N-EWN Knowledge Seminars

Pippa Brashear, RLA, Resilience Principal & Partner, SCAPE Landscape Architecture DPC – Widely considered a model for climate-adaptive nature-based infrastructure, Living Breakwaters is a $107 million project that provides a layered approach to resilience and risk reduction–enhancing physical, ecological and social resilience along the South Shore of Staten Island, NY. The project consists primarily of 2,400 linear feet of near-shore breakwaters–partially submerged structures built of stone and ecologically-enhanced concrete units–that will break waves, reducing storm damage and erosion on shore, and provide a range of structured habitat for oysters, fin fish and other marine species. The Living Breakwaters concept was developed by a large, multi-disciplinary team led by SCAPE as part of a winning proposal for Rebuild By Design, the design competition launched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) after Superstorm Sandy. This session explored the principles and process of designing and implementing Living Breakwaters, the diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives and expertise involved, and lessons learned for other nature-based coastal infrastructure that aim to deliver risk reduction as well as ecosystem and social benefits.

We’re excited to welcome Jeff Morris,  Senior Planning & Economics Consultant at Moffatt & Nichol, to deliver this talk. The central theme of this presentation, “The Proposed Future of Planning for USACE Water Resources Investments”, focuses on the evolution of Federal objectives since the proposed practices for economics analysis in 1950 to the most recently proposed USACE’s Agency Specific Procedures (ASP) for Implementation of the Principles, Requirements, and Guidelines (PR&G) for Water Resources Investments.

We’re excited to welcome Dr. Ido Sella , Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at ECOncrete Tech, to deliver this talk. When it comes to planning and constructing coastal and marine infrastructure, promoting nature-inclusive design has multiple financial, structural and ecological benefits. Through project case studies, we’ll explore different applications of science-driven, nature-inclusive construction and gain a deeper understanding of ecosystem services in urban and working waterfronts, as well as the implementation of a holistic approach on scientific findings and monitoring results.

Molly Reid, Research Geographer & Team Lead, Christina Saltus, Research Geographer, and Glenn Suir, Research Agronomist & Adjunct Professor – There is an increasing opportunity and number of EWN projects seeking support to use remotely sensed data and geospatial methodologies to help quantify environmental benefits. Remote sensing approaches are expected to be instrumental in illustrating and quantifying critical EWN concepts such as habitat developed as a result of strategically placed dredge material or integrated into engineering structures, NNBF supporting coastal resilience, ecosystem services supporting engineering function, and shoreline conditions from native plantings. This presentation will highlight the following: 1) geospatial metrics and methods that can be extracted from and applied to remote sensing data, 2) and example geospatial workflow developed for the Atchafalaya Big Island Mining Project, and 3) a range of value-added products developed for data-rich case studies across a range of EWN project types and phases. Ultimately, a final report and StoryMap will help showcase remote sensing capabilities within the EWN project portfolio to assist project practitioners align appropriate remote sensing data and methods with specific project needs.

Grant Wiseman, Brendan Player and Dr. Martha Farella, Stantec – As climate change becomes an increasing threat, and organizations across the globe are setting ambitious net zero and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, assessing, inventorying, and monitoring carbon stock in plants and soils has become vitally important to a variety of businesses and sectors. Stantec’s  CarbonWATCH tool measures the amount of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) present in vegetation and soil and can be deployed in any ecosystem for a wide variety of industries and professionals. Using a combination of high-resolution imagery, LiDAR, vegetation species allometric models, and artificial intelligence/machine learning, we can quantify CO2e in reclamation sites andor mature natural capital locations faster and more accurately than traditional methods. During this webinar, participants will learn about the carbon markets, needs, the measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) process verses traditional monitoring methods, and how CarbonWATCH is utilized to streamline carbon measurements in vegetation and soil.

Ms. Monica Chasten, EWN Proving Ground Lead, USACE Philadelphia District and Dr. Lenore P. Tedesco, Executive Director, The Wetlands Institute – The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Philadelphia District has been participating in the national Regional Sediment Management (RSM) and Engineering With Nature (EWN) Programs with considerable lessons learned developed for navigation dredging and placement activities in New Jersey, especially since Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Over the last decade, beneficial use placements involving shoreline stabilization and marsh restoration have significantly increased in the Philadelphia District’s region, helping to advance practices and policies that keep dredged material in the natural sediment system while enhancing natural infrastructure in the back bays. The Seven Mile Island Innovation Lab (SMIIL) was created in 2019 by the primary partners of USACE, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and The Wetlands Institute, with goals to advance the science, challenge thinking and promote innovation for dredging and placement practices being implemented in the Philadelphia District’s coastal environment. This presentation will focus on examples of successful dredging and innovative placement projects in coastal New Jersey, as well as an overview of SMIIL and overarching lessons learned so far from the ongoing work of over 30 different practitioners and researchers working in this forum.

