Theme: 1. Adaptation

Topic Area: 1c. Transitioning Nature Based Solutions (to Market)

Background/Objectives:

Federal agencies have created Climate Action Plans that call for developing long- term strategies and plans to reduce vulnerabilities that pose threats to agency mission, infrastructure, and personnel. Facility managers are tasked with developing facility-specific measures for protecting infrastructure from the effects of climate change and extreme weather. Facility managers can benefit from greater awareness regarding the diversified risk reduction and value creation opportunities available through integrating Engineering with Nature® (EWN) in facility adaptation planning.

Developed by the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), EWN enables more sustainable delivery of diversified economic, social, and environmental benefits associated with protecting DoD infrastructure through nature-based solutions (NBS). The EWN program, and NBS in general, received major support from the highest level when President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14072, “Strengthening the Nation's Forests, Communities, and Local Economies” on April 22, 2022, as well as the NBS Roadmap and NBS Resources Guide issued by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House Domestic Climate Policy Office, in October 2022.

Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Navy for Climate Change, Deborah Loomis, has been an early adopter and champion for EWN. Between 2022 and 2023, Jacobs and the EWN team engaged with Navy and Marine Corp installations and identified over 30 distinct EWN projects to help mitigate vulnerabilities that threaten mission due to climate change.

Approach/Activities:

This session will describe the EWN® Program and recent efforts to support the climate resilience at DoD installations. This session will provide case study examples of EWN efforts beginning at Tyndall Air Force Base after Hurricane Michael in 2018 and more recently at nine Marine Corps and Navy installations around the United States. Hollie Janson Schmidt will also discuss ways EWN principles can be incorporated into the design and adaptation measures for federal facilities at all scales from landscape to building specific. Chris Allen will describe specific efforts at Sandia National labs to incorporate net zero and nature positive initiatives in the future.

Results/Lessons Learned:

The EWN engagement with the DoD has resulted in performance standards, funding requests, master planning updates, design and technical guidelines at Tyndall Air Force Base that is currently being rebuilt as an Installation of the Future (IotF).

This session will further describe the EWN project identified at Navy installations, lessons learned and concepts that can be applied to other federal facilities. Specific EWN applications like beneficial dredge reuse, coastal and waterway resilience, flood mitigation, drought resilience, erosion control, revegetation, habitat enhancement, stormwater control and eradication of invasive species. Biomimicry principles, biodiversity goals and carbon sequestration will also be discussed.

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Chris Allen