11, 2021

In Part 2 of Episode 8, our discussion continues with Todd Bridges, National Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Anita van Breda, Senior Director, Environment and Disaster Management at the World Wildlife Fund; and William Glamore, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Water Research Laboratory, UNSW Sydney, Australia. We’re talking about the International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features coming out in September and other critical guidance documents that Anita contributed to, including Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide and Nature-Based Solutions for Water-Related Disasters. As we’re learning, natural and nature-based approaches to infrastructure challenges are becoming common practice in the Pacific. Will is Chair of PIANC Australia and New Zealand. PIANC—the World Association for Waterborne Infrastructure—advances natural and nature-based features (NNFB) in ports and harbors worldwide. Todd Chairs PIANC’s Environmental Commission and notes that PIANC is “a venerated organization, more than a hundred years old, with cross-sector involvement and participation. It includes organizations around the world supporting and contributing to the sustainable development of maritime infrastructure, which is so important to the world economy and trade.” At a recent international symposium hosted by PIANC, Will noted how NNBF techniques are now commonplace and standard practice for groups like the insurance industry, port operators, and the dredging community: “It’s not ‘should we’. It’s ‘how can we’? This is the new way of the world, and it’s becoming the foundational, social license to operate across the Asia Pacific. Ports worldwide are driving that change towards nature-based solutions.” He notes that this focus isn’t driven solely by reducing costs but also by the demand to reduce carbon emissions, which financial markets are now demanding. This leads to activities like ports planting trees hundreds of kilometers away to improve the environment and reduce dredging. It’s a win-win-win. We also discuss the challenges Todd, Anita, and Will are focused on over the next few months. Anita talks about the global sand crisis, noting that sand is the world's most consumed raw material after water and a critical ingredient to everyday life. Sand is central to the construction of roads, bridges, and economic development. She describes the crisis: “When it comes to disaster reconstruction, we’re often trying to rebuild in a few months or years what may have taken generations to build in the first place. That represents a massive and sudden demand for building materials of which sand is a crucial component.” Will discusses blue carbon initiatives to mitigate climate change through coastal ecosystem management. These activities around Australia will transform ecosystem restoration from a grant-funded, government-led process to an economic process where ecosystem services are costed and market-driven. Todd closes the episode by promoting the upcoming September release of the International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management, saying, “There’s so much experience out there in the use and consideration of nature to help solve real, practical problems. With this guide, we’re trying to make at least an initial collection of that experience across organizations and regions of the world and sharing that with others.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Anita van Breda at LinkedIn Anita van Breda at World Wildlife Fund William Glamore at LinkedIn William Glamore's Publications on Google Scholar William Glamore at UNSW Water Research Laboratory EWN NNBF Guidelines Project An Introduction to the Global Sand Crisis The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How it Transformed Civilization The Flood Green Guide Podcast Series Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide Nature-Based Solutions for Water-Related Disasters Jeffrey Sachs – Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet The Blue Carbon Initiative

Part 1: EWN in the Pacific Region Jul 27, 2021

Climate change is affecting the ecosystems that support life and everything we depend on. The United Nations declared 2021 to 2030 the ‘Decade of Ecosystem Restoration’, and there is a global effort to restore ecosystems and the many benefits they provide, from enhancing food security and safe water to biodiversity. In this episode, we're talking about the Pacific Region and how Engineering With Nature can learn from and add value to innovative ecosystem restoration, conservation, disaster management efforts, and infrastructure development. Our guests are Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for EWN; Anita van Breda, Senior Director, Environment and Disaster Management, World Wildlife Fund; and William Glamore, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Water Research Laboratory, UNSW Sydney, Australia. EWN can learn many lessons from the Pacific region in terms of its size, scale, and its diversity in nature and cultures. In the Pacific alone, there are about 25,000 islands. The Pacific Ocean covers 32% of the total surface area of the earth. The 11 Pacific Island countries that are members of the World Bank have a combined population of 2.3 million spread over 15% of the Earth’s surface. Pacific Island nations are facing critical challenges from climate change and sea level rise. The Pacific and Indian Oceans together cover almost half the surface area of the earth. If you add Asia, which is the largest continent, most of the world is in the Pacific and Asian region. Australia itself is a huge island continent. As Will points out, the coastline of one Australian state is equivalent to the entire U.S. East and West Coasts combined! It’s a land of extremes with searing heat, long droughts broken up by major floods, and waves of cold Antarctic blasts. Climate change is further compounding these effects, and the impacts are being felt through massive coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, disastrous wildfires along the East Coast, and other large-scale climate effects. As Anita notes, “The Pacific people have a strong attachment to land, not just as an economic commodity, but as a strong tie to their history and culture, their sense of who they are as a people. This presents a unique opportunity to use natural and nature-based features and the services they provide for local communities.” She adds, “Nature is such a fundamental part of who we are as people. Even at the smallest scale of the individual household level, it is a powerful thing. We should include that when we think about tackling big, systemic problems at landscape-level scale.” As Todd describes it, “There's tremendous diversity in context physically, but also culturally, that dwarfs the landscape and cultural diversity we have in North America or even in Europe. So how do we, consistent with Engineering With Nature, follow Mother Nature's lead in composing solutions for these challenges rather than trying to impose and control Mother Nature with completely artificial solutions?” Will notes that when Europeans settled Australasia and the Pacific, they applied a Eurocentric, one-size-fits-all view of the world. “Today I sit at the same desk as people who, 50 or 60 years ago, built the traditional dams, dykes, levees and canals. Now I’m trying to de-engineer those structures and make them more effectively engineered with nature.” He describes his early work as a PhD student faced with the challenge of acidic floodplains and how nature-based solutions were needed to solve the problem at scale. While this initial research helped solve the acid problem, he also quickly realized that it provided co-benefits of improved water quality, reduced flood risk, increased aquaculture, and blue carbon habitat. In this podcast, Will describes how his EcoEng team has grown this research from small test sites to huge scale creation projects and how he is now trying to create a wetland-based economy for the future. Anita’s work at the World Wildlife Fund often has her thinking about how she and her team of environmental scientists can work more successfully with engineers like Will, as well as with humanitarian organizations like the Red Cross and others. Her key objectives “are to better understand each other’s perspectives, timing, and goals, and to train the next generation of practitioners to be able to better work together by breaking down our institutional silos so they can address a really challenging future together”. As we wrap up Part 1, Todd notes that the value of taking what has been learned in the Pacific Region and applying it more broadly must focus on addressing not only the challenges faced by the islands, but also the connection between people and nature and how important nature is to people and people are to nature. “If we respect Mother Nature, I think she will respect us back, and we will find solutions to many of these very tangled and difficult challenges that we confront around the world.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Anita van Breda at LinkedIn Anita van Breda at World Wildlife Fund William Glamore at LinkedIn William Glamore's Publications on Google Scholar William Glamore at UNSW Water Research Laboratory EWN NNBF Guidelines Project Environment and Disaster Management Webpage UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration An Introduction to the Global Sand Crisis The Flood Green Guide Podcast Series Natural and Nature-Based Flood Management: A Green Guide Nature-Based Solutions for Water-Related Disasters Tomago Wetland Restoration Project (Australia) Big Swamp Restoration Project (Australia) Oyster Reef Restoration Project (Australia) Climate Change and Estuaries Coastal Wetlands Can Be Saved From Sea Level Rise by Recreating Past Tidal Regimes

Part 2: Integrating EWN into Critical Watershed Projects in California Jul 06, 2021

In Part 2 of Episode 7, we continue our discussion with Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for EWN; and Kris Tjernell, Deputy Director, Integrated Watershed Management for the California Department of Water Resources. We discuss their plans to fully integrate EWN into critical watershed projects in California. They hope these projects will showcase innovation and new ways of thinking about climate change adaptation and resilience on a broad scale, while accelerating the multi-benefits of water management, habitat restoration and community resilience. As Kris notes, “because California is such a focal point now for the impacts of climate change, we're positioned perfectly to be an innovator, to be a leader, to show that you can deliver landscape-level projects at the pace required to, not only keep up with the impacts of climate change, but to really get out ahead of it and prepare our landscape for those inevitable changes.” One of the projects that they discuss is in the Yolo Bypass, a 100-year-old flood risk management project, where weirs direct water from the Sacramento River during high flow events and spread that water out over a 60,000-acre landscape. The 16,000 acres in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is providing a range of other environmental and social benefits in addition to the flood risk benefits provided by the Yolo Bypass. Experience gained at this project and others can be applied to expand engineering with nature approaches to create greater economic, environmental, and social value within the existing structure of this well-established existing project. As Kris says, “if we truly want to be on the cutting edge and address the climate vulnerabilities of the State and its communities, we're going to need to accelerate the good work that we do. And we're going to need to accelerate the kinds of multi-benefit flood management, habitat, restoration, nature-based solutions that we're talking about.” Todd agrees: “You've got to think big. Some of these projects are tens of thousands of acres of opportunity to produce the kinds of integrated solutions that we've been talking about. That's the scale that's necessary. There's tremendous opportunity in California as there is across the United States.” A key goal of EWN and the EWN Podcast is to inspire students, future scientists, engineers, planners, and policy makers. Kris and Todd close by talking about the importance of a STEM education – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. They discuss their personal journeys, the challenges posed by climate change and the opportunities ahead for students and future professionals to apply their passion and creativity to develop innovative solutions by engineering with nature. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Kris Tjernell at LinkedIn Kris Tjernell at California Department of Water Resources Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Sacramento Weirs

Part 1: EWN Collaboration with the California Department of Water Resources Jun 22, 2021

From flood risk to extreme drought and wildfire, California is feeling the brunt of climate change impacts and is, by necessity, at the forefront of climate change innovation. In this episode, we're talking about the unique challenges of managing California’s precious water resources and about a new collaboration between the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Engineering With Nature®. Our guests are Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for EWN, and Kris Tjernell, Deputy Director, Integrated Watershed Management for the California Department of Water Resources. The goal of the collaboration on EWN is to advance opportunities for truly integrated solutions to water resource challenges. California is exceptional in many ways, from its population of over 40 million people; to its size as the third largest state at over 160,000 square miles; to its economy, the largest in the United States at over $3 trillion. It is also the leading agricultural state in the US in terms of total agricultural sales and 8 million acres of irrigated land. California is also a land of extremes with its diverse landscapes and communities, and with the breadth of challenges it faces – from droughts and floods, to heat waves and wildfires – which strain the State’s systems. This complexity makes presents a unique set of challenges. As stewards of the state’s water resources, DWR is responsible for delivering water to over 27 million Californians while supporting flood management in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that flows out through the San Francisco Bay. Managing flood risk for agricultural lands, small communities, and larger urban centers is a top priority. The San Joaquin Basin, for example, has unique flood management challenges exacerbated by the effects of climate change, with more precipitation coming in the form of rainstorms and less from snow. Traditional strategies of flood management in California included: straightening the river systems; building taller, more armored levees; and building bigger reservoirs. The question is not how to add-on to these, but as Kris notes, “how to engineer with nature to solve those challenges in ways that work for our communities and the ecosystem together”. The partnership between DWR and EWN is intended to do that – to leverage the natural systems to produce more sustainable outcomes. As Todd notes, “by applying EWN approach, we want to find innovative engineering solutions to flooding or drought, or wildfires, that make use of natural systems to produce sustainable, resilient solutions that create more diversified economic, natural, and social value. That's what we're seeking – to be able to solve those challenges in ways that work for our communities and for the ecosystem together. That is what's really exciting to me.” Bringing people in California communities into these projects so they can experience them and see the holistic benefits of an EWN approach is a key focus for this partnership. As Kris notes, part of the effort of DWR and EWN is to figure out a way “to tap into the human desire and joy to live within a natural environment. The feeling of walking into a local urban park. The joy of driving towards Yosemite and seeing the valley open up in front of you. Seeing what John Muir saw back in the day.” The challenge, Kris says, is “how do we paint this landscape that gets interest, invigorates the conversation that allows us to think beyond the traditional approaches to flood management and water resource management.” Todd agrees, emphasizing the integration of engineering and natural systems to produce broad value: “The economic utility of a project is one lens through which you can assess the value of a project. Importantly, there's also the environmental value and the social value that comes from connecting people with diverse backgrounds to the land and to what it provides. Projects that produce economic, natural and social value at the same time are the ones we want to collaborate on.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Kris Tjernell at LinkedIn Kris Tjernell at California Department of Water Resources San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge Pedro Fages expeditions to the San Joaquin Valley John Muir Trail The Moth Snowstorm

