ECOMOD AT ASCE
Candice Piercy and Emily Russ attended the American Society for Civil Engineers’ INSPIRE Conference in Arlington, VA. There was a heavy focus on nature-based solutions, so our partner at the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN) gathered details on the event, including a panel hosted by Candice and a presentation from Emily. Visit their website for all the information, then look around at all the resources N-EWN has to offer!
ECOMOD ON THE AIR
Dr. Candice Piercy was a special guest on the official Engineering With Nature podcast discussing the newly published Guidelines for How to Approach Thin-Layer Placement Projects, as well as dredging in general, with Dr. Ram Mohan and Monica Chasten. Listen here!
ECOMOD IN WILMINGTON DISTRICT
Drs. Todd Swannack and Emily Russ from the Integrated Ecological Modeling team, along with Dr. Matt Balazik from the Coastal Ecology team, facilitated a multi-stakeholder ecological modeling workshop for the Wilmington District for their harbor deepening project. Over 10 different agencies and non-governmental organizations participated. The goal of the workshop was to develop both conceptual and quantitative ecological models that could be used to determine the potential effects of the harbor deepening on the ecological communities within the estuary and river system that connect to the project area.
NEXT GENERATION MODELING SEMINAR
Join EcoMod to hear Dr. Joshuah Perkin of Texas A&M University present on Modeling and Predicting Ecological Futures for Freshwater Fishes.
NEW PAPER ALERT!
The Next Generation Ecological Modeling collaboration is proud to present a new special report on bioinvasion modeling. A great example of cross-lab efforts, this review was written by Safra Altman and Krystyna Powell from the Environmental Lab, and Marin Kress from the Coastal and Hydraulics Lab.
EWN IN NORFOLK DISTRICT
Last week Dr. Piercy along with researchers and program managers from the Engineering With Nature program traveled to Norfolk, VA. They met with the USACE Norfolk District and the City of Norfolk Office of Resilience to discuss opportunities to further incorporate nature-based solutions into the City of Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management project as it enters its construction phase. The City of Norfolk is heavily developed, requiring creative solutions that can tuck into the existing urban landscape.
NEW PAPER ALERT!
Engineering With Nature presents a special report defining guidelines for thin-layer placement of dredged sediments used in coastal wetlands restoration.
This report is a collaboration between Drs. Ram Mohan and Candice Piercy and our late colleague, Mr. Timothy (Tim) Welp, who passed away as we were editing the document. Tim was a brilliant engineer who had a passion for the ocean and all things dredging. He worked tirelessly to improve beneficial use of dredged sediment practice and this document would not have come to pass without his passion and leadership. We are honored to share authorship with Tim on this report and are proud of the final publication.
ECOMOD GOES TO AUSTRALIA
On Sept. 30th, Dr. Brook Herman led a session titled From species to communities to ecosystems: scaling ecological models to support restoration decision making at the 2023 World Conference on Ecosystem Restoration in Darwin, Australia. The overall theme of the session focused on how successful restoration must consider how spatial and temporal scales impact USACE ecosystem restoration. Speakers in the session included Drs. Safra Altman, Nathan Beane, Todd Swannack, and Ms. Darixa Hernández-Abrams.
NEXT GENERATION MODELING SEMINAR
Join EcoMod to hear Dr. Safra Altman and Ms. Krystyna Powell speak about invasive species and shipping risks.