Download PDF ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING Principles and Practice by Patrick C. Kangas

Download PDF ECOLOGICAL ENGINEERING Principles and Practice by Patrick C. Kangas

Sinopsis

Ecological engineering combines the disciplines of ecology and engineering in order to solve environmental problems. The approach is to interface ecosystems with technology to create new, hybrid systems. Designs are evolving in this field for wastewater treatment, erosion control, ecological restoration, and many other applications. The goal of ecological engineering is to generate cost effective alternatives to conventional solutions. Some designs are inspired by ancient human management practices such as the multipurpose rice paddy system, while others rely on highly sophisticated technology such as closed life support systems. Because of the extreme range of designs that are being considered and because of the combination of two fields traditionally thought to have opposing directions, ecological engineering offers an exciting, new intellectual approach to problems of man and nature. The purpose of this book is to review the emerging discipline and to illustrate some of the range of designs that have been practically implemented in the present or conceptually imagined for the future.

A simple definition of ecological engineering is “to use ecological processes within natural or constructed imitations of natural systems to achieve engineering goals” (Teal, 1991). Thus, ecosystems are designed, constructed, and operated to solve environmental problems otherwise addressed by conventional technology. The contention is that ecological engineering is a new approach to both ecology and engineering

which justifies a new name. However, because these are old, established disciplines, some controversy has arisen from both directions. On one hand, the term ecological engineering is controversial to ecologists who are suspicious of the engineering method, which sometimes generates as many problems as it solves. Examples of this concern can be seen in the titles of books that have critiqued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ water management projects: Muddy Water (Maass, 1951), Dams and Other Disasters (Morgan, 1971), The River Killers (Heuvelmans, 1974), The Flood Control Controversy (Leopold and Maddock, 1954), and The Corps and the Shore (Pilkey and Dixon, 1996). In the past, ecologists and engineers have not always shared a common view of nature and, because of this situation, an adversarial relationship has evolved. Ecologists have sometimes been said to be afflicted with “physics envy” (Cohen, 1971; Egler, 1986), because of their desire to elevate the powers of explanation and prediction about ecosystems to a level comparable to that achieved by physicists for the nonliving, physical world. However, even though engineers, like physicists, have achieved great powers of physical explanation and prediction, no ecologist has ever been said to have exhibited “engineering envy.”

On the other hand, the name of ecological engineering is controversial to engineers who are hesitant about creating a new engineering profession based on an approach that relies so heavily on the “soft” science of ecology and that lacks the quantitative rigor, precision, and control characteristic of most engineering. Some engineers might also dismiss ecological engineering as a kind of subset of the existing field of environmental engineering, which largely uses conventional technology to solve environmental problems. Hall (1995a) described the situation presented by ecological engineering as follows: “This is a very different attitude from that of most conventional engineering, which seeks to force its design onto nature, and from much of conventional ecology, which seeks to protect nature from any human impact.” Finally, M. G. Wolman may have summed up the controversy best, during a plenary presentation to a stream restoration conference, by suggesting that ecological engineering is a kind of oxymoron in combining two disciplines that are somewhat contradictory.

The challenge for ecologists and engineers alike is to break down the stereotypes of ecology and engineering and to combine the strengths of both disciplines. By using a “design with nature” philosophy and by taking the best of both worlds, ecological engineering seeks to develop a new paradigm for environmental problem solving. Many activities are already well developed in restoration ecology, appropriate technology, and bioengineering which are creating new designs for the benefit of man and nature. Ecological engineering unites many of these applications into one discipline with similar principles and methods

Content

1. Introduction
2. A Controversial Name
3. Relationship to Ecology
4. Relationship to Engineering
5. Design of New Ecosystems
6. Principles of Ecological Engineering
7. Energy Signature
8. Self-Organization
9. Preadaptation
10. Strategy of the Book
11. Treatment Wetlands
12. Introduction
13. Strategy of the Chapter
14. Sanitary Engineering
15. An Audacious Idea
16. The Treatment Wetland Concept
17. Biodiversity and Treatment Wetlands
18. Microbes
19. Higher Plants
20. Protozoans
21. Mosquitoes
22. Muskrats
23. Aquaculture Species
24. Coprophagy and Guanotrophy
25. Parallel Evolution of Decay Equations
26. Ecology as the Source of Inspiration in Design
27. Algal Turf Scrubbers
28. Living Machines
29. Soil Bioengineering
30. Strategy of the Chapter
31. The Geomorphic Machine
32. Concepts of Soil Bioengineering
33. Deep Ecology and Soft Engineering: Exploring the Possible Relationship of Soil Bioengineering to Eastern Religions
34. Case Studies
35. Urbanization and Stormwater Management
36. Agricultural Erosion Control
37. Debris Dams, Beavers, and Alternative Stream Restoration
38. The Role of Beaches and Mangroves in Coastal Erosion Control
39. Microcosmology
40. Microcosms for Developing Ecological Theory
41. Microcosms in Ecotoxicology
42. Design of Microcosms and Mesocosms
43. Physical Scale
44. The Energy Signature Approach to Design
45. Seeding of Biota
46. Closed Microcosms
47. Microcosm Replication
48. Comparisons with Natural Ecosystems
49. Restoration Ecology
50. Restoration and Environmentalism
51. How to Restore an Ecosystem
52. The Energy Signature Approach
53. Biotic Inputs
54. Succession as a Tool
55. Bioremediation
56. Procedures and Policies
57. Measuring Success in Restoration
58. Public Policies
59. Case Studies
60. Saltmarshes
61. Artificial Reefs
62. Exhibit Ecosystems
63. Ecological Engineering for Solid Waste Management
64. The Sanitary Landfill as an Ecosystem
65. Composting Ecosystems for Organic Solid Wastes
66. Industrial Ecology
67. Economic Concepts and the Paradox of Waste
68. Exotic Species and Their Control
69. Exotics as a Form of Biodiversity
70. Exotics and the New Order
71. Learning from Exotics
72. Control of Exotic Species and Its Implications
73. Other Concepts of Control in Ecology and Engineering
74. Economics and Ecological Engineering
75. Classical Economics Perspectives on Ecological Engineering
76. Problems with Conventional Economics
77. Ecological Economics
78. Life-Support Valuation of Ecosystem Services
79. Natural Capital, Sustainability, and Carrying Capacity
80. Emergy Analysis
81. Related Issues
82. Financing
83. Regulation
84. Patents
85. Ethics
86. Conclusions
87. The Emergence of New Ecosystems
88. The Ecological Theater and the Self-Organizational Play
89. Epistemology and Ecological Engineering
90. Future Directions for Design
91. Ecological NanotechnologyTerraforming and Global Engineering
92. From Biosensors to Ecosensors
93. Technoecosystems
94. A Universal Pollution Treatment Ecosystem
95. Ecological Architecture
96. Biofiltration and Indoor Environmental Quality
97. Ecology and Aquacultural Design
98. Biotechnology and Ecological Engineering
99. Biocultural Survey for Alternative Designs
100. Ecological Engineering Education
101. Curricula
102. The Ecological Engineering Laboratory of the Future
103. Thomas Edison’s “Invention Factory”
104. The New Alchemy Institute
105. The Waterways Experiment Station
106. The Olentangy River Wetland Research Park

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