Exploring How EWN Can Add Value to Climate Change Initiatives Jun 08, 2021

In 2020, the United States experienced extreme droughts, wildfires, flooding, and a record number of hurricanes. What if there was a better way to monitor and prepare for these natural events, and how could an Engineering With Nature (EWN) approach add value to “the climate change imperative?” That’s what we’re exploring in this episode with Safra Altman, PhD, Research Ecologist in the Environmental Laboratory at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Marshall Shepherd, PhD, Meteorologist and Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia. Through the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), Safra and Marshall have initiated a project to assess pre- and postdisaster monitoring. What they learn will be an important part of a bigger project to ultimately help improve community resilience to climate change and extreme weather events by applying EWN approaches. Marshall describes the climate change imperative: “We have no Plan B. If my house breaks down, I can go buy another house. I can’t hop to another planet.” He notes, “There’s a new ‘normal’ climate system emerging. A part of Engineering With Nature is understanding how the climate is changing; what the impacts are; and more importantly, what are the things that can be done, from an engineering or scientific standpoint, including mitigation and adaptation.” Putting the climate change imperative into perspective, Safra notes that, “globally, sea level has risen about 8 inches since 1900. In specific areas and coastlines, the rate can be different. In Louisiana, the sea level has risen 8 inches in the last 50 years, due to a combination of rising oceans and sinking land.” When sea level rise is combined with stronger storms, the resulting storm surge and inland flooding -- which can be the deadliest part of a hurricane – can have significant impacts on natural habitats, animals and people who live on coasts, along with anyone who is reliant on the commerce of affected coastal ports and riverine systems. The impacts are particularly severe for marginalized and disenfranchised people, something Marshall calls “the weather gap.” The poorest communities tend to bear the brunt of extreme weather and climate. As he explains, climate vulnerability is determined by exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. So, even if people are equally exposed to a hurricane or flood, some communities, some people, and some buildings will be more sensitive to the impact of that exposure. In Hurricane Katrina, for example, many of the people who were sheltering in the Superdome were the poorest and most vulnerable and, after the hurricane, the least able to adapt and recover. By looking at vulnerable communities through what Marshall calls “the lens of equity,” factors that can help quantify climate vulnerability, such as race, health insurance coverage, access to hospitals, availability of heating and cooling in homes, and so on, can be taken into consideration. He adds that vulnerability “is not just about how strong the storm is.” The project Safra and Marshall have initiated is part of a broader project N-EWN is undertaking to help communities address the impacts of climate change, adapt, and become more resilient. Applying an EWN approach will help N-EWN collaborators determine how best to integrate advances in EWN processes to optimize flood risk reduction to protect communities, and importantly, how to meaningfully engage vulnerable communities in understanding the challenges and participating in the codevelopment of sustainable solutions. Safra and Marshall are focused on gathering data on storm events and impacts on natural habitats to help build the case for EWN-type solutions. They recently hosted a virtual workshop with experts who collect pre- and postevent data to understand the challenges of gathering local data and what is needed to overcome these gaps. They wanted to understand the state of the science for monitoring these events. As Safra explains, “We quickly realized that that the data is typically not aggregated, and there are not a lot of EWN projects we can use, but there are lots of storm events and natural habitats that we can use as a proxy for EWN-type projects to build the case. Through case studies and examples, we can demonstrate that these Engineering With Nature solutions would be a cost benefit and really helpful in protecting our coastal communities.” Better data is key to understanding and ultimately developing more resilient natural systems and enabling communities to adapt and become more resilient to climate change and extreme weather events. Their project is an important piece in the broader puzzle—how to quantify and reduce climate vulnerability through innovative, multidisciplinary approaches. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Network for Engineering With Nature Collaborating with Academia to Develop Future Practice and Practitioners: EWN Podcast S1E10 (N-EWN) Safra Altman at EWN Safra Altman at LinkedIn Marshall Shepherd at University of Georgia Marshall Shepherd at LinkedIn Multi-hazard climate risk projections for the United States Closing the Weather Gap – Ted Talk by Marshall Shepherd Three kinds of bias that shape your worldview – Ted Talk by Marshall Shepherd How marginalized communities are worst hit by extreme weather events – Ted Talk by Marshall Shepherd Related work by Neil Debbage at UTSA on flooding and vulnerable populations

How DARPA is Pursuing Nature-Based Solutions around the World May 25, 2021

Seventeen hundred U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) bases around the world are subject to sea level rise, which has increased by seven to eight inches since 1900. Natural hazards, such as severe storms and hurricanes, are occurring more frequently; and climate change is changing the profile of those hazards. Innovative solutions are needed to protect these bases. In this episode we’re talking with Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for Engineering With Nature®, and Lori Adornato, Program Manager at DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, about the passion they share for oceanography and for solving future challenges by using innovative nature-based solutions. Ensuring that DoD installations are resilient in the face of a broad range of natural hazards is critical and demands innovative, outside-the-box solutions. As Lori explains, numerous DoD installations around the world have “gray infrastructure,” bulkheads or seawalls made out of cement blocks that are placed in the water. These require considerable maintenance and can actually create additional problems like changes in the way water and sediments flow that can compromise both habitats and the structural integrity of structures and shorelines. Sustainable solutions are needed for coastal erosion, storm, and flood risks. Natural systems have been supporting such functions for millennia, including coral reefs in the tropics and oyster reefs in sub-tropical areas. DARPA is investing in leveraging nature to support mission resilience by establishing the REEFENSE program (a combination of “reef” and “defense”), which Lori manages, to take advantage of the natural functions that reefs provide. REEFENSE isn’t a restoration effort. It is an initiative focused on building new, living reef structures through a combination of an engineered base structure, the “building power” the oysters and coral organisms provide, and the beneficial organisms that help to maintain the health of the reef – a nature-based combination that attenuates wave energy and protects shorelines. The goal is to support nature-based ecosystems that can sustain themselves naturally and grow and strengthen over time as calcium carbonate from the oyster shells and coral skeletons is deposited. As Lori explains, this allows the reef to keep pace with sea level rise following the same dynamic that you would find in a normal healthy reef ecosystem. One of the challenges of this approach is using reef builders that can adapt to the rapid changes associated with climate change, particularly the rise in ocean temperature, which can cause coral bleaching and kill the coral. One way to address this is through adaptive biology, selecting organisms that can better withstand the temperature rise to help the reef system survive. “It's fascinating, exciting, and inspiring for an agency like DARPA that’s known for ‘gee whiz’ technology to be doing research like this,” notes Todd. “It’s truly engineering with nature. Our EWN team is super excited about working with DARPA on this program, bringing these proposed structures into our laboratories to evaluate them and get at their engineering performance as they transition to deployment in the field.” It is estimated that the U.S. already derives a flood risk reduction benefit of $1.8 billion annually from existing reefs. In some highly developed coastline areas like Florida and Hawaii, annual benefits exceed $10 million per kilometer of reef. These benefits were discussed in previous EWN podcasts, including Season 1, Episode 3, with Brigadier General Patrice Melancon and Season 1, Episode 6, with Mike Beck. DARPA is pursuing REEFENSE to develop solutions that will support the resilience of coastal military installations and the mission of the Department of Defense worldwide. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Lori Adornato at DARPA DARPA Launches Program to Mitigate Coastal Flooding, Erosion and Storm Damage Using Natural Infrastructure to Increase Resilience for Military Installations: EWN Podcast S1E3 Coastal Resilience at Tyndall Air Force Base Assessing the Value of Natural and Nature-Based Features in Coastal Storm and Flood Risk Reduction: EWN Podcast S1E6 The Value of US Coral Reefs for Flood Risk Reduction: J Nature Sustainability

