By Ellie Gabel 
Eco-engineering could bridge the divide between the environment and human innovation.
Around the world, engineered projects — from single buildings to entire cities — are often built with little regard for the environment around them. As a result, new construction can disrupt entire habitats or ecosystems.
Many engineers are looking for a better approach — a way to redesign urban environments and ecosystems in a way that integrates human society with nature.
Ecological engineering, or eco-engineering, is an emerging discipline that combines ecology and engineering to design structures and ecosystems that work well together — enabling a synergistic relationship between the built environment and the natural environment.
The field has developed over the past 40 years, with some of the biggest developments coming in the last 20 years.
The definition of ecological engineering and the field’s goals vary slightly, depending on who you ask.
At a 1993 workshop sponsored by the National Research Council, ecological engineering was defined as “the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both.”
The field combines research from both theoretical and applied ecology, as well as practical knowledge from existing ecological engineering projects.
In short, the goals of eco-engineering as a field are primarily the restoration of ecosystems that have been disturbed by human activity, and the development of new sustainable ecosystems that provide value to both humans and nature.
In practice, eco-engineers focus on managing and restoring ecosystems. Unlike other engineers, the ecological engineer doesn’t have full control over all the moving parts of the system that they design. Instead, they rely on adjustments to the natural environment to ensure long-term change and sustainability of rehabilitated or new ecosystems.
The scale of eco-engineering can vary significantly from project to project. One project, for example, may be limited to just the scope of a single mesocosm — a bounded outdoor space that may be just a few square meters in size.
Other projects may go beyond the scope of ecosystems and aim to reinvent regional systems that can be tens of square kilometers in size.
Common examples of eco-engineering in practice include sustainable agriculture projects that encourage farmers in an area to adopt eco-friendly planting, harvesting and crop management practices.
The field is still young compared to other engineering disciplines. However, there are signs that it is growing fast. Several universities have begun developing or already offer ecological engineering programs, and the Journal of Ecological Engineering has reported a steady increase in the number of submissions over the past few years.
As the conversation around sustainability, environmental governance and climate change continues to develop, it’s likely that eco-engineering may attract much more attention.
Over the years, a few basic concepts in ecological engineering have emerged that distinguish the field’s approach from more conventional engineering. However, the field doesn’t yet have a widely accepted set of principles that define the goals, mission and best practices of ecological engineering.
A number of ecologists and ecological engineers have proposed different principles for the field.
For example, these are the seven principles of eco-engineering proposed by ecological engineers Andreas Schönborn & Ranka Junge in 2021:
While the field of ecological engineering is new, there are already a large number of projects in line with ecological engineering principles.
These projects use careful management of the natural environment to improve the quality of life for all inhabitants of an area — including people, animals and plants.
One of the best examples of eco-engineering is the constructed or rehabilitated wetland.
“Construction” and “wetland” may seem like a contradiction in terms, but the two words make perfect sense together in the context of ecological engineering.
Constructed wetlands are engineering project environments that replicate the natural processes extant in natural wetlands.
In a constructed wetland, plants, animals, microorganisms and the environment — particularly sun, soil and wind — work together to provide quality of life improvements for the immediate environment, surrounding ecosystems and local communities.
The immediate goal of a constructed wetland is usually water treatment. When engineers can build and maintain these wetlands effectively, they’re often a powerful tool for removing “many pollutants associated with municipal and industrial wastewater and stormwater,” according to Joe Gelt of the University of Arizona’s Water Resources Research Center. These pollutants can include “BOD, suspended solids, nitrogen, phosphorus, hydrocarbons, and even metals.”
As a result, a constructed wetland can help to treat wastewater from a wide variety of sources — like municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, agricultural runoff and even acid mine drainage.
In addition to wastewater treatment, constructed wetlands can also provide valuable habitat for a wide variety of flora and fauna, including endangered or vulnerable species.
Through technology like surface water heat pumps (SWHPs), constructed wetlands can also serve as heat sinks or energy storage that can provide efficient heating and cooling for nearby buildings. In addition to using 100% renewable energy, a constructed wetland may also be able to decrease the use of energy outside project bounds.
Around the world, engineers may plan projects with little regard for the local environment. As a result, new construction can disrupt entire ecosystems.
Many engineers are looking for a better approach — a way to redesign urban environments and ecosystems in a way that integrates human society with nature.
Ecological engineering, or eco-engineering, is an emerging discipline that combines ecology and engineering to design structures and ecosystems that work well together — enabling a synergistic relationship between the built environment and the natural environment.
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