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Introduction to Nature-based Solutions

Dr. Todd S. Bridges Dr. Jeff King

College of Engineering Engineer R&D Center

University of Georgia US Army Corps of Engineers

Todd.Bridges@uga.edu

WEDA; 26 June, 2024

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To begin…

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” –E.B. White

“Living in harmony with Nature is about going with the flow.” –TSB

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The Story of US Wetlands

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Everglades, FL; JAN 2023

San Francisco Bay, CA

San Francisco, CA

California “Satellite” Image, ca. 1851

by Mark Clark

San Joaquin Valley, CA

Wetland Acreage in Conterminous US

ca. 220,000,000acres in 1700s

ca. 110,000,000 acres today

Oklahoma River, OK

Los Angeles River

SF Bay lost >90% of its wetlands in the 100 years following the discovery of gold in CA in 1849. There were consequences for the 1906 earthquake: where structures built on made land were more severely damaged. And with consequences for the future wrt sea level rise.

Sediment management in SF Bay complicated by a heavy, and I would say outdated, regulatory system that involves multiple organizations and levels of government.

Hamilton Army Airfield; 6 mcy BU, 500 acres

Sonoma Land Trust; 1,000-acre tidal restoration

Parcel tax where they will collect >$500M over 20 for restoration. But how cut through the process?

Hamilton is an old army air field that had been built on diked baylands (probably saltmarsh) in the 1930s by the Air Force, transferred to the Army in 1973, and closed under the BRAC (base realignment and closure) in 1988.

The airfield lies predominately below sea level on an old wetland that was diked and dried.

Dredged material from San Pablo Bay (north part of San Francisco Bay) was pumped into the area designated for wetland and contoured to create a wetland with elongated berms to break waves. Top picture: movement of dredged material at Hamilton

Insufficient dredged material to “fill” the wetland to elevation. Therefore, relying on accretion of sediment after the dike was breached to flood the wetland. The interior linear berms (seen in middle right picture)

ERDC monitoring post-breach to quantify waves, currents, turbidity, suspended solids, settling velocities and sedimentation (instrumentation stations seen in middle left picture).

Monitoring since 07/14, four monitoring stations

ERDC modeling of waves using STWAVE (Murray/Smith)

ERDC modeling of wave generation and dissipation in the new wetland. After the model was built and validated with data from the year of monitoring (left model output), different scenarios were tested to determine the efficacy of the linear berms, and compare it to other configurations. The berms were removed from the model so a baseline with no barriers to fetch could be established (center model output), and then the volume of the dredge material used in the berms (as quantified in the model) was reconfigured to simulate round “mounds” used to decrease fetch at other restoration sites around the bay.

Vegetation is also being added to the model, using elevation tolerances of Pacific Cordgrass (dominant low marsh species) and Pickleweed (dominant middle marsh species) using published drag, height, density, and stem diameter parameters for each species from a salt marsh site in Corte Madera, 9 miles south of Hamilton.

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, 5:12 a.m. on April 18 magnitude of 7.8), producing damage across a large region, the focal point being the city of San Francisco. Structural damage from the quake and the resulting fires that lasted for several days, destroyed 80% of the city, left 300,000 people homeless (city population of 400,000), and killed an estimated 3,000 people.

The worst structural damage from the quake itself occurred on areas of unstable “made land”, i.e., land that had been created filling in 100s of acres of shoreline, open water, and wetlands in the years before 1906. When you steal space or property from Mother Nature, there are going to be consequences. And after it’s stolen it can be very difficult to figure out how to keep and defend it, or even give it back.

In 1907, in the aftermath of the quake, there was an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco that killed 172 people before it ran its course. 2 million rats were killed in San Francisco during the campaign to bring the plague under control. But engineering was also part of this campaign. Dr. Robert Blue, the head of the campaign, said this “ The disease must be built out of existence. This is the hope of San Francisco and in time the city will be one block of concrete throughout, and the gateway to the Orient closed against plague.” More than 6,000,000 square feet of concrete was laid in the city in just two years to eliminate habitat for rats.

The 1906 earthquake preceded the development of the Richter magnitude scale by three decades. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the quake on the modern moment magnitude scale is 7.8;^[1] values from 7.7 to as high as 8.3 have been proposed.^[9] According to findings published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, severe deformations in the earth's crust took place both before and after the earthquake's impact. Accumulated strain on the faults in the system was relieved during the earthquake, which is the supposed cause of the damage along the 450-kilometer-long segment of the San Andreas plate boundary.^[9] The main shock epicenter occurred offshore about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the city, near Mussel Rock. Shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada.^[10]

At the time, 375 deaths were reported,^[14] partly because hundreds of fatalities in Chinatown went ignored and unrecorded. The total number of deaths is still uncertain today, and is estimated to be roughly 3,000 at minimum.^[15] Most of the deaths occurred in San Francisco itself, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area; nearby cities, such as Santa Rosa and San Jose, also suffered severe damage. In Monterey County, the earthquake permanently shifted the course of the Salinas River near its mouth. Where previously the river emptied into Monterey Bay between Moss Landing and Watsonville, it was diverted 6 miles south to a new channel just north of Marina. As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were even more destructive.^[21] It has been estimated that up to 90% of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires.^[22] Within three days,^[23] over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks.

Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation.^[

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, occurred in the Kingdom of Portugal on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, the holy day of All Saints' Day, at around 09:40 local time.^[2] In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, the earthquake almost totally destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas. Seismologists today estimate the Lisbon earthquake had a magnitude in the range 8.5–9.0^[3]^[4] on the moment magnitude scale, with its epicentre in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km (120 mi) west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent. Estimates place the death toll in Lisbon alone between 10,000 and 100,000 people,^[5] making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. Pereira estimated the total death toll in Portugal, Spain and Morocco from the earthquake and the resulting fires and tsunami at 40,000 to 50,000 people.^[15]

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…the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic, environmental and social benefits through collaboration.

Engineering With Nature_®

Key Elements:

Science and engineering that produces operational efficiencies
Using natural process to maximum benefit
Increase and diversify infrastructure value
Science-based collaboration to organize and focus interests, stakeholders, and partners

www.engineeringwithnature.org

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“We absolutely want to do more engineering with nature everywhere we work across the Corps, you have my commitment.”

— LTG Scott A. Spellmon, 55th Chief of Engineers, to the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure, Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee (24 June 2021)

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Nature-Based Solutions: A White House Priority

EO 14072, Sec. 4. Deploying Nature-Based Solutions to Tackle Climate Change and Enhance Resilience: “To further amplify the power of nature, including its ability to absorb climate pollution and increase resilience in all communities, today’s Executive Order calls for the following:”

Report on Nature-Based Solutions
Guidance on Valuing Nature
First U.S. National Nature Assessment

2022

Earth Day EO

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Nature-based Solutions: “Actions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore natural or modified ecosystems to address societal challenges, simultaneously providing benefits for people and the environment.”

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Nature-Based Solutions: Conserving, restoring, and engineering nature for the benefit of people and nature�

Coastal Storm Risk Management; e.g., an island-wetland complex that attenuates storm surge and waves.
Inland Flood Risk Management; e.g., a restored inland floodplain that provides space for high flows.
Surface Heat Reduction; e.g., creation of green space, forest restoration.
Drought and Wildfire Resilience; e.g., restored native vegetation + grazing + ‘slow-water’ interventions + ecological forest management.
Water Resilience; a constructed freshwater wetland that absorbs excess nutrients and recharges depleted groundwater aquifers.
Climate Change Mitigation; e.g., restored native grasslands / plant communities that sequester carbon in soils.

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Hwy 2 Levee Setback, MO River

Tyndall AFB

Check dam, Tucson

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Incorporation of Nature-Based Solutions in Civil Works Projects

“Increasingly, non-federal interests working in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are requesting the integration of natural or nature-based solutions (NBS) in Civil Works (CW) projects and programs.”
“Implementing NBS in CW projects, while increasing, has been sporadic and more must be done to better incorporate and expand NBS use across the project life cycle where appropriate and feasible.”
“NBS should be evaluated with the same rigor and attention as other alternatives.”
“NBS do not replace the need for conventional engineering approaches; rather they can work hand in hand with traditional methods for an outcome that is greater than its parts.”
“Significant challenges remain to implement NBS broadly across USACE CW programs. Technical information is lacking in some areas to understand the capability, capacity, resilience, and regional variability of NBS.”

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https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7189701478750593024/

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The Principles, Requirements, and Guidelines: Nature-based Solutions

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“Net public benefits. The Corps shall strive to maximize net public benefits to society. Public benefits encompass economic, environmental, and social goals, include monetized and un-monetized effects, and allow for the consideration of both quantified and unquantified effects. The Corps shall take a comprehensive view in evaluating net public benefits.”

“Full consideration and reporting on nonstructural and nature-based alternative actions shall be an integral part of the evaluation of Federal water resource investment alternatives, and a full nonstructural in addition to a full nature-based alternative will be included in the final array of alternatives. Nonstructural and nature-based aspects should also be included in the other alternatives in the final array when appropriate.”