Part 2: EWN's Synergies with the World Bank's Approach to Natural Infrastructure May 18, 2021

The World Bank estimates that climate change will push an additional 100 million people globally into poverty in the coming years. In Part 1, we talked with Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for Engineering With Nature®, and Dr. Brenden Jongman, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist with the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). Todd and Brenden discussed the World Bank’s approach to using natural infrastructure solutions to address some of the most pressing climate change challenges and the synergies with Engineering With Nature’s approach of using innovative natural and nature-based solutions. In Part 2 we continue our discussion. Coping with environmental and climate crises in a normal year is one thing, but the past year, as the world has been responding to COVID-19, has been unprecedented. Todd and Brenden discuss the opportunity for nature-based solutions to support post-pandemic recovery efforts. And they discuss the importance of the natural infrastructure guidelines their organizations have been working on to help policy- and decision-makers, project managers, and communities think differently about the role and value of nature-based solutions. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Brenden Jongman at LinkedIn Leveraging Nature-Based Solutions for Resilience (YouTube) What if we could use nature to prevent disasters? Factsheet on NBS portfolio Flagship report on NBS Nature-based solutions: A cost-effective Approach for Disaster Risk and Water Resource Management Upscaling nature-based flood protection in Mozambique's cities: Lessons Learnt from Beira NY Times: Mozambique looks beyond Cyclone Idai to better protection in the future Blue barriers: A nature-based solution to build resilience Urban planning and nature-based solutions, keys for reducing flood risk in Panama Restoring a long-lost relationship with Rio Bogotá

Part 1: EWN's Synergies with the World Bank's Approach to Natural Infrastructure May 12, 2021

In 2020, natural hazards like storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires caused more than $200 billion in damage worldwide and the death of 8,000 people. Since 1980, there have been 285 weather and climate-related disasters in the United States alone that have produced at least $1 billion in damage. In this two-part episode, we’re talking with Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Lead for Engineering With Nature®, and Dr. Brenden Jongman, Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist with the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR). Todd and Brenden discuss the World Bank’s approach to using natural infrastructure solutions to address some of the most pressing climate change challenges and the synergies with Engineering With Nature’s approach of using innovative natural and nature-based solutions. The World Bank’s increasing support in this area has recently been recognized by the World Resources Institute as one of their top outcomes of 2020 in their work with key partners. The World Economic Forum estimates that by midcentury, $100 trillion dollars will be invested in infrastructure worldwide. In its role as an international financier, the World Bank’s overall objective is to end extreme poverty and build shared prosperity around the world. Climate change and natural hazards are strongly linked to poverty as the poor are often the most vulnerable. As Brenden notes, often a single natural disaster can push a family below the poverty line. The World Bank estimates that climate change will push an additional 100 million people globally into poverty in the coming years. As Todd and Brenden discuss, natural infrastructure is an important part of the solution to addressing multiple hazards, including those intensified by climate change, and creating community resilience. Natural infrastructure often has significant benefits over traditional concrete and rock infrastructure. Building a coastal park to provide flood risk management benefits can also create jobs and recreation opportunities, reduce heat island effects, provide trees that absorb carbon and contribute to achieving climate change targets, and provide much needed opportunities for nature experiences in urban settings. The World Bank is making an estimated $1 billion in annual investments in projects applying nature-based solutions—a 20% increase since 2018. Their guidance, Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure and Implementing Nature-Based Flood Protection: Principles and Implementation Guidance, emphasizes the need to consider both conventional engineering and nature-based solutions in a more systematic way. They have been applying that approach in projects around the world for over a decade. The World Bank’s Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) Community of Practice, and internal knowledge hub, was established in 2017 with support from the GFDRR. This year, the World Bank and GFDRR will launch a dedicated Global Program on NBS for Climate Resilience, to further scale up the knowledge, investments, and partnerships on NBS across the World Bank’s global activities. As examples, Brenden talks about his experience in Madagascar and Mozambique. Madagascar is experiencing rapid, unplanned urbanization in a floodplain that is prone to more frequent and more extreme flooding due to climate change. In Mozambique in 2019, the rapidly growing coastal city of Beira faced one of the worst cyclones to hit the African continent. The World Bank’s work with the government of Mozambique on various initiatives, including development of one of the largest urban parks on the African continent, is strengthening the city’s resilience. Todd reinforced the need for integrating conventional and nature-based engineering, noting the challenges that we're experiencing are very complex and really call for a diversified set of solutions that we can draw together and combine. We’ve just got to develop new, innovative solutions. In Part 2 of this episode, we continue our discussion. Coping with environmental and climate crises in a normal year is one thing, but the past year as the world has been responding to COVID-19 has been unprecedented. Todd and Brenden discuss the opportunity for nature-based solutions to support post-pandemic recovery efforts. And they discuss the importance of the natural infrastructure guidelines their organizations have been working on to help policy- and decision-makers, project managers, and communities think differently about the role and value of nature-based solutions. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN Brenden Jongman at LinkedIn GFDRR website Shock Waves: Managing the Impacts of Climate Change on Poverty – Background Papers Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure Implementing nature-based flood protection: principles and implementation guidance Leveraging nature-based solution for resilience (YouTube) What if we could use nature to prevent disasters? Factsheet on NBS portfolio Flagship report on NBS Nature-based solutions: a cost-effective approach for disaster risk and water resource management Upscaling nature-based flood protection in Mozambique's cities: lessons learnt from Beira NY Times: Mozambique looks beyond Cyclone Idai to better protection in the future Blue barriers: a nature-based solution to build resilience Urban planning and nature-based solutions, keys for reducing flood risk in Panama Restoring a long-lost relationship with Rio Bogotá

