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:

  • Meet us in person at ASLA 2024 : Come to the N-EWN meet up!

    Meet us in person at ASLA 2024 : Come to the N-EWN meet up!

    Next week: ASLA 2024 Conference on Landscape Architecture and RAE’s 2024 Coastal and Estuarine Summit are both happening in D.C., and we want to see you there! If you’re attending either conference, please join us for a combined social for attendees of both events! This meetup will be held on the evening of Wednesday, October…

  • N-EWN paper receives Journal of American Water Resources Association Lanfear Award

    N-EWN paper receives Journal of American Water Resources Association Lanfear Award

    We’re excited to announce that the N-EWN publication, “Operationalizing equity for integrated water resources management,” was selected to receive the Lanfear Award from the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) The publication was a dual effort between the N-EWN founding partners, the University of Georgia (UGA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). It…

  • A Bright Future Ahead for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and IRIS Partnership

    A Bright Future Ahead for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and IRIS Partnership

    Originally published here by the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems. David Pittman, Director of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and Director of Research and Development of the U.S. Army Corps comes to Athens  Earlier this month, the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems (IRIS) at the University of Georgia welcomed David Pittman, Director…

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