Katherine Dafforn, Stone Living Lab & University of Massachusetts Boston
The Stone Living Lab brings research into practice by designing and testing Nature-based Approaches (NbAs) to strengthen coastal resilience along urban shorelines. Partnering with municipal, state, and federal agencies, and collaborating with members of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, the Lab emphasizes projects that inform NbA implementation and provide education for communities and decision-makers. NbAs range from green solutions like saltmarsh restoration to the greening of gray infrastructure, where engineered structures are redesigned for ecological and social co-benefits. In Boston, structures that mimic natural storm barriers—as low-impact defenses against wave energy and erosion. In parallel, the Lab is piloting Living Seawalls, modular textured panels that enhance marine biodiversity, marking the first North American deployment of this Australian innovation. Unlike Sydney’s sheltered, temperate waters, Boston’s installations face colder conditions, ice scour, and intense storms. By tracking co-benefits from biodiversity to wave attenuation, the Lab is showing how global NbA innovations can be adapted locally to transform urban waterfronts into resilient, living systems for both people and nature.
The N-EWN Knowledge Series offers 1 Continuing Education Credit (CEC) per seminar. This Series is presented by N-EWN, Limnotech, the University of Georgia, and USACE ERDC.