Building Resilience in Cold Regions with EWN and Natural and Nature-Based Features Apr 14, 2021

Climate change is having a significant effect on Arctic communities. The loss of permafrost and ice sheets, sea level rise, erosion, and many other factors are putting people living in coastal communities and their traditional way of life at risk. In this episode, we’re talking with Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Sam Whitin, Coastal Resilience Director at EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc. PBC; and Enda Murphy, Senior Research Engineer at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC). We’re discussing the unique challenges and opportunities involved in identifying and designing resilience strategies to help remote northern communities in Alaska and Canada whose future and way of life is imminently threatened by climate change. And we’re reflecting on how Engineering With Nature approaches could be used to address critical challenges faced by remote northern communities. The Arctic region is warming at a much higher rate than other parts of the continent. Retreating sea ice, shorter ice season duration, and thawing permafrost are contributing to the destabilization of coastlines. And, as Enda points out, “a lot of these remote northern communities are really reliant on fishing and hunting and the land for subsistence and their livelihoods. That creates an even greater imperative to understand and adapt to the changing climate.” Sam adds that communities in Alaska are also experiencing significant issues related to erosion and flooding, along with impacts to migratory patterns of fish, wildlife and whales: “Given the close connection that these communities have related to subsistence hunting and fishing, climate change is magnified in even more ways than most people typically consider.” Jeff, Sam, and Enda came together around their common interest of better understanding these impacts and responding to them by applying Engineering With Nature principles and processes. Jeff, through separate conversations with Sam and Enda, “saw a unique opportunity to engage and collaborate and bring more expertise into a region where it's desperately needed.” One upcoming EWN research project will focus on the whaling community of Point Hope, Alaska, whose traditional way of life is currently being challenged by the accelerating impacts of climate change. Sam talks about the example of ice cellars that have been used in Point Hope for thousands of years to store foodstuffs – fish, wildlife, and whale – throughout the year. The cellars are buried about 20 feet into the permafrost, which is melting due to higher average temperatures. Without those cellars to provide essential refrigeration and fermentation, the community has to harvest extra fish and wildlife throughout the year because there are no roads leading to the city, so outside supplies come in only by plane or once or twice during the summer by barge. This places additional pressure on the fish and wildlife populations and is an example of a problem that could benefit from an EWN approach, drawing on research and expertise from the Army Corps’ Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Similarly, Enda and the NRC have been working in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, an Inuvialuit community very close to sea level on the Beaufort Sea. As Enda relates, “We heard from elders that this particular community has had to relocate three residences just in the past year because of the rapidly eroding coast. So that's a really urgent need.” Enda and his colleagues at the NRC are reimagining what future research in the Arctic might look like and broadening their networks and collaborations, to do research, including with the U.S. Army Corps. A particular area of interest is in understanding the role of sea ice in attenuating or dissipating storm surge. Computer modeling has shown that without sea ice, storm surges may be three times higher, which is a significant problem for communities like Tuktoyaktuk. A key challenge for researchers is that there is little existing baseline data to establish trends. So, engaging the people of these remote communities and gathering local knowledge is critical. Sam, Enda and their teams are sitting down with elders, hunters, and fishers to understand what they’ve seen and experienced. As Sam adds, “One of the most important things is to make sure that we respond appropriately to what the community truly wants, that we're not coming in and presenting a problem that doesn't need to be fixed or presenting our thoughts on how something should be handled. We are listening to and learning from the community.” Jeff shares his excitement about the opportunities for incorporating EWN approaches into projects in the far north, paired with the importance of collaborating and sharing information between CRREL and the parallel work being done by Sam and Enda: “Thinking about Engineering With Nature and the natural infrastructure strategies that are appropriate for an environment like this is something very new. I think EWN can make an important contribution – and we will learn a lot in the process.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN Enda Murphy at LinkedIn Sam Whitin at LinkedIn Presentation to an NNBF Symposium by Enda on Flood Risk Reduction NRC’s Ocean Program - Coastal Resilience NRC’s Arctic Program - Increasing the quality of life for Northerners through research NRC’s Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering Research Centre EA Engineering, Science, and Technology YouTube video of Sam describing some of his NNBF/EWN work EA’s coastal resilience priority Presentation to SAME Seattle by Sam on Thin Layer Placement Coastal Zone Canada Community of Practice: Cold Regions Living Shorelines Coastal Zone Canada Conference in June 2021 Sub Themes and Topics of the Coastal Zone Canada Conference

EWN EXTRA! What's Coming Up in EWN? Mar 31, 2021

In our next episode, we’ll be talking with Enda Murphy of the National Research Council of Canada and Sam Whitin of EA Engineering, Science and Technology about Building Resilience in Cold Regions with EWN and Natural and Nature-based Features. They’ll be talking about interesting projects underway and planned in Alaska and Canada. And Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, invites listeners to participate in the launch of the Engineering With Nature Atlas Volume II on April 7. Click the Atlas II website link to sign up for the launch webcast and panel discussion. Related Links: EWN Website EWN Atlas Volume II ERDC Website Enda Murphy on LinkedIn Sam Whitin on LinkedIn

