The inaugural Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN) Partner’s Symposium, held from May 22-24, 2024, in St. Augustine, Florida, successfully brought together over 170 attendees from 28 partner organizations, marking a milestone for the Network.
This gathering facilitated more complete introductions across partner organizations who shared knowledge to advance the adoption of nature-based solutions (NBS) in engineering practices across the United States. The event featured one and a half days of plenaries, technical talks, panels, and a poster session, providing a comprehensive platform for learning, exchange, and future collaboration.
The technical sessions covered a wide range of topics essential to the N-EWN mission and showcased the progress the N-EWN is collectively achieving. Areas of focus included:
- Nature-Based Solutions Policy and Planning: Discussing strategies to integrate NBS into policy frameworks and planning processes to ensure sustainable and resilient outcomes.
- Advancing Practices and Scaling Up: Exploring advancements and scaling efforts in rivers and wetlands, biodiversity, living shorelines, and sediment management. These sessions also explored the economics of NBS, including cost-benefit analyses.
- Regulatory Best Practices and Adaptation Strategies: Examining regulatory frameworks and best practices to support NBS, alongside strategies for agricultural adaptation and resilience.
- Flood and Hydrodynamic Modeling: Highlighting innovative approaches to flood modeling and hydrodynamic analysis to improve our understanding and management of water-related risks.
- Education and Knowledge Transfer: Focusing on the importance of education in NBS, including training the current workforce and educating the next generation of engineers and scientists.
- Engagement and Community Involvement: Underlining the critical role of community engagement and involvement in the success of natural infrastructure projects.
Attendees enjoyed field trips, which included visits to a local barrier island, the Guana River Marsh’s aquatic preserve, a pontoon boat ride to the University of Florida’s Center for Coastal Solutions’ field experiment sites, a tour of local dunes with discussions on policy and hurricane history, and a guided walking tour of downtown St. Augustine’s resilience projects.
The symposium provided a unique opportunity for partners to connect and collaborate on nature-based solutions. It facilitated discussions on the work needed to implement EWN practices more broadly. Amanda Tritinger, Deputy Program Manager for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) EWN Program, highlighted the Network as “a chance to turn gaps in knowledge into opportunities for advancement.”
The inaugural N-EWN Partners Symposium was a resounding success, characterized by engaging discussions, insightful presentations, and a collaborative spirit. The event underscored the critical role of nature-based solutions in modern engineering and set the stage for future innovations and partnerships in the field.
ERDC Participants included: Jeff King, Amanda Tritinger, Courtney Chambers, Burton Suedel, Kyle McKay, Amy Yarnall, Lauren Melendez, Aubrey Harris, Caleb Sytsma, Garrett Menichino, David Perkey.
Read more from N-EWN: https://n-ewn.org/n-ewn-convenes-for-the-first-ever-partner-symposium/
