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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USACE experts to host Engineering With Nature Workshop at State of the Coast 2025 this month
Are you attending State of the Coast in New Orleans this month? Would you like to deepen your understanding of natural infrastructure and its role in building resilient, sustainable systems? Join us for an immersive short course hosted by the Network for Engineering With Nature. This course brings together leading experts from across USACE, ERDC…
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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…
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From the University of Florida: Cutting-edge research takes center stage at coastal summit
Originally posted on the University of Florida, Center for Coastal Coastal Solutions, website. Read the original post here. The survival of eelgrass, once the dominant seagrass species in Chesapeake Bay—the nation’s largest estuary—is now severely threatened, primarily due to rising temperatures and heatwaves. Traditional seagrass restoration efforts in the bay have struggled to sustain healthy…
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October 2024 Knowledge Series: The Evolution of a Resilient Coastal Community
Over 20 Years of Beaches, Back Bays, Rivers and Stormwater in Norfolk, Virginia Brian Joyner, Moffatt & Nichol, and Kelli Cunningham, Waggonner & Ball Since 2003, the City of Norfolk, Virginia has been investigating coastal/estuarine/river erosion issues, compound urban coastal floodingissues, developing long-range resilience plans, and constructing infrastructure projects to improve its diverse communities’ resilience…
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Freshwater reservoir emissions: research feature with Laura Naslund
Photos and story by Olivia Allen In a recent feature on the River Basin Center website, writer Olivia Allen featured Laura Naslund’s work on freshwater reservoir emissions. By 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, Laura Naslund had already spent over an hour in a canoe on a little pond on the east side of Athens, Georgia.…
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Natrx Assess: Data-Driven Insights for Resilience That Lasts
In nature-based projects at any scale, precision matters. Natrx Assess is a remote sensing and AI-powered geospatial platform that helps project teams pinpoint risks and opportunities — unlocking smarter, faster pathways to resilience. Using high-resolution data, Assess identifies erosion threats, landscape vulnerabilities, and opportunities for intervention across entire regions without the need for extensive fieldwork.…
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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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The True Value of Nature in the Ohio River Basin
This Earth Day, the Earth Economics team has published a study coauthored with the Ohio River Basin Alliance (ORBA) on the economic value that the Ohio River Basin provides, with staggering results: at least $50 billion in annual benefits- and that’s not all. The Ohio River Basin is approximately 69 million acres of land across…
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Special Nature at Work: Hurricane seasons are changing. What does that mean for coastal communities?
Featured image: June 30, 2024 – Hurricane Beryl was pictured east of Barbados as a Category 3 storm from the International Space Station as it orbited 263 miles above the Atlantic Ocean. Via NASA. On Friday, June 28, the National Hurricane Center began advisories on Tropical Depression Two, east of Barbados. Within 48 hours, it…
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Partner Podcasts: Resilience in the Past… and to the Future!
This month, our partners’ podcasts looked backwards and forwards at resilience practices! The Resilient Futures Podcast – Expect the Unexpected: Resilience and Life Advice from the Late Bronze Age On the Resilient Futures Podcast, produced by the University of Georgia’s Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems, hosts Alysha Helmrich and Todd Bridges welcomed anthropologist and historian…
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Improving flood literacy: GA DNR Coastal Resources Division develops new tool
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources recently developed a new tool as part of their Georgia Flood Literacy Project. This project is intended to create clear language around flooding, so that the public has a better understanding of the risks they face from flooding. As the story map says, “The way flood terms are used…