Expanding the Practice of EWN through Landscape Architecture Mar 30, 2021

What happens when you bring engineers together with landscape architects and their students to work on real coastal resilience challenges in the field? What can the disciplines of engineering and landscape architecture learn from each other? And what kinds of solutions will they produce when faced with very real coastal risk management issues following a hurricane? In this episode, we’re talking with Rob Holmes at Auburn University, Sean Burkholder at the University of Pennsylvania, and Brian Davis at the University of Virginia. They are landscape architects who have joined forces with Engineering With Nature® to explore innovative solutions to coastal resilience. Jeff King, deputy lead of the Engineering With Nature program at the US Army Corps of Engineers, shares his excitement about bringing these disciplines together and discusses the synergies, opportunities, and potential for advancing the practice of EWN. This partnership started in the summer of 2017; Jeff and his EWN colleagues hosted a workshop at ERDC in Vicksburg, MS, and invited Rob, Sean, Brian, and other landscape architects. Jeff recounts how that visit really set the stage for collaboration amongst these practices to advance EWN. According to Sean, “the idea that these two disciplines have been parallel for so long and actually are coming together now is a pretty exciting time for us.” Following the initial workshop, the Galveston District, an EWN Proving Ground, hosted a workshop with students from Brian and Rob’s studios to show them the work being done to create more resilience and ecosystem restoration along the Texas coast. The timing was just after Hurricane Harvey. Jeff recounts taking the students to a house surrounded on three sides by water and their being aghast at the flooding they were seeing: “You could tell they were thinking, ‘Hey, this is real and it deserves real attention’. I just loved seeing that on their faces.” For the students, getting out of the classroom and into actual landscapes and learning from the District experts about dealing with the fundamental aspects of flood control and risk management was, as Brian notes, “an extraordinary opportunity for the students to build on the great work of others and apply their expansive thinking as landscape architects.” Their ideas and concepts were shared with the Galveston District and, according to Jeff, were very well received. “The integration of natural features, the students’ innovation really resonated. My colleagues and I truly benefited from the novel way the landscape architects addressed some of the coastal resilience challenges we are working on.” The shared experiences of the students and the engineers—working in the field on real and existential threats to the Gulf coast—really highlights the intersection of shared values between the practices of EWN and landscape architecture. Both focus on producing outcomes that benefit the environment and society. The Engineering With Nature approach of leveraging natural process to accomplish the desired engineering outcome, while creating environmental and social benefits aligns well with the discipline of landscape architecture where landscapes are co-designed by humans and natural processes. Rob recalled the Army Corps’ Horseshoe Bend project featured in the first season of the EWN Podcast where the island is being “self-designed” by natural processes. “By stepping back and relinquishing some control over how the landscape is shaped, we gain landscapes that are more resilient, more functional, more ecologically healthy, and provide better opportunities for human interaction and engagement. They become better places.” We discuss the power of combining the practices of landscape architecture in the work Sean, Rob and Jeff are doing with colleagues at the Philadelphia District along the New Jersey coast. As Sean notes, the challenges in New Jersey are vast. The area is experiencing sea level rise and habitat loss and has a population that lives quite close to the coastline. “The primary composition of that landscape is a barrier Island, and a back bay, where you get flooding from the land side and storm surge coming from the sea. We are trying to develop a series of strategies—alternative ways to look at coastal storm risk management—that could achieve cultural, social, and ecological benefits while still serving as proper coastal infrastructure.” The synergies between landscape architecture and EWN are significant, and the possibilities for collaboration to create new, innovative solutions to coastal resilience challenges seems unlimited. According to Rob, Sean, and Brian, finding out the Corps was solving the basic problems of flooding while also trying to work with in concert with natural systems, for the benefit of society was “like a bolt of lightning for us—it was really striking and exciting!” The opportunities to learn from each other, advance their respective practices, and motivate and challenge future engineers and landscape architects, while they work together on critical coastal resilience projects, is the focus of this podcast. We hope you enjoy it. The EWN Program is grateful to the Dredge Research Collaborative (DRC) for their collaboration and partnership over the years and with development of this podcast. As members of the DRC, Rob Holmes, Sean Burkholder, Brian Davis, Justine Holzman and Gena Wirth have contributed greatly to the success of this EWN collaboration. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Jeff King at LinkedIn Jeff King at EWN USACE Galveston District Rob Holmes at Auburn Sean Burkholder at UPenn Brian Davis at UVA Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab Landscape Architecture on the EWN Website New Jersey Back Bays Landscape Architecture Report Sabine to Galveston Landscape Architecture Report

Expanding Engineering With Nature Mar 16, 2021

As the world emerges from the COVID 19 pandemic, infrastructure will play a key role in helping economies around the world recover. The World Economic Forum estimates $100 trillion dollars will be committed to infrastructure projects in the next thirty years. In Season 2 of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast, we’ll explore the important role EWN will play in expanding and diversifying the value of that infrastructure. Season 2 kicks off with an announcement by Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science with the US Army Corps of Engineers and national lead for Engineering With Nature®. Mobile District is joining EWN as the fourth EWN Proving Ground. As Todd notes, Mobile District has been doing Engineering With Nature before it was called that. He introduces our guests, Justin McDonald, Coastal Resiliency Program Manager, and Elizabeth Godsey, Coastal Engineering Technical lead, as “EWN superstars.” Over the past two decades, Mobile District’s innovative technical teams have worked collaboratively with sister agencies in state and federal government and with people who live in the communities where the work is being done. These collaborations are creating impressive solutions, including innovative work to protect and restore barrier islands. Justin and Elizabeth believe becoming an EWN Proving Ground is a great opportunity to share lessons learned and to showcase the work Mobile District has been doing with their partners in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. In Episode 1 we discuss two large-scale island-restoration projects that demonstrate the power of collaboration and cutting-edge science and engineering. Deer Island is a multi-phase initiative where beneficial use of dredge material is being used to repair and restore the island and to create marsh habitat. Restoration of the southern shoreline used dredge material from the navigation channel to create marsh habitat and a recreational area for local kayakers – a cost-effective beneficial use of the dredge material that produced significant environmental and social benefits. Work on the southeastern end of Deer Island will create another 400 acres of emergent island. Justin and Elizabeth share Mobile District’s work at Ship Island—another critical barrier island—which had a 3.5-mile-wide breach from hurricanes Camille and Katrina. The team and their construction partners placed nearly 19 million cubic yards of sand to restore the islands and the sediment transport system. Justin talks about the importance of sourcing the right size and color of sand to support sea turtle nesting. Experts from a number of agencies collaborated to make this effort successful. Coastal islands are important natural features that protect the mainland and provide multiple benefits to coastal systems and communities. As Elizabeth discusses, “These islands serve as our frontline of defense. We have a diverse coastline that encompasses more than 375 miles of shoreline from the St. Mark's river in Florida at the east all the way to the Pearl River in Mississippi. It was important to start looking at a system-wide approach.” Mobile District has a long history and impressive experience working collaboratively to develop innovative solutions to restore critical barrier islands. Todd emphasized that “collaboration is a multisector need and requirement for success. It's government working across government; it's government working with the private sector and with industry. It's all of us working with the nonprofit sector and everybody working with communities to deliver projects that they need. It takes all of us working together.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN USACE Mobile District Justin McDonald at LinkedIn Elizabeth Godsey at LinkedIn EWN Atlas Deer Island Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Project Ship Island Restoration

