Concepts and methods of ecological engineering

Ecological engineering was defined as the practice of joining the economy of society to the environment symbiotically by fitting technological design with ecological self design. The boundary of ecological engineering systems includes the ecosystems that self organize to fit with technology, whereas environmental engineering designs normally stop at the end of the pipe. For example, the coastal marsh wildlife sanctuary at Port Aransas, Texas, developed when municipal wastewaters were released on bare sands. The energy hierarchy concept provides principles for planning spatial and temporal organization that can be sustained. Techniques of ecological engineering are given with examples that include maintaining biodiversity with multiple seeding, experimental mesocosms, enclosed systems with people like Biosphere 2, wetland filtration of heavy metals, overgrowth and climax ecosystems, longitudinal succession, exotics, domestication of ecosystems, closing material cycles, and controlling water with vegetation reflectance. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.