In a new publication from ASCE Open, the multidisciplinary journal of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a team of experts from across academic, government, industry and nonprofit organizations are calling for a better future for natural infrastructure.
Nature-Based Design Standards: Past, Present, and Future argues that the challenge isn’t knowledge–it’s organization. While teams around the world are researching nature-based solutions (NbS) and natural infrastructure, the guidance they produce is scattered and underutilized.
The authors propose a Natural Infrastructure Engineering Hub, to “centralize NbS resources, support adaptive learning, and promote the development of NbS-specific guidance that can evolve as more projects are designed, built, and monitored.”
The types of documents that various researchers, practitioners and managers use have a lot of variation, meaning people may not be aware of the true extent of the guidance available to them. By compiling different types of guidance, from peer-reviewed publications to training materials, the proposed hub (referred to throughout the article as the HUB) could create more formalized practice guides and standards for NbS projects.
Looking to the past, present, and future
Nature-based approaches aren’t new. The authors describe the brief history of projects that we would now consider NbS, from beach nourishment and natural river regulation in the early 20th century to traditional agricultural practices that date back centuries. Humans have been altering the environment for a long time, and natural structures have always offered us an example.
Today, NbS is taking off as a field of research and practice with increased funding, policy and expectations–but there’s limited room to grow while practitioners lack guidance on the design and construction of specific types of NbS. While this more specific guidance is growing as a field of literature, the authors of this paper outline an ambitious vision to accelerate NbS engineering resources and projects.
The HUB proposed by the paper would serve two core functions: collecting and sharing data from constructed NbS and aggregating detailed datasets to inform future projects. This would allow engineers, scientists, landscape architects, environmental planners and regulatory specialists to inform and better implement NbS in their strategies.
“The HUB represents a transformative opportunity to advance the implementation, monitoring, and performance evaluation of NbS,” states the paper. “The HUB can serve as a cornerstone for modern, resilient engineering practices that benefit both communities and ecosystems.”
The team was made up of many of our partners through the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), as well as IRIS Director Brian Bledsoe. Check out the full paper here.
Graphics from paper describing the proposed breakdown of guidance for NbS, creating standards from informal guidance across various projects and research.