Dr. Liya Abera, PhD, Engineer Research and Development Center, USACE – Engineering projects typically require economic analysis of the costs and benefits of alternative actions. However, costs may not be distributed evenly over a project’s life cycle and may include initial capital investments, short-term adaptive management actions, long-term operations and maintenance, and eventually disposal. Engineering economics methods exist to convert costs between present, future, and annualized costs and inform life cycle planning. Life cycle cost analysis is critical when comparing projects with dramatically different investments through time (e.g., an operationally intensive conventional infrastructure system vs. a larger capital investment in natural infrastructure). EngrEcon cost model tool was developed for executing standard engineering economics calculations such as cost conversion, cash flow analysis, and life cycle cost analysis. A set of analytical functions were programmed in the R Statistical Software Language and bundled together in a globally available R package. Additionally, a web application was developed to reduce barriers to entry for users without programming experience. The EngrEcon package uses an exponential discounting model and has possible uses of analyzing fixed and incremental costs, comparing alternatives, and cost estimation. The EngrEcon tools are designed to execute widely used engineering economics methods in the context of project planning for civil infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and ecosystem restoration; however, these basic functions can also be used to perform other economic analyses, including personal finances, investment strategies, and retirement plans.

Dr. Garrett Menichino, PhD, PE, CFM, Research Civil Engineer, Environmental Laboratory, Engineer Research and Development Center (Jacksonville, FL) – Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) are increasingly recognized as flood risk management solutions that can provide environmental, social, and economic benefits. However, there are few planning-level tools available for screening NNBF for flood risk management projects. The Dam Screening Tool (DST) is a web-based tool developed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Risk Management Center (RMC) to provide a rough estimate of inundation and potential life loss associated with flood events and dam failure. The DST can be used to provide a screening-level estimate of flood risk and life loss reduction benefits of NNBF. The nationally applicable tool uses publicly available data, including topography, land cover, and structure inventory, to estimate basic information about flood risk outcomes. A DST analysis consists of a simplified hydraulic model with 2D HEC-RAS and a simplified consequence model with LifeSim. The creation, execution, and post-processing of the models is completely automated and performed in the cloud. Model inputs are customizable within the web-based interface, which allows for flexibility in the scenarios that can be modeled. This webinar provides an overview of the web-based tool with focus on screening NNBF as flood risk management measures. DST may also be used for preliminary riverine or coastal flood risk analysis, emergency operations, or initial flood risk analysis for dam and levee breaches where no prior study exists.

Dr. Gina Ralph, Science Integration Branch, Jacksonville, FL District, USACE – The Everglades ecosystem has been altered from over 140 years of highly effective efforts to drain water from the land. As a result, the remaining Everglades ecosystem no longer exhibits the structure, function, or diversity that historically defined the pre-drainage system. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), authorized by Congress in 2000, restores, preserves, and protects the south Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs including water supply and flood protection. CERP focuses on quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of water flow, given modern constraints, to recover critical ecological functions that characterized the historical Everglades and other portions of the south Florida landscape. This presentation will highlight examples of how south Florida ecosystem restoration projects like CERP, and the Kissimmee River Restoration Project, embody the principles of engineering with nature restoring hydrology through removal of more than 240 miles of internal levees and canals, improving the health of over 2.4 million acres by allowing water to flow nearly unobstructed throughout the south Florida ecosystem.

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 the USACE to integrate Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (I-TEK) and cultural keystone species into ecosystem restoration and climate change resiliency projects and studies. Mr. Zettle also works closely with Tribal communities to ensure their interests and worldviews are equitably represented in the USACE research portfolio. As part of the Federal government’s trust responsibility to Tribal Nations, USACE has a legal and moral obligation to ensure we are good stewards of tribal trust resources. As such, the USACE Tribal Nations Technical Center of Expertise (TNTCX) was created to support USACE work with federally recognized Tribes across the enterprise to address some of the toughest water resource, cultural, Treaty Trust resources, and environmental challenges in the Nation. Often this work occurs at the intersection of Western science, Indigenous knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (I-TEK), and Engineering with Nature (EWN). The purpose of this presentation is to introduce new N-EWN members to the TNTCX and discuss how I-TEK and EWN can compliment and inform water resource projects.  

