Eddie Brauer & Joanna Curran, PhD, US Army Corps of Engineers Research & Development Center
Restoration and nature-based solutions are increasingly recognized as sustainable infrastructure, yet practitioners charged with delivering them often lack the design criteria and procedures that are routine for conventional “gray” infrastructure. Technical guidance for natural infrastructure (NI) remains limited in both content and organization, which slows adoption, complicates review, and inflates perceived risk.
USACE is addressing this through Engineering Practice Guides (EPGs), developed in alignment with the Engineering With Nature Guiding Principles and structured to follow the standard project design process. The Floodplain Benching EPG addresses reconnection in alluvial systems of any size, targeting flood attenuation, channel dynamics, sediment transport, margin hydraulics, and surface water-groundwater exchange, emphasizing self-forming and self-maintaining designs. Within the EPG, we describe site characterization, engineering design criteria, and design considerations. The focus is on moving from preliminary to detailed design, emphasizing hybrid approaches that combine gray with green and blue solutions.
The N-EWN Knowledge Series offers 1 Continuing Education Credit (CEC) per seminar. This Series is presented by N-EWN, Limnotech, the University of Georgia, and USACE ERDC.