Reimagining infrastructure for a biodiverse future.

Civil infrastructure will be essential to face the interlinked existential threats of climate change and rising resource demands while ensuring a livable Anthropocene for all. However, conventional infrastructure planning largely neglects the contributions and maintenance of Earth's ecological life support systems, which provide irreplaceable services supporting human well-being. The stability and performance of these services depend on biodiversity, but conventional infrastructure practices, narrowly focused on controlling natural capital, have inadvertently degraded biodiversity while perpetuating social inequities. Here, we envision a new infrastructure paradigm wherein biodiversity and ecosystem services are a central objective of civil engineering. In particular, we reimagine infrastructure practice such that 1) ecosystem integrity and species conservation are explicit objectives from the outset of project planning; 2) infrastructure practices integrate biodiversity into diverse project portfolios along a spectrum from conventional to nature-based solutions and natural habitats; 3) ecosystem functions reinforce and enhance the performance and lifespan of infrastructure assets; and 4) civil engineering promotes environmental justice by counteracting legacies of social inequity in infrastructure development and nature conservation. This vision calls for a fundamental rethinking of the standards, practices, and mission of infrastructure development agencies and a broadening of scope for conservation science. We critically examine the legal and professional precedents for this paradigm shift, as well as the moral and economic imperatives for manifesting equitable infrastructure planning that mainstreams biodiversity and nature's benefits to people. Finally, we set an applied research agenda for supporting this vision and highlight financial, professional, and policy pathways for achieving it.

Engineering coastal structures to centrally embrace biodiversity.

Global environmental factors (e.g., extreme weather, climate action failure, natural disasters, human environmental damage) increasingly threaten coastal communities. Shorelines are often hardened (seawalls, bulkheads) to prevent flooding and erosion and protect coastal communities. However, hardened shorelines lead to environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Developmental pressures that are growing in scale, scope, and complexity necessitate the development of sustainable solutions to work with, rather than against, nature. Such nature-based solutions (NBS) provide protection and improve environmental quality and enhance biodiversity. To further this pressing need into action, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began the Engineering With Nature (EWN) initiative to balance economic, environmental, and social benefits through collaboration with partners and stakeholders. This work shows how engineering practice can be advanced through structured decision-making and landscape architecture renderings that include ecological sciences and NBS into an integrated approach for enhancing biodiversity in coastal marine environments. This integrated approach can be applied when designing new infrastructure projects or modifying or repairing existing infrastructure. To help communicate designs incorporating NBS, drawings, and renderings showcasing EWN concepts can aid decision-making. Our experiences with implementing EWN in practice have revealed that involving landscape architects can play a crucial role in successful collaboration and lead to solutions that protect coastal communities while preserving or enhancing biodiversity.

A framework for evaluating island restoration performance: A case study from the Chesapeake Bay.

The use of natural habitats for coastal protection (also known as Nature-Based Solutions or NBS) in place of engineered structures like breakwaters and seawalls can yield a wide range of ecological and economic benefits. Despite these advantages, NBS are not commonly implemented for shoreline protection due to uncertainty over the amount of protection afforded by each unique feature and how protective capacity and ecological benefits are likely to change over time as NBS mature and adapt to changing environmental drivers. Here, we highlight the recent restoration of Swan Island in the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA, and the collaborative approach used to evaluate post-construction performance, as a framework for quantitative evaluation of NBS projects. At Swan Island, 60 000 cubic yards of dredged sediment were used to elevate and restore the island's footprint with an emphasis on increasing its protective and ecological benefits and long-term resilience to sea-level rise. Five entities have leveraged resources to quantify the benefits and efficacy of island restoration by conducting pre- and post-restoration monitoring, which supports the development of an integrated, simulation model that includes three "measured" system parameters: wave height, vegetative biomass, and island profile (i.e., elevations). The model will be used to predict island performance under a range of different system scenarios and used to inform adaptive management options. Results will demonstrate the efficacy of leveraging natural and engineered processes to restore island systems while providing a framework for quantifying NBS. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:42-48. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.