The Engineering With Nature Podcast Season 2 launches March 17 Mar 09, 2021

The Engineering With Nature® Podcast Season 2 launches March 17, and we’re pretty excited about the lineup. Host, Sarah Thorne, recently talked with Todd Bridges, Lead Engineering With Nature, US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), about the upcoming season. His bottom line: “the future is right
and the future is bright for EWN. It is the right direction for infrastructure and the timing is ideal.”
Why now? The World Economic Forum recently estimated that that by mid-century, $100 trillion dollars will be invested in infrastructure around the world. As Todd notes, the challenge is how to deliver the most value for that investment and how EWN can expand and diversify the value produced. Join us and our guests as we discuss climate change, coastal resilience, flood risk management, and the need to adapt to
a range of changing conditions in the natural world. We’ll be talking with leaders from USACE, scientists and project
managers, and diverse experts from national and international agencies, public and not-for-profit organizations, and
academia about their visions for engineering with nature and innovative approaches incorporating natural and nature-
based solutions to address these challenges. We’ll have conversations about new partnerships and multi-disciplinary
collaborations that are creating innovative infrastructure solutions. And we’ll launch two important publications -- EWN
Atlas II and the International Natural and Nature-Based Features Guidelines – and talk with some of the contributors
whose work is helping advance EWN through some truly remarkable solutions applying nature-based approaches to
tough infrastructure challenges. Our round table conversations will demonstrate the power of collaboration and hopefully inspire our listeners to think
about and engage in developing innovative solutions that will create better, more sustainable and resilient communities. JOIN THE CONVERSATION. Go to the EWN website www.engineeringwithnature.org or wherever you get your podcasts. LISTEN. SUBSCRIBE. SHARE. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN

Collaborating with Academia to Develop Future Practice and Practitioners Oct 27, 2020

In this episode of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast, our guests are Dr. Brian Bledsoe, Director of the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) at the University of Georgia, and Dr. Todd Bridges, Senior Research Scientist for Environmental Science, with the US Army Corps of Engineers, and founder and national lead of the Engineering With Nature initiative and the sponsor of this podcast. They discuss a new partnership – the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN). Its focus is promoting the development of new practice and fostering the drive, passion and expertise for delivering nature-based solutions for infrastructure in the next generation of scientists, engineers, business leaders, and decision makers. IRIS and Engineering With Nature (EWN) have a lot in common. IRIS’s vision is to unite the conventional ‘gray’ infrastructure with ‘green’ or natural infrastructure to deliver a broader array of benefits, all the time, for people and society. In the past, infrastructure development was almost exclusively driven by engineering expertise. The progression now underway in infrastructure development combines environmental and social expertise and practices with engineering, providing a multidisciplinary approach to collaboration, outreach, communication, and solution development. IRIS has effectively bridged the divide between different disciplinary perspectives – engineers, ecologists, social scientists, public health practitioners, landscape architects, lawyers and policy experts – by, as Brian says, being open and humble and coming together to find equitable and sustainable solutions to 21st century infrastructure problems. Reciprocal visits by individuals and groups from the University of Georgia and the Army Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center quickly established that the two organizations were on the same page and the conditions were set for developing the N-EWN, which launched October 16. N-EWN is a partnership focusing on two major components: research and education. Research is needed to integrate engineering practice with natural systems, while also actively engaging practitioners and the communities that are going receive and benefit from future infrastructure. Infusing EWN principles and approaches into professional training and education will support the development of professional engineers, for example, within the Army Corps of Engineers, the private sector, as well as the development of future engineers, ecologists and social scientists, through new courses and curricula. As Todd and Brian discuss, current research activities within the N-EWN fall into four areas:

Developing rigorous engineering methods, standards and guidelines for planning, design, construction, finance and engagement;
Making the value case for Engineering With Nature projects and natural infrastructure that recognizes a broader set of benefits;
Rigorously monitoring these projects to improve understanding and consistency in how these systems perform over time; and
Engaging with communities and working with people to develop policies that enable deployment of natural infrastructure.

When asked why this connection between academia and the Army Corps is so critical now, Todd was emphatic: “Because we seek a revolution. The Army Corps of Engineers began as an institution to support a revolution in the year 1775. That revolution was a different one of course, but that was the start of the Army Corps of Engineers. Today in 2020, we have a revolution ongoing within the Army Corps of Engineers to revolutionize how we deliver Civil Works – infrastructure, water infrastructure – for the United States. To power this revolution, you've got to bring collaborators into that revolution and a particularly powerful collaboration is the combination of academia with a government research and engineering enterprise – working hand in hand with Brian and his colleagues and academia on the same projects, advancing our capability to produce these outcomes.” Both Brian and Todd believe the opportunity in the 21st century is tremendous – to create infrastructure that supports a whole range and variety of value and benefits for communities, the environment, and the economy. N-EWN will work to prepare the engineers, ecologists and social scientists of the future and to advance our capabilities to deliver these infrastructure solutions. In reflecting on the opportunities for Engineering With Nature in the future, Todd adapted a line from a popular song in the 1980s: “The future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades.” Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Brian Bledsoe at UGA University of Georgia, Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems Todd Bridges at LinkedIn Todd Bridges at EWN