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The Yolo Bypass, California (1911)

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Yolo Bypass, 2017

Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area

Sacramento Weir

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Groundwater Recharge: Gilbert Riparian Preserve

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California “Satellite” Image, ca. 1851

by Mark Clark

110 acres, 7 constructed ponds (<1 m deep). Receives up to 10 million gals per day from the waste water treatment plant in Gilbert. Began in 1993 with a new city engineer (Lonnie Frost) who took a class at ASU (taught by Herman Bauer, USDA) that introduced the engineer to groundwater recharge. Project dedicated in 1999. Land acquired by city; was farmland. Audubon collaboration. Since project the groundwater has risen 30-40 feet. More than 300 bird species have been sighted at the project.

Vision

To be recognized as a premiere education and recreation resource in Arizona while:

Preserving valuable natural resources;
Supporting creation and conservation of scarce riparian areas;
Protecting needed habitat for wildlife.

Mission

To promote awareness and appreciation of Arizona’s ecology and natural history, particularly desert and riparian environments, through:

Education and recreation programs for a diversity of visitors, and
Research and development of strategies to reserve and protect these unique environments

Values

Interpretative Excellence (Indirect Education): To provide the best possible interpretative experience for all visitors seeking education and/or recreation leisure time.
Education Excellence (Direct Education): To provide the best possible facilities to accommodate education experiences for life long learning.
Conservation Excellence (Research and Development): To provide for an environment dedicated to conserving valuable natural resources.

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Upscaled NbS: Realizing the Potential

Corn field, Nebraska City, NE

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Navigation Infrastructure, MS River

HWY 2 Levee Setback, MO River

Sequoyah NWR, Arkansas River

Confluence of the Madison and Jefferson Rivers; Bozeman, MT

I hope for a future where we have thousands of large-scale NbS covering millions of acres from sea to shining sea.

MS River Basin, 1.2 million square miles (3.1 millions sq miles in conterminous US). Some like to measure the size of a river is by the size of its watershed, which is the area drained by a river and its tributaries. The Mississippi River drains an area of about 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) including all or parts of 32 states and two Canadian provinces, about 40% of the continental United States. The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth largest in the world, extending from the Allegheny Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The Amazon for comparison drains about 7.1 million square kilometers (2.7 million square miles).

90 mill acres in corn in US, 140K sq miles, size of Montana, US is #1 producer, 40% exported, half of that export is transported on navigation system, $13B net worth of the export.

The Missouri River, North America’s longest river at 2,341 miles, starts at the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison Rivers (and then the Gallatin River within 1 mile) near Bozeman, Montana and ends when it joins the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri. Lewis and Clark’s expedition camped at this spot for several days in 1805 and named the 3 converging rivers forming the source of the Missouri River after the organizers of their expedition: President Thomas Jefferson; Secretary of State, James Madison; and Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin. The Missouri River’s watershed encompasses 500,000 square miles and includes portions of 10 US states and 2 Canadian Provinces. Rivers are the veins and arteries of our ecosystem and economy. In a year when the ‘dead zone’ produced by nutrient loads entering the Gulf of Mexico through the Mississippi River is larger than average, we should be working for a ‘healthier’ circulatory system. Through Engineering With Nature, we can leverage nature to heal nature. More to come…

Modern landscapes fall along a spectrum from the artificial to the natural. The Arkansas River exemplifies this reality. The Arkansas River is one of the longest tributaries of the Mississippi River at 1,450 miles. It begins in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and then flows through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Flooding on the river in Pueblo, Colorado in 1921 motivated an engineering project that relocated the river channel and flow to areas south of the city. In 1996, an economic revitalization project in Pueblo excavated 1 mile of the historic river channel in downtown Pueblo in order to develop a commercial district in the form of a River Walk (modeled after the River Walk in San Antonio, Texas). The McClellan Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS), completed in 1970, opened 445 miles of the Arkansas River to commercial and recreational navigation through the construction of a series of 17 locks and dams (an 18^th lock and dam was completed on the White River in 2004). The locks overcome a 420-foot elevation change between the Mississippi River, where the MKARNS begins, to Catoosa, Oklahoma where the project ends. Commercial navigation on the MKARNS transports 12 million tons of commodities (agricultural and other products), annually, with a value between $2 and $3 billion. The Big Dam Bridge at the Murray Lock and Dam in Little Rock, Arkansas was completed in 2004 and is the longest (4,226 feet) pedestrian and bicycle bridge in North America built exclusively for recreational use (and it was certainly a popular spot on the Sunday afternoon when I was there). The Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge (established in 1970) is co-located with the Robert S. Kerr Reservoir in Oklahoma and includes 20,000 acres of river floodplain habitat that supports more than 250 migratory bird species, among other animals. Former President Lyndon Johnson was present and spoke at the dedication ceremony for the Kerr Lock, Dam and Reservoir in 1970. He spoke about the importance of conserving our environment, water and landscape. During the closing portion of his speech President Johnson said, “The scars of civilization in this part of America are not yet too deep to be healed…This project must be a beginning, not and end…It must represent our dedication to Robert Kerr’s dream of a nation preserved as God gave it to us.” The healing President Johnson called for could expand and diversify the value that nature can provide.