Dr. Jordan Fischbach, The Water Institute – The economic benefits associated with water resources projects has been the focus of federal investment decisions for decades. However, the science of quantifying and evaluating the diverse environmental, social, and economic benefits and costs of water resources projects, particularly those including Nature Based Solutions (NBS), has advanced in recent years. In 2021, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering With Nature® team engaged in a collaborative effort with The Water Institute to consider how to better quantify the broader set of economic, environmental, and social benefits and costs that integrated water resource projects can provide. The collaborative study team identified and further evaluated six completed USACE planning studies that encompass the navigation, coastal storm risk management, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration missions within USACE to assess methods for evaluating NBS and the comprehensive benefits expected from water resources projects. In this seminar, Dr. Jordan Fischbach will present the results from this collaborative study, focusing on key findings and opportunities for USACE to enhance its planning and evaluation process moving forward. 

Fostering Collaborative Networks to Implement Natural & Nature-Based Features In Jamaica Bay with  Jonathan Hallemeier: Natural and Nature Based Features (NNBF) are promising tools in efforts to enhance social and ecological resilience to threats, such as coastal flooding exacerbated by climate-driven sea level rise and weather events. However, implementing NNBF remains a challenge – in addition to the complexity faced by any infrastructure project, NNBF projects routinely occur at spatial scales that cross jurisdictions, include novel components that present uncertainties different from gray infrastructure, and fail to fit cleanly into established policies and budgeting categories. Navigating such challenges requires networks to build knowledge, establish legitimacy, procure resources, and foster creativity to navigate constraints and seize opportunities. This presentation brings social science scholarship of collaboration to hear on what factors enable and constrain collaborative networks for NNBF. These insights are grounded in current literature and emerging findings from research centered on Jamaica Bay, a socially and ecologically diverse and highly urbanized estuary in New York City. Jamaica Bay is vulnerable to increased flooding from sea level rise and severe weather events (such as Hurricane Sandy), and adaptation must contend with social, institutional, biophysical, and engineering complexity. Despite challenges, there are successes in developing collaborative networks and pursuing NNBF for coastal resilience.

Principles of Engineering with Nature in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) 2022 with Matt Shudtz and Yee Huang: Last December, President Biden signed the Water Resources Development Act of 2022 (WRDA ’22) into law. It is the latest in a decades-long series of biennial statutes that authorize new studies, construction starts, and other programs at the Corps of Engineers. Shudtz and Huang have taken a deep dive into the 150+-page legislation, examining the ways in which its provisions align with the principles of Engineering With Nature. In this webinar, Shudtz and Huang will provide background on the statute, describe how it came to pass, highlight elements that promote EWN, and discuss what lies ahead both in the near term and as Congress begins work on WRDA ’24.

With Jacob Berkowitz and Nia Hurst – Wetlands provide a variety of valuable ecosystem services such as storm surge reduction, floodwater attenuation, and water quality improvement. Additionally, coastal ecosystems play an important role in global climate regulation via carbon (C) sequestration and storage. “Blue Carbon” is defined as C stored in coastal environments such as tidal marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. Coastal ecosystems play a significant role in climate regulation because they store a disproportionately large amount of C relative to their area and are naturally resilient to perturbations, providing a capacity to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. In fact, wetlands, mangroves, and seagrasses store carbon 10x faster than mature tropical forests such as the Amazon. 

Engineering With Nature (EWN) projects that beneficially use dredged sediment have the potential to improve Blue Carbon storage through the 1) restoration and creation of coastal landforms and 2) formation of mineral associated organic matter (MAOM), which is protected from chemical and physical degradation, resulting in long-term C storage. Partnering with the University of Central Florida, NOAA, and four USACE districts (Mobile, Baltimore, Detroit, and San Francisco), study sites are being evaluated to assess C dynamics in dredged sediment beneficial use projects to document C stocks and the capacity of dredged sediments to “protect” and store C. Results will help estimate the C value and positive climate regulation outcomes of USACE beneficial use projects and increase our capacity to maximize C sequestration and storage through the design, implementation, and adaptive management of future EWN initiatives. 

With Lauren Bosche – When you think of Engineering With Nature, you may picture a beach nourishment project along the Gulf Coast, or a dredged material project exploring beneficial use of the material on the Mississippi River. But EWN in cold regions – above the Arctic Circle? Maybe it is still hard to picture that.

