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Kangas - Ecological Engineering - Principles and Practice - Chapter 1

1 Introduction 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. | 1 Introduction 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 CONTROVERSIAL NAME 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 .