The Network for Engineering With Nature® invites you to the August N-EWN Knowledge Series:
A Continuing Education Series about Engineering with Nature
Jonathan Hallemeier, PhD
Fostering Collaborative Networks to Implement Natural & Nature-based Features in Jamaica Bay
August 17, 2023
12:30-1:30pm ET on Zoom
Jonathan Hallemeier is an ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow working with the U.S. Army Corps and the Network for Engineering with Nature (N-EWN) and is collaborating with the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay (SRIJB) as a visiting scholar at Brooklyn College. Jonathan received a PhD in Integrative Conservation and Anthropology from the University of Georgia. His research emphasizes the variety of relationships people have with their environments and the collaborative governance networks needed to face complex, contentious, and urgent environmental issues. He has pursued this work in diverse contexts, such as national forest planning in the southern Appalachians and natural and nature-based features for climate adaptation in urban watersheds of New York City. Through investigation of complex and contentious issues, he seeks to contribute to finding creative paths towards more resilient and equitable social-ecological communities.
Natural and Nature Based Features (NNBF) are promising tools in efforts to enhance social and ecological resilience to threats, such as coastal flooding exacerbated by climate-driven sea level rise and weather events. However, implementing NNBF remains a challenge – in addition to the complexity faced by any infrastructure project, NNBF projects routinely occur at spatial scales that cross jurisdictions, include novel components that present uncertainties different from gray infrastructure, and fail to fit cleanly into established policies and budgeting categories. Navigating such challenges requires networks to build knowledge, establish legitimacy, procure resources, and foster creativity to navigate constraints and seize opportunities. This presentation brings social science scholarship of collaboration to bear on what factors enable and constrain collaborative networks for NNBF. These insights are grounded in current literature and emerging findings from research centered on Jamaica Bay, a socially and ecologically diverse and highly urbanized estuary in New York City. Jamaica Bay is vulnerable to increased flooding from sea level rise and severe weather events (such as Hurricane Sandy), and adaptation must contend with social, institutional, biophysical, and engineering complexity. Despite challenges, there are successes in developing collaborative networks and pursuing NNBF for coastal resilience.
N-EWN Knowledge Series: WEBINAR REGISTRATION
Continuing Education Credit (1-hr) will be available to attendees.
For more info about the N-EWN Knowledge Series, visit
https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/n-ewn/
We look forward to seeing you at this exciting Engineering with Nature continuing education opportunity!
Sage Paris, MS
N-EWN Knowledge Series Coordinator
sparis@limno.com
