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Engineering With Nature

Mission-Ready, Multi-Benefit Solutions for the Department of Defense

Operating across more than 25 million acres and nearly 5,000 sites worldwide, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces the challenge of sustaining mission-critical infrastructure in diverse and demanding environments. Engineering With Nature (EWN) meets this need by integrating natural processes with engineered systems, delivering innovative, resilient, and efficient solutions to ensure mission success.

EWN for The DoD

Employing Natural Forces

EWN enhances mission resilience by utilizing natural infrastructure to reduce risks from flooding, coastal erosion, and extreme weather. Features such as wetlands, dunes, and mangroves are integrated into built infrastructure, providing flexible, adaptive defenses against environmental threats.

By designing solutions that work with natural forces, the DoD ensures its infrastructure remains robust and adaptive to evolving conditions, safeguarding operations and assets on a global scale.

Engineering With Nature techniques and practices bring natural infrastructure into operation to enhance resilience at military installations, reducing risks from natural hazards. This systems-level approach creates a ‘multiple lines of defense’ strategy that safeguards installations, military assets, and the warfighter.
Jeff King, Lead and Program Manager, Engineering With Nature Program, US Army Corps of Engineers
EWN for The DoD

Maximizing Value with Multi-Benefit Solutions

EWN delivers a high return on investment by providing integrated solutions that achieve multiple benefits. By reducing maintenance costs, improving environmental performance, ensuring operational continuity, and enhancing warfighter well-being, EWN demonstrates that infrastructure development can be both cost-effective and add lasting value to the landscape.

EWN is guided by four foundational principles when supporting military installations:

  1. Mission Assurance: Using science and engineering to produce operational efficiencies supporting delivery of resilient project benefits and mission. 
  2. Using Natural Processes: Leveraging natural systems to reduce resource demands and minimize environmental footprints.
  3. Broadening Benefits: Designing projects to incorporate social, environmental, and economic value.
  4. Promoting Collaboration: Aligning stakeholders, interests, and partners through science-based collaboration to achieve shared goals.


These principles guide design and implementation strategy, ensuring that projects align with DoD mission requirements while delivering economic, environmental, and social benefits.

EWN for The DoD

Featured Publications

January 21, 2025
Jeffrey K. King, Emily B. Moynihan, Kira T. Zender, Brett Wylie, Jason Bird, Enrique Lopezcalva, Hollie Janson Schmidt, Cinamon S. Vann, and Karen L. Rhea
This book illustrates some of the current challenges and hazards experienced by military installations, and the content highlights activities at eight U.S. Navy and Marine Corps military installations to achieve increased resilience through natural infrastructure.
February 27, 2024
Luce Bassetti, Jason Bird, Christine Crespo, Rick Gorsira, Tom Leigh, Hollie Janson Schmidt, Cinamon Vann, Brett Wylie, Tia Yang, Kira Zender, Jennifer Loofbourrow (graphic designer)
The Department of Defense recognizes climate threats and their impacts on mission resilience and readiness. Hosted by Engineering With Nature (EWN®), a workshop in July 2023 explored threats at MacDill AFB, focusing on wind, erosion, flooding, sea-level rise, and wildfire. Agency experts presente...
September 22, 2023
Christopher Allen, Jason Bernagros, Jason Bird, Hollie Janson Schmidt, Enrique Lopezcalva, Armin Munevar, Terry Schaumberg, Susy Torriente, Cinamon Vann, Brett Wylie, Tianya Yang, Kira Zender, and Karen Rhea (graphic designer)
This report highlights the unique challenges and opportunities for utilizing NBS at Department of Defense (DoD) installations in the Desert Southwest. The proposed solutions highlighted in this report use NBS to harness the power of nature to support mission sustainment and resilience in the hars...
April 6, 2023
Jeffrey K. King, Emily B. Moynihan, Christopher L. Allen, Cinamon S. Vann, Karen L. Rhea, and Todd S. Bridges
This book illustrates some of the current challenges and hazards experienced by military installations, and the content highlights activities at seven military installations to achieve increased resilience through natural infrastructure.
EWN for The DoD

Featured Videos

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With over 1,700 Department of Defense (DoD) installations worldwide, safeguarding critical infrastructure and personnel sustainably has become an imperative concern. The increased frequency and int...
EWN for The DoD

Related Workshops

26
September
2022
The Department of the Navy (DON) hosted a discussion on nature-based climate resilience. This meeting is part of a collaboration with the Army Corp......
1
March
2022
Military installations in the desert Southwest are grappling with the challenges posed by a range of natural hazards, such as drought, heat, winds,......
24
August
2021
24-25 August 2021. This two-day virtual event featured over 40 participants from across the Department of Defense, U.S. Government, industry, non-g......
EWN for The DoD

Featured Project

Not long after Hurricane Michael wreaked havoc across Northwest Florida in October 2018, devastating much of Tyndall Air Force Base along the way, ......