The bipartisan passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2022 (WRDA 2022) by the 117th Congress marks the latest in a biennial series of enactments that authorize the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to undertake civil works projects, launch new programs, and develop new policies. Our detailed review of WRDA 2022 reveals broad and emphatic congressional support for the principles of Engineering With Nature, as well as numerous specific provisions that prioritize natural and nature-based features (NNBFs). Below, we provide a brief overview of these provisions. You can find the full publication here.

It is important to remember that biennial WRDA bills merely authorize various activities; Congress must subsequently appropriate funding for the actual work. All of the promise that WRDA 2022 holds for promoting and enacting EWN principles depends on future appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024 and beyond.

New Program Authorities

We identified four new program authorities with potentially significant implications for the practice of Engineering With Nature. 

Section 8103, originally introduced as the “Shoreline Health Oversight, Restoration, Resilience, and Enhancement Act” or SHORRE Act, expands a program that encourages the Corps to use NNBFs to reduce riverine flooding and streambank erosion. In WRDA 2022, Congress expanded the program’s scope to include coastlines, allowing the Corps to use the program’s special procedures for more areas that are highly vulnerable to flooding and erosion. 

Two features of this program are important: (1) the Corps may undertake projects with a federal cost-share of up to $15 million without first obtaining project-specific authorization from Congress, a notoriously arduous process; and (2) the project valuation rubric used for this program is slightly different – more holistic and inclusive – than for standard civil works projects. Here, the Corps may undertake a project if it will significantly reduce potential damages, improve the quality of the environment, and is justified “considering all costs and beneficial outputs of the project.” With a limit of $15 million per project, these projects are small for the Corps but could be important for testing EWN principles in practice. 

Section 8106 expands the Corps’ authority to study a full array of flood risks and to design risk management strategies that simultaneously address multiple sources of risk. At the request of a local project sponsor, the Corps may now formulate project alternatives to maximize the net benefits from reducing the comprehensive flood risk from the isolated and compound effects of pluvial and fluvial flooding, tides, sea level rise, land subsidence, and other factors. 

With this expanded authority, it becomes possible for the Corps and local project sponsors to consider and implement NNBFs. For example, a coastal storm risk management project that includes groundwater emergence as a source of risk could support investigating NNBFs that reduce damage to roadways from the combined effects of the two hazards. By considering only the risk from coastal storms, the exacerbating effect of groundwater emergence could be underestimated and unaddressed in the project design.

Section 8121 authorizes a new program to conduct periodic assessments of levees and to evaluate the federal interest in modifying levees, including by way of a levee setback. This approach realigns an existing levee or constructs a new levee that is located away from the active river channel and thus reconnects the river with the historical floodplain. A levee setback combines a structural element (the levee) with an environmental element (the historical floodplain), and together these elements provide flexible, dynamic, and adaptable protection from flooding. 

Section 8160 establishes dedicated research and development funding to allow ongoing and broad study of water resources development needs and potential innovations. The new budget authority may be used to ensure ongoing support for the Corps’ Engineering Research and Development Center, where the EWN initiative originated more than a decade ago. Dedicated funding for ERDC could greatly enhance EWN research and implementation.

New Policy Directives

We found more than a dozen new policy directives that support and promote the core principles of Engineering With Nature, including provisions that address equity, justice, and climate adaptation and provisions that emphasize science, engineering, and collaborative processes to generate efficient and equitable outcomes. 

In pursuit of equity and justice, Congress presses the Corps to improve recognitional, procedural, and distributive justice practices in WRDA 2022. Many provisions relate to the Corps’ relationship with Tribal nations, while others focus on historically underserved communities. Throughout the bill, Congress decreased or waived entirely cost-share requirements for communities that historically have struggled to provide those funds. Congress also increased funding for programs to benefit these communities. Together these provisions enable many more communities to address their water resources needs. 

To promote climate adaptation, Congress enacted numerous provisions that ensure the Corps’ designs and projects account for climate change impacts on precipitation, sea levels, and extreme weather events. Those provisions apply to certain project feasibility studies, geographic locations, and other programs. NNBFs retain or mimic ecosystem services that are more flexible and accommodating than gray infrastructure alone. This multi-functional and dynamic capacity is critical for adapting to climate change.

Other EWN-related policy directives include support for specific research projects (e.g., on economic valuation of open space lands), strategic planning initiatives (e.g., for enhancing opportunities for beneficial use of dredged material), and general regulatory reform. Our report summarizes these provisions and their connection to EWN.

New Studies, Plan Development, and Project Starts

We found many opportunities to incorporate EWN principles and to implement NNBFs in the new studies, plan development, and project starts authorized by Congress in WRDA 2022. These new activities tend to generate the major headlines that follow each biennial WRDA bill, and the bipartisan support for these bills arises from the direct risk reduction and economic benefits that Corps projects provide for the constituents in the districts that various members of Congress represent. 

In WRDA 2022, Congress authorized the Corps to begin work on more than 90 new feasibility studies that cover projects in 28 states and the District of Columbia. The authorized scope of certain studies lays the foundation for project development teams to pursue NNBFs from the scoping phase of the study to the preferred design. For instance, Congress authorized more than 30 studies for a combined purpose of inland or coastal storm risk management and ecosystem restoration. Congress is sending a clear message about its desire to see more civil works projects that align with EWN principles, such as using natural features and processes to maximize benefits.

Congress uses WRDA bills to direct the Corps to conduct extensive studies of water resource challenges across the country. These comprehensive planning efforts are an ideal opportunity to incorporate EWN principles into water resources development. In recent years, Congress has declared implementing NNBFs as a goal in specific, authorized comprehensive planning projects. In WRDA 2022, Congress authorized several such projects: the Chattahoochee River Basin Restoration Plan, Lower Mississippi River Basin Restoration Plan, Western Infrastructure Study, and the Comprehensive Central and Southern Florida Studies.

WRDA 2022 also authorized 25 new project starts in 15 states and Puerto Rico that explicitly combines flood risk management and ecosystem restoration in a “multiple lines of defense” approach. In our report, we highlight several projects with significant EWN elements in Tacoma Harbor, Washington, Pinellas County, Florida, and coastal Texas.

Find the full report here.

Project Team

Matthew Shudtz, Law and Policy Fellow, UGA Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems

Yee Huang, Law and Policy Analyst, UGA Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems