ISLAND RESTORATION TO MEET 'TRIPLE-WIN' ENGINEERING WITH NATURE OUTCOMES

The coastal islands and marshes of Chesapeake Bay USA, are disappearing along with the ecosystem services and infrastructure/shoreline protection they provide. To counter such losses, the USACE Baltimore District is restoring historic island footprints using dredged sediments. Islands constitute an important natural and nature-based feature (NNBF) that meet the 'triple win outcomes' of USACE's Engineering With Nature (EWN) initiative, by providing economic, social and environmental benefits. Here we highlight the restoration and monitoring of Swan Island using 61,000 cubic yards of dredged sediment. The creation/expansion of Swan Island, is expected to produce significant benefits in terms of ecosystem services, increased resilience to future sea level rise, and abatement of erosive losses to an adjacent coastal community. The pre- and post-restoration monitoring and model development by project partners will serve to quantify the benefits and efficacy of the island restoration thereby facilitating island restoration as a viable NNBF option in the future.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/2kvSVcH2KuE