Defining Natural Infrastructure
Natural infrastructure (NI) uses natural processes and ecosystem services to support engineering objectives. This innovative approach to infrastructure planning has the potential to provide co-benefits to communities, ecosystems, and economies, and N-EWN partners are leading the charge on implementing NI to achieve these benefits.
Selected Publications:
Life cycle management of natural infrastructure: assessment of state of practice and current tools, Kurth et. al. 2024, Frontiers in Built Environment.
Jointly advancing infrastructure and biodiversity conservation, McKay et. al. 2023. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment.
Improving Natural Infrastructure Practice
Nature-based solutions (NbS) are a relatively new field of study and applications. N-EWN researchers are dedicated to figuring out the best way to implement NbS in engineering, environmental, and community settings.
Selected Publications:
Nature-based solutions as buffers against coastal compound flooding: Exploring potential framework for process-based modeling of hazard mitigation, Radfar et. al. 2024, Science of the Total Environment.
Evaluating thin-layer sediment placement as a tool for enhancing tidal marsh resilience: A coordinated experiment across eight US National Estuarine Research Reserves, Raposa et. al. 2023, Estuaries and Coasts.
Integrating People and Policy
We’re better together. N-EWN partners are working to make sure everyone has a seat at the table when we talk about nature-based solutions.
Infrastructure managers bear a responsibility for ensuring all members of a community are being fairly serves by infrastructure choices. To support sustainable solutions, managers need a clear and concise set of guidelines for incorporating social equity into project decision making.
Selected Publications:
Human well-being and natural infrastructure: assessing opportunities for equitable project planning and implementation, Kalaidijan et. al. 2024, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
Operationalizing equity for integrated water resources management, Seigerman et. al. 2022, Journal of the American Water Resources Association.
Bringing People Together
Nature-based Solutions Policy & Practice Forums
These annual in-person forums have been co-hosted with partners across the country, aiming to identify the policy and practice needs of the growing field of nature-based solutions. More information about each year’s forum below:
Knowledge Series
This monthly, public-facing webinar series features topics from across the field of engineering with nature knowledge. Continuing Education Credits (1-hr) are available to all attendees who join live. More information & registration link below:
More N-EWN Events
Special Topics
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StoryMap: UNH Coastal Habitat Restoration Team on salt marsh restoration initiatives
The Coastal Habitat Restoration Team at the University of New Hampshire is partnering with NH Audubon and many more to kick off a pair of salt marsh restoration initiatives in the Seacoast of New Hampshire. Check out our StoryMap for all the details! Learn more here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1893e5b62242458283f5556f47a2a81f
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After the Storm: Nature Leads the Way
As we head into a new hurricane season, we’re reflecting on how coastal communities are turning to nature for recovery solutions. This photo gallery looks back on CCS research and fieldwork that’s informing real-world strategies like restoring dunes, wetlands, and mangroves to help coastlines bounce back after storms. These nature-based solutions are helping build long-term…
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ExoForms™: Coastal Resilience That Builds Over Time
ExoForms™ help shape a new generation of adaptive infrastructure, offering shoreline protection that integrates seamlessly with natural systems and evolves into lasting, living habitats. Designed for coastal, estuarine, and marine environments, ExoForms™ provide immediate energy dissipation and erosion control while encouraging sediment capture, marine life colonization, and long-term ecosystem benefits. Their modular design allows them…
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ExoFlex Oyster Bags: Advancing Coastal Resilience with Smarter Materials
ExoFlex Oyster Bags represent a step forward in how nature-based infrastructure is deployed and performs. Built from basalt fiber — a natural, marine-friendly material — ExoFlex provides a durable, sustainable alternative to plastic-based oyster bags traditionally used for shoreline protection and habitat restoration. Designed to thrive in harsh coastal environments, ExoFlex withstands tidal energy, salinity…
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Levee setbacks have a lot of potential co-benefits. How can we maximize them?
