From seeds to needs: Regenerating ecosystems services to halt the biodiversity crisis: Where can interdisciplinary collaborations with engineering solutions make the largest impact?
Symposium content and themes
We face a global biodiversity crisis, with unprecedented and accelerating rates of species extinctions and degradation of habitats. This will have grave impacts on the worlds human population dependent on the ecosystems services they provide. However, biodiversity is a broad theme with many challenges encompassed within it. There is a need to simultaneously identify the major challenges faced (such as those defined by the Sustainable Development Goals) and the areas where interdisciplinary environmental engineering and science can have the greatest impact to maximise the benefits gained relative to costs – “maximising the bang for the buck”.
It is recognised that the global biodiversity emergency affects lower- and middle-income countries the hardest. There are potential conflicts between conservation efforts and resource exploitation that can often negatively impact the communities in LMICs and undermine efforts of development.
This symposium scoped out the challenges that would most benefit from engineering solutions, as part of interdisciplinary collaborations, exploring within the context of the different ecosystems: Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial.
Each theme was explored from a research, policy and industry perspective, facilitating dialogue from a wide range of disciplines, including engineering, environmental science and management, social sciences, and economics and governance.
Event Chairs
Professor Paul Kemp, University of Southampton
Paul Kemp is a Professor of Ecological Engineering and director of the International Centre for Ecohydraulics Research at University of Southampton and founding editor in chief of the IAHR Journal of Ecohydraulics. As a result of his interest in sustainable infrastructure and the built environment he is also director of the University of Southampton Future Towns Innovation Hub, the EPSRC funded Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Sustainable Infrastructure Systems, and the UKCRIC CDT in Sustainable Infrastructure for Cities.
Paul’s interests relate to the development of more environmentally friendly water, energy and food systems, and in particular sustainable fisheries management. His research focuses on the application of behavioural ecology to understanding and solving challenges in water and energy engineering, particularly how the physical environment (e.g. hydrodynamics and acoustics) influence the behaviour and physiological performance of fish, and how manipulation of that environment by engineering means can be used to mitigate for negative impacts of water and energy resource development. Specific applications include fish pass and screening design, assigning compensation flow regimes, and improving habitat restoration strategies.
Professor Oscar Link, Universidad de Concepción
Professor Oscar Link is a Professor of Civil engineering at the Universidad de Concepción in Chile. His broad field of interest is River engineering, and in recent years he focused his work on the development of practical solutions to complex problems such as the fish passage through the hydropower dams for native fish species conservation, the sedimentation of high mountain resevoirs, and the bridge pier scour. His aim is to achieve engineering solutions for sustainable development of water and energy resources. Currently, he is associate editor of the Hydrological sciences journal and Director of the PhD programme in Energies of the University of Concepción.
Symposium Format
Virtual symposium
Delegates met and worked together on the Frontiers' virtual platform, where they watched pre-recorded presentations, engaged in theme related content, networked with other delegates and collaborated on seed funding projects.
This led to 2 days of live sessions in the second week where delegates participated in breakout rooms to workshop the ideas being discussed on the platform.