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Natural infrastructure is touted as being excellent for biodiversity, but we still have a lot to learn
Water is a powerful force in human well-being and safety, and through history, humans have developed ways to corral, redirect, and store it. Modern engineers and city planners have especially relied on conventional infrastructure, such as levees, seawalls and dams, to ensure that water exists in the places that humans need it—and not it the places humans don’t (like their…
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IRIS publication touts opportunities for improving infrastructure and supporting biodiversity
A team from the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems and the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature initiative recently published a comment in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, describing the opportunity that comes with melding biodiversity conservation and innovation in infrastructure, as well as the crucial importance for our society in seizing that opportunity.
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Patterns, drivers, and a predictive model of dam removal cost in the United States
In past decades, dams were installed across the United States to help control the flow of rivers and supply water or hydroelectric energy to communities. However, these aging structures pose public safety threats, as well as disrupting aquatic ecosystems and harming biodiversity in freshwater systems, all while costing expensive maintenance fees. This nexus of factors has led to a series…