In a new paper published this month in WIREs Water, a team including partners from the University of Georgia Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems and US Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature® program review the myriad of benefits that have been associated with an increasingly popular nature-based solution: levee setbacks. A levee is an…
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Nature at Work: Not-so-plain Floodplains
Rivers have influence far beyond their banks. Many rivers naturally have spaces around them known as floodplains. This month’s edition of Nature At Work is all about these fascinating freshwater features. You might have noticed the water level in your local river getting higher after heavy rain, and lower after several days of no rain–the…
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Nature at Work: Wetlands
What in the world is a wetland? The word “wetland” can refer to a variety of ecosystems, including swamps, marshes, bogs, floodplains and ponds. Generally speaking, wetlands are *lands* that are *wet* (that is, covered by water) at least some of the time. It’s a big group, and this impressive crew of landscapes are a…
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Patterns, drivers, and a predictive model of dam removal cost in the United States
Patterns, drivers, and a predictive model of dam removal cost in the United States In past decades, dams were installed across the United States to help control the flow of rivers and supply water or hydroelectric energy to communities. However, these aging structures pose public safety threats, as well as disrupting aquatic ecosystems and harming…
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Partner Takeover: Native Shorelines
Native Shorelines, a Davey Company is a recognized leader in living shorelines and nature-based solutions, having designed, permitted, and installed over 6 miles of living shorelines and habitat reefs from Georgia to New York. From oyster shell bags and their proprietary QuickReef living shoreline system to other alternative materials, granite, and marsh plantings, Native Shorelines’…
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After the Storm: Nature Leads the Way
As we head into a new hurricane season, we’re reflecting on how coastal communities are turning to nature for recovery solutions. This photo gallery looks back on CCS research and fieldwork that’s informing real-world strategies like restoring dunes, wetlands, and mangroves to help coastlines bounce back after storms. These nature-based solutions are helping build long-term…
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Partner Takeover: University of Florida Center for Coastal Solutions
The Center for Coastal Solutions (CCS) in the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering develops and delivers the best available science and technology for use by decision makers to improve water quality, restore ecosystems and build coastal resilience. The CCS focuses on driving impacts in three program areas: 1) optimizing water quality investment and management…
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The Natrx Platform: Comprehensive Nature-Based Resilience
The future of nature-based solutions requires more than great infrastructure — it requires a system. The Natrx platform is designed to integrate assessment, implementation, and long-term measurement into one seamless approach to shoreline and watershed resilience. It starts with Natrx Assess, which uses remote sensing and AI to map erosion risks and vulnerabilities across landscapes…
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October 2023 Knowledge Series: Tribal Engagement and Engineering with Nature: TNTCX, I-TEK, and EWN
Brian A. Zettle, Senior Biologist and Tribal Liaison for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tribal Nations Technical Center of Expertise (TNTCX) Brian A. Zettle is a Senior Biologist and Tribal Liaison for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tribal Nations Technical Center of Expertise (TNTCX) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, working closely with engineers and natural scientists across…
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What it means to be a researcher: water science and community connections in rural Brazil
Story by Olivia Allen. Photos and captions provided by Cydney Seigerman. Originally posted to the River Basin Center website Plenty of scientists leave their comfort zone for research, but few relocate to another continent—N-EWN member and anthropology graduate student Cydney Seigerman has done it twice. In 2014, they worked as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in…
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New EWN podcast: Leveraging Federal Partnering to Infuse Nature into Urban Community Resilience
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…
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Introducing Partner Takeovers: UGA Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems
As of spring 2025, we have 37 of the coolest organizations in the country as N-EWN partners—and they have even cooler things to say. Starting this spring, we’re going to hand the mic directly to each of our amazing partners. Introducing Partner Takeovers, where our social media and news stories will be run by a…
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Todd Bridges to discuss resilience and sustainability at Dalton State College
Join Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful (KDWB) on Thursday, September 12 for a talk by Dr. Todd Bridges, Professor of Practice at UGA’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems and founder of USACE’s Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) program. The talk, titled “Building Resilience for the People and the Planet,” will discuss how innovative nature-based solutions can directly benefit communities. In response to…
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Tyndall Air Force Base Resilience Program receives Presidential Sustainability Award
Congratulations to the Tyndall Air Force Base Coastal Resilience Program, which recently received a Presidential Federal Sustainability Award. These awards recognize “federal agencies and employees who have made transformational efforts to advance sustainability and climate resilience and lead by example to deliver on President Biden’s goal to slash emissions from federal operations.” Awardees were selected…
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Duke hosts summit focused on extreme heat solutions
Duke University’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub recently hosted their inaugural HeatWise Policy Partnership Summit, convening more than 100 leaders from across sectors to identify ways to make communities more heat resilient. The three-day summit included finance and insurance companies, federal and state officials, foundation officers, Duke faculty and community organizers, including our partners at Duke’s…