Operating across more than 25 million acres and nearly 5,000 sites worldwide, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces the challenge of maintaining 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 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 natural hazards.
By designing solutions that work with natural forces, the DoD ensures its infrastructure remains robust and adaptive to evolving conditions, safeguarding operations and assets.
EWN delivers a high return on investment by providing integrated solutions that achieve multiple benefits. By reducing maintenance costs, improving 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:
These principles guide design and implementation strategy, ensuring that projects align with DoD mission requirements while delivering economic, ecological, and social benefits.
Engineering With Nature® is the intentional alignment of natural and engineering processes to efficiently and effectively deliver economic, ecological, and social benefits through collaboration.