• What does nature-friendly design mean?
• What are the principles upon which it is based?
• How do you include ecosystem-based thinking in your hydraulic engineering design practice?

Answering these questions enables a multi-disciplinary negotiation space to emerge between ecology, environmental science and engineering design. This section attempts to answer the questions by expounding a set of eleven Ecological Design Principles.

Remember, we are not discussing the potential impacts of the infrastructure on the environment, nor are we evaluating the goods and services deriving to humans from an ecosystem. Instead, we are learning how to make design choices that accord more fully with the character and functional integrity of the ecosystem.

By applying the Ecological Design Principles fully across multiple time and scales, you can ensure that the inherent character and functional integrity of the ecosystem is maintained. Moreover, if you apply them along with the Engineering Design Principles, you connect your hydraulic engineering design choices with choices to conserve, restore or provide opportunities for the ecosystem. That is, you practice Building with Nature!

In this section you will find a video from Prof. Jill Slinger, a specialist at Delft University of Technology and coordinator of this course. She will explain the Ecological Design Principles need to be considered in any Building with Nature solution.

On the next page, you can view a summary of the Ecological Design Principles.