Waterfront Infrastructure: Design for People and Nature - 1.0 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Seawalls, breakwaters, revetments, and piers line much of the urban waterfront, and they are among the most heavily engineered landscapes a design team will work on. They can also provide habitat for marine life when ecological goals are built into the structure from the start. This session follows a waterfront project through the design process, from concept to post-construction, and shows where ecological and engineering input belongs at each stage.

Drawing on constructed projects in the United States and Europe, Dr. Ido Sella explains how local conditions such as water levels, exposure, and existing habitats shape the ecological opportunity, and how habitat features are coordinated with engineering requirements during design. He then covers what it takes to deliver those features: physical model testing, durability and structural testing, construction documents, and integration with standard materials and construction methods. The session closes with monitoring evidence from completed projects, including comparisons against control surfaces, and what that evidence can and cannot tell a design team about ecological and engineering performance over time.

Learning objectives:

• Identify opportunities for nature-inclusive solutions within different types of hard-engineered waterfront infrastructure.
• Determine when ecological engineering input should be incorporated to reflect local conditions and support feasibility, permitting, and project delivery.
• Interpret evidence from constructed projects and monitoring programs when considering ecological engineering performance.

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Image: Drone image of Huron Street waterfront project designed by SCAPE with ECOncrete Armor Blocks, New York City, NY / Ty Cole