Engineering With NatureExamples of nature-based solution already built (see Bright Spots in RDE)
Not long after Hurricane Michael wreaked havoc across Northwest Florida in October 2018, devastating much of Tyndall Air Force Base along the way, military and engineering officials began looking at ways to make the rebuilding of the vital base an example of how investments in natural infrastructure could support and strengthen a facility’s resiliency. The […]
Background Mordecai is an undeveloped back barrier island that runs parallel to the Barnegat Bay shoreline of Beach Haven, New Jersey (Figure 1). In addition to providing habitat for a wide range of estuarine organisms and nesting shorebirds, the island serves as a wave-break, protecting the adjacent developed shoreline of Beach Haven from the erosive […]
Background During the 1990s, placement of shoal material dredged from Horseshoe Bend of the lower Atchafalaya River occurred at wetland development sites located along the river’s banklines adjacent to the channel. Capacity of these placement sites was nearly exhausted by 1999. Thus, to meet the anticipated disposal requirements for future channel maintenance, the USACE New […]
Background Peanut Island, located in the Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL) within Palm Beach County, Florida, was originally created in 1918 using the material excavated when the Lake Worth Inlet was created (Figure 1). First called Inlet Island, the island was renamed Peanut Island for a planned peanut oil-shipping operation which failed in 1946. The island […]
Background Coastal islands and marshes of the Chesapeake Bay are disappearing along with the critical ecosystem services and shoreline protection benefits they provide. At Swan Island, Maryland, a 25 acre island within the Martin National Wildlife Refuge in Tangier Sound, Chesapeake Bay, high rates of shoreline erosion and subsidence have deteriorated the island’s natural habitat […]
Background Dating to the late 1860’s, Baptiste Collette Bayou was a small canal that extended between the Mississippi River and the historic Breton Island Sound. In a series of storm-related events and USACE dredging authorizations beginning in the early 1900’s, a sub-delta that had developed covering as much as 20 square miles by 1959 had […]
Background The Snook Islands project site is located adjacent to the Lake Worth Golf Course (LWGC) in the Lake Worth Lagoon (LWL) in central Palm Beach County, Florida. The LWL is a 22 mile (35.5 km) long coastal lagoon with two oceanic inlets (Figure 1). In the late 1800’s developers began dredging and filling the […]