Maritime vessels account for 40% of U.S. international trade value, nearly 70% of trade weight, with trade of goods accounting for 18% of 2020 GDP. In 2020, waterborne shipping carried more tonnage (nearly 1.5 billion short tons) and value (more than $1.5 trillion) in U.S. trade than any other mode of transportation. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

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The Next Step: �NBS Engineering Guidance

Design + Construction Guidance

FOR NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

US Army Corps of Engineers ∙ Engineer Research and Development Center

UNCLASSIFIED

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International Guidelines on the Use of Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management

Published September 2021
Multi-author: government, academia, NGOs, engineering firms, construction companies, etc.
Addressing the full project life cycle
4 Parts

Overarching Topics
Coastal Applications
Fluvial Applications
Conclusions

A collection of international expertise, across sectors, using NNBF for flood risk management while expanding and diversifying project value through economic, environmental and social benefits.

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US Army Corps of Engineers ∙ Engineer Research and Development Center

UNCLASSIFIED

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Publishing Technical Guidance on Nature-Based Solutions

Publishing Technical Reports on the design and construction of nature-based solutions intended for engineers and designers at USACE.

Coordinate Working Group

Develop a Working Group to deliver the Technical Reports. Identifying key USACE Subject Matter Experts with decision authority who can participate in the project. Ensure alignment with USACE process and perspective.

Manage Web Platform

Publish and manage a web platform to host the published technical guidance and the resource library.

Project Overview

US Army Corps of Engineers ∙ Engineer Research and Development Center

UNCLASSIFIED

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NBS Engineering Guidance

Format:

Overarching Engineering Pamphlet (informational, EP 1100-2-X)

4 NBS topic-specific Technical Reports (instructional), more to be added over time

Joint product between EWN, USACE HQ Engineering and Construction Division, and USACE Climate Preparedness and Resiliency Community of Practice

Tech Report Topics:

Coastal: Wetlands

Coastal: Oyster Reefs

Riverine: Woody Structures in Bank Stabilization

Riverine: Floodplain Benching

US Army Corps of Engineers ∙ Engineer Research and Development Center

UNCLASSIFIED

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The Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems

>50 faculty, researchers, staff spanning 15 colleges, public service organizations, and extension programs at UGA.
>60 graduate students focused on resilient infrastructure.
>12 collaborative research and implementation projects with communities and military installations.
Partnering across sectors.
Producing high-impact products, education, and training for a new wave of 21^st century professionals.
The Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN), https://n-ewn.org/.
Natural Infrastructure Graduate Certificate.

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https://iris.uga.edu/

Vision: Natural and conventional infrastructure working together for thriving communities, businesses and natural systems.

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Supporting MS and PhD students:

Civil/environmental engineering, wildlife sciences, ecology, landscape design

Practice-oriented & embedded research with Ducks Unlimited staff, partners, and stakeholders
Interdisciplinary projects that prepare students to seamlessly enter the NbS workforce

Natural Infrastructure Graduate Fellowship

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- The University of Georgia Natural Infrastructure Graduate Fellowship

Logistics

$3 million dollar gift in total, $600,000 annually that currently supports 14 M.S. students (disciplines include civil and environmental engineering, wildlife sciences, ecology, landscape design)

Details About the Program

DU Engineering might be their best kept secret, DU employs over 70+ engineers and support staff.
Fellows’ research focuses on natural infrastructure methods and engineering guidance, tool development, cost analysis, monitoring and adaptive management and social dimensions
Emphasis on integration with natural and conventional systems
Two Options: Completion of a traditional thesis or a thesis of practice through an internship with Ducks Unlimited

Fellows are working with DU staff, partners, and stakeholders around the U.S. (from the Lowcountry of the Southeast to the Louisiana Delta up to the Great Lakes and over to the Pacific Northwest)

Prepare fellows to seamlessly enter the workforce with the skills and knowledge vital to implement natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions in a rapidly changing landscape.

The ideal candidate for this fellowship will have:

B.S. degree in Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Ecology, Architecture, Geography, Atmospheric Sciences, Marine Sciences or equivalent.
Hands-on experience in applied projects related to infrastructure and sustainability.
A strong interest in integrating engineering with ecology, forestry, landscape architecture / design, policy, and other natural infrastructure-related disciplines
The majority of awards will go to Master’s students, but strong PhD students will be considered as well.

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‘Going with the Flow’: Nature-based Solutions

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What are the big opportunities for making our landscapes, rivers, coasts, communities, and economies, more sustainable and resilient?
What challenges and opportunities are there for full-scale NbS?
What guidance, tools, technologies, materials, etc. are needed support progress?
What advancements in policy and regulation are needed?
How should we be educating for the future?