Yet there are significant, growing environmental risks to communities in cold regions and the Arctic, especially as climate change contributes to permafrost thaw, reductions in sea ice, and some of the fastest coastal erosion on earth. There are significant opportunities here too– such as working with Indigenous communities to preserve history and culture and conducting research to successfully navigate challenges of data scarcity and work conditions in remote environments. 

The new EWN Cold Regions work unit is a diverse project team that is working closely with communities to explore applying EWN approaches in these unique frontiers. This webinar will introduce two pilot projects in the Cold Regions work unit: Point Hope in Alaska and St. Croix Island in Maine. Lauren will share progress made in site characterization and identifying sustainable and resilient solutions and the team’s vision for next steps in Cold Regions EWN.

Guest speaker, Julie R. Beagle, Environmental Planning Section Chief and Engineering With Nature Program Manager, outlines the reasons EWN is critical as an approach in the San Francisco Bay Area, and describes some successes, challenges, and paths forward as the USACE embraces Engineering With Nature. As sea levels continue to rise, and climate impacts worsen, communities will need to adapt the San Francisco Bay shoreline and contributing watersheds to create greater social, economic, and ecological resilience. Home to rivers, beaches, wetlands, marinas, ports, landfills, lifeline infrastructure, residential neighborhoods and more, San Francisco Bay’s shoreline and contributing watersheds are diverse, which means there is no one-size-fits-all solution to increased flooding.

Guest speaker, Dr. David Biedenharn, is a professional engineer with over forty years of experience in hydraulics, river engineering, sedimentation, channel restoration, and fluvial geomorphology. He is presently a Research Hydraulic Engineer with the USACE Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC). He has been a leader in advancing a systems approach to channel studies, that ensures that planned restoration features function both at the local and watershed scales and allows for the proper inclusion of natural and nature-based features to meet project goals.

Guest speaker, Laura Catherine Naslund, is a PhD candidate in the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia. Her current research examines the contribution of small dams and their reservoirs to greenhouse gas emissions from freshwaters.

Proactive and transparent decision making about the long-term management of dams is critical for successfully managing this aging infrastructure and presents an opportunity to apply Engineering with Nature principles to the end of the infrastructure lifecycle. This webinar will provide an overview of the state of dams and dam removals in the US, present results from the review of existing decision support tools and introduce a web application developed to support structured decision making for dams.

With Eddie Brauer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District

Guest speaker, Eddie Brauer, is a senior hydraulic engineer in the USACE St. Louis District (MVS) and regional technical specialist in river engineering for the Mississippi Valley Division. He has 19 years of project experience, which includes navigation; environmental restoration; research on river-training structures, including physical effects and environmental impacts; sediment transport; geomorphology; field methods; and lock design on rivers within the U.S., South America, and Europe. He has developed and led classes on shallow draft navigation and river-training-structure design and construction (including EWN topics) for engineers in the U.S. and Brazil. He is a member of the USACE River Engineering Committee, the chair of the River Engineering Working Group, the secretary of the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC) Environmental Commission, and an adjunct professor at St. Louis University.

With Matt Chambers (The University of Georgia)

Guest speaker Matt Chambers, of the University of Georgia, discusses modeling studies that he and his colleagues have performed which suggest significant hydraulic benefits in idealized streams and on the Wabash River. This research is being translated into practice on the Lower Missouri River in partnership with the USACE Omaha District, ERDC, and local levee district managers. Concept realignments reconnect 2,000-8,000 acres of floodplain and, if the project moves forward, could result in a setback that is significantly larger in scale than previous projects. This webinar provides an overview of the setback project, potential realignments to maximize hydraulic and conservation benefits, design relative to the historic 1890’s channel, and design relative to patterns in historic breaching.

With Dave Hampton (LimnoTec​h) and Burton Suedel (ERDC-EL)

Our guest speakers will present EWN® highlights from the March 2022 symposium: Basin Sediment Management for Unique Island Topography: From Mountain to Estuary,featuring lessons learned from site visits throughout the Añasco River watershed and exploring exciting opportunities for green infrastructure (GI), Low Impact Development (LID) and tropical island EWN® interventions designed to minimize the impacts of storm events. 

With Matthew Bilskie (UGA)

Using science and engineering to produce operational efficiencies, using natural processes to maximize benefit, increasing the value provided by projects to include social, environmental and economic benefits, using collaborative processes to organize, engage and focus interests, stakeholders and partners. 

With Ben Blachly, Susana Ferreira, Yukiko Hashida, Grace Anne Ingham, Craig E Landry and Anna Perry

The common method used to calculate Benefit-cost analysis does not incorporate the often-times greater long-term benefits of natural infrastructure (NI) over conventional approaches, putting the selection of NI at a disadvantage. Several groups are moving toward an ecosystem services approach to identifying benefits that people obtain from ecosystems including the European Union, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Dr. Ben Blachy gives a summary of a technical report on Benefit-cost analysis and how this computation is used to prioritize projects and choose between options.

With Amanda Tritinger (USACE) and Matthew Bilskie (UGA)

Currently, incorporating EWN-based flood protection and restoration designs into storm surge and wave numerical modeling systems is a time-consuming and laborious process. Leveraging codes from the developed Coastal STORM (CSTORM) model framework, this research develops an EWN CSTORM toolkit that can be implemented to streamline the inclusion of EWN designs into the numerical modeling process. The EWN CSTORM toolkit will reduce computational and personnel resources associated with EWN feature analysis, allowing users the ability to manipulate multiple aspects of EWN design, ultimately reducing uncertainty related to coastal engineering reliability and resiliency benefit.

With Daniel Krenz (USACE)

In 2009, the tidal waters of Puget Sound breached the Brown Farm Dike in efforts to restore the Nisqually Delta. This was the culmination of the largest tidal marsh restoration project in the Pacific Northwest. Daniel Krenz, regulatory section chief and project manager with the USACE Seattle District, discusses the history of the Nisqually Delta, restoration planning, pre- and post-restoration monitoring efforts as well as lessons learned.

With Charles Van Rees (UGA)

This webinar focuses on the relationship between Biodiversity and its conservation and Infrastructure and related disciplines, why this is important for today’s challenges, what this relationship looks like, how it has changed, and what it will look like in the future. Dr. Charles B. van Rees addresses what we can do as professionals to address these issues.

With Safra Altman (USACE)

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. Dr. Safra Altman discusses a holistic monitoring framework for natural infrastructure, the specific considerations for monitoring before and after extreme events, and outlines an example in coastal Mississippi. Also check out this EWN podcast with Dr. Altman,  Adding Value to Climate Change Initiatives.

With Todd M. Swannack (USACE)

Natural and nature-based features (NNBF) provide a diverse suite of benefits to society, including flood risk reduction, socio-economic development, water and food security, and habitat. Unlike traditional structural measures, benefits of NNBF accrue over time due to the inherent dynamism of natural features. Capturing and quantifying the benefits requires a multi-scale approach to benefits analysis. This presentation provides an introduction to multiscale benefits analysis for NNBF to be included in project planning and engineering design.

With Don Nelson (UGA)

Advancing social equity has been implicitly and explicitly central to international water resources policy for decades. However, water resources planning sometimes fail to fully embrace this crucial concept. Inclusion of equity within water resources infrastructure is often inhibited by an incomplete conceptual understanding of equity, a perceived lack of quantitative and qualitative equity metrics, unclear connections between equity and standard project planning frameworks, and the absence of concrete examples. In this presentation, we describe equity relative to dimensions of distribution, procedure, and recognition and identify metrics associated with each. We then map these dimensions of equity to different stages of a water resources project life cycle and highlight case studies illustrating best practices. By providing pragmatic responses to these four barriers, our intent is to facilitate a broader and deeper inclusion of equity in water resources planning, engineering, and management.

With Shana Jones (UGA) and Scott Pippin (UGA)

Adapting shoreline stabilization infrastructure and approaches to sea-level rise will require measures that improve federal, state, and local governance mechanisms; promote nature-based management practices; and change property owner behavior that affects coastal areas. This presentation focuses on shoreline stabilization law and policy, specifically the ocean-facing and estuarine protection laws in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.  Hear an overview of important distinctions between how we manage ocean-facing and estuarine-facing shorelines as well as a wide variety of values and interests driving them. Lastly learn how increasing the use of living shorelines will require policy innovation and new approaches to shoreline management at the state level.

With Brook Herman (USACE)

This presentation reviews the current EWN ProMap and how proposed changes to the online database will increase our ability to track and assess how well projects are contributing to multiple environmental, economic, and social benefits. Proposed changes to the data entry field include information on what assessment methods were used to calculate benefits and how aspects of the project contribute to various ecosystem goods and services.