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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 designCoastal resilience and sustainabilitySediment propertiesScaling 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/
Burton Suedel at LinkedInAlan Kennedy at LinkedInAndrew McQueen at LinkedIn -
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 -
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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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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. Jeff King at LinkedInSarah Thorne at LinkedInDave Trafford at LinkedIn -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
“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 -
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 Christo at LinkedIn -
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 -
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 -
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
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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
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