Get to know N-EWN

A community of researchers, practitioners, and educators working together to advance the practice of natural infrastructure.

We work across four main branches

In order to help facilitate the widespread adoption of natural infrastructure practices across the United States, we’ve identified four main areas that need additional work:

Developing methods and standards

New tools, techniques and guidance are needed to effectively plan, design, construct and operate natural infrastructure at different scales

Assessing benefits and costs

Natural infrastructure provides communities with a broad array of economic, environmental and social benefits. Improved approaches are needed to evaluate, quantify and forecast these benefits to support planning and decision making

Monitoring performance and outcomes

Technically sound, efficient and applicable methods are needed to track natural infrastructure performance over time, develop the evidence base for future designs, ensure compliance with policy and inform project operations and adaptive management

Integrating people and policy

Providing infrastructure that supports human wellbeing and equitably meets the needs of diverse communities requires integration of human values, attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and policies with modern communication and collaboration practices


Combining a diversity of on-the-ground experience with interdisciplinary teams.

The N-EWN community is made up of over 30 partners from industry, academia and the non-profit sector.

What N-EWN’s been up to:

  • Partner Takeover: USACE Engineering With Nature

    Partner Takeover: USACE Engineering With Nature

    Our next Partner Takeover is our second founding partner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature® initiative! EWN is proud to be a founding partner of the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), launched in 2019 to accelerate the implementation of natural infrastructure through collaborative science, tools, and training. Founded by USACE in…

  • NCCOS Helps Military with Long-term Resiliency at Coastal Installations

    NCCOS Helps Military with Long-term Resiliency at Coastal Installations

    With coastal military installations increasingly impacted by surrounding urban areas, climate change, and sea level rise, DOD is implementing ecosystem-based management to achieve long-term resiliency at its facilities. To help protect U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina from more frequent flooding, NOAA NCCOS scientists implemented nature-based ecosystem and shoreline management practices. This…

  • Flood Control Work Begins at USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial

    Flood Control Work Begins at USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial

    High tides overwhelm the only access road and submerge large parts of the parking lot at USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial. NCCOS scientists have partnered with Battleship NORTH CAROLINA, providing data to help design and guide a restoration project that will preserve access to the memorial, which will elevate part of the parking lot and…

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