Collaborating with Industry to Promote Natural Infrastructure Oct 20, 2020

The growing global population is putting a lot of pressure on the world's natural resources and its natural infrastructure – the forest, prairies, agricultural lands, estuaries, coasts, and wetlands that we all depend on. Protecting and restoring the health of our natural infrastructure is paramount if we want to continue to enjoy the many economic, environmental and social benefits that it provides. In this episode, we’re talking with two people who believe that sustainable natural infrastructure is critically important, and they are leading their organizations and others in taking positive action to promote natural infrastructure solutions as part of standard practice, rather than as an afterthought or add on. In this episode of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast, guests Don McNeill, Business Development Manager for Caterpillar’s Earthmoving Division and director of the Natural Infrastructure Initiative (NII), and Dr. Mike Donahue, Vice President of Water Resources & Environmental Services at AECOM, discuss the need for natural infrastructure solutions. As the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, Caterpillar is making sustainable progress possible, driving positive change on every continent. AECOM, an American multinational engineering firm, which is recognized globally for its excellence in infrastructure design and engineering consulting, is promoting natural infrastructure solutions with their clients and identifying opportunities to incorporate it in project designs. In this podcast, we talk about how their efforts to find more sustainable infrastructure solutions that incorporate the principles and practices of Engineering With Nature, and therefore, contribute to its evolution. To put the infrastructure challenge in perspective, Don talks about a recent McKinsey Institute study that suggests approximately $3.7 trillion a year is needed in global infrastructure to adapt to population growth and sustainability goals. Unfortunately, only about $2.5 trillion a year is currently being invested. Don believes that increased natural infrastructure investments, with its cost-effective solutions and multiple benefits, can help shrink that $1.2 trillion gap. This thinking underlies the Natural Infrastructure Initiative (NII), launched in 2017 by Caterpillar. NII brings together a group of companies and organizations to promote the use of natural infrastructure projects that advance economic vitality, environmental health and safety in communities. Membership includes the following organizations: AECOM, Brown & Root, Caterpillar, Dawson & Associates, Ducks Unlimited, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, The Nature Conservancy, The University of Georgia and recently, Conservation International. NII’s objectives include: creating awareness to support the benefits and uses of natural infrastructure; growing investments, active projects and consideration of projects that embed natural infrastructure thinking; developing and promoting new tools, processes, and capabilities to support natural infrastructure uses and investments; and advocating for policy and legislation to increase the opportunities, considerations and ultimately the quantity of natural infrastructure projects. These objectives are well aligned with the forward-looking approach of EWN. Mike talks about AECOM’s work with the USACE on nature-based, engineering pilot projects and their collaboration on the development of the Natural Infrastructure Opportunities Tool (NIOT), which is a tool for sharing information and identifying opportunities for developing on-the-ground natural infrastructure solutions. As Don and Mike emphasize, the ultimate goal, is to see natural infrastructure solutions become institutionalized in the analysis of project options – not an afterthought. Sometimes built infrastructure is the right solution, sometimes natural infrastructure is best, and sometimes a hybrid solution combining both will be the most effective. Don notes, “when we're talking about natural infrastructure, this is an ‘AND’ and not an ‘OR’.” The trend toward greater acceptance of natural infrastructure solutions will continue and grow. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website Natural Infrastructure Opportunities Tool Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar – Natural Infrastructure Don McNeill at LinkedIn AECOM Michael Donahue at AECOM Michael Donahue at LinkedIn McKinsey Global Institute: Bridging Global Infrastructure Gaps Brown and Root Dawson & Associates Ducks Unlimited Great Lakes Dredge & Dock The Nature Conservancy University of Georgia, Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems Conservation International American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

Protecting Fragile Coasts and Improving Community Resilience Oct 13, 2020

Monica Chasten grew up in Vineland, NJ, close to the South New Jersey beaches where her parents and grandparents fostered her love for the coast. With a talent in math and science, she started looking at the coast in a different way, wondering why the waves would break the way they did and how “piles of rocks” could protect the fragile shoreline. She translated her passion into a 35-year career as a coastal engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Monica was the moving force leading Philadelphia District to become the third EWN Proving Ground in 2016. In this episode, we talk about her work and her collaboration with other scientists and engineers to advance coastal dredging practices and the beneficial use of dredged material. As a Project Manager for the District’s Operations Division, Monica’s role involves maintaining coastal navigation channels in New Jersey and Delaware, which includes the 117-mile New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway. She is also the lead for the District’s Engineering With Nature efforts. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy devastated the coast, which, as Monica describes, “was, in my lifetime and in my professional experience, the worst storm that has hit the New Jersey coastline.” With roads closed, Monica visited the area by boat to assess the navigation channels. She observed houses in the bay, navigation channels blocked with sediment, and debris everywhere. Her mission was to restore navigation, given the life safety issues associated with shoaling in the federal channels. For years, the Corps had been looking at how best to use sediment. People generally accepted that there were better options than basically “throwing dredged material away” in upland areas, but traditional policies and standard practices often presented obstacles to trying anything different. Post-Sandy, however, more favorable conditions for innovation emerged that provided opportunities to apply Regional Sediment Management and Engineering With Nature to produce a range of value through beneficial use. Working with colleagues across the Corps, the state of New Jersey, private industry, and non-profit organizations, Monica initiated pilot programs that put EWN principles into practice for which she received the EWN Leadership award in 2016. One project involved dredging the New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway navigation channel and using the sediment to restore nearby Mordecai Island, a critical habitat and protective buffer that was degrading because of erosion. Because of her persistence, sediment dredged from the navigation channel was placed to stabilize the most vulnerable section of the island. This effort complemented the work of others, including the State of New Jersey and the Mordecai Land Trust, and served to protect this valuable habitat, while providing an important buffer against waves and destructive storm surge for the nearby community. Other pilot projects undertaken in partnership with the State of New Jersey and others in the Cape May Wetlands Wildlife Management Area included the Avalon marsh enhancement and Ring Island habitat creation projects. After successfully completing several projects, the Corps, the State of New Jersey and The Wetlands Institute launched the Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab (SMIIL). The initiative is designed to advance and improve dredging and marsh restoration techniques in coastal New Jersey through innovative research, collaboration, knowledge sharing and practical application. SMIIL has brought together a diverse group of organizations to test, demonstrate and innovate in delivering engineering, environmental and societal benefits. Sediment is an important resource that can be used to protect the wetlands. In turn, the wetlands help protect coastal communities. Throughout our conversation, Monica highlights the importance and value of collaboration on science, research and development. She talks about learning from others who have conducted similar projects, sharing experiences across the coastal community, and engaging with stakeholders to innovate, develop and apply better practices for protecting fragile coastal environments and the communities they protect. Related Links: EWN Website ERDC Website USACE Philadelphia District and Marine Design Center USACE Philadelphia District Facebook Page Monica Chasten on ResearchGate Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Intracoastal Waterway Mordecai Island Coastal Wetlands Restoration Coastal Dredging and Beneficial use of Dredged Material Thin Layer Placement The Wetlands Institute New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab - USACE Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab – Wetlands Institute

Incorporating EWN into Coastal Texas Resilience and Restoration Oct 06, 2020

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

Assessing the Value of Natural and Nature-Based Features in Coastal Storm and Flood Risk Reduction Sep 29, 2020

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

Collaborating to Create Wildlife Habitat While Restoring Islands and Improving Community Resilience Sep 22, 2020

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

Characterizing Storm and Flood Risk Reduction Benefits Derived from Mangroves During Extreme Weather Events Sep 15, 2020

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

Using Natural Infrastructure to Increase Resilience for Military Installations Sep 08, 2020

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

Using Natural Forces and Sediment to Restore Coastal Marsh Habitat Sep 01, 2020

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

Celebrating the 10-Year Anniversary of Engineering With Nature Aug 25, 2020

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

Engineering With Nature - EWN Jul 13, 2020

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

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