With an emphasis on ecological principles and their application to design and planning, this course uses restoration as the basis for design and introduces the potential of leveraging capitalism to incentivize environmental restoration. We will explore new approaches to design and infrastructure at local and regional scales including water management, hardened coastlines, sediment and toxics management, marsh and wetland restoration, alternative renewable energy development, reclaimed water, and restored natural hydrology. Students will learn about utilizing the efficiencies and effectiveness of restored natural systems to aid in controlling flooding, remediating drought, and reducing heat island effect. Topics include understanding human impacts on natural systems through engineering and design, and the use of ecological principles and methods of landscape design and planning to achieve natural restoration, resilience, balance, and sustainability.

The course is designed to provide an opportunity to apply these approaches, principles, and methods to student-selected landscapes, allowing for an exploration of options and opportunities. By identifying and then using heavily altered historic natural systems as their guide for landscape design, students will develop a restoration aesthetic that builds resilience to climate and generates income to pay for change. Students will also learn to develop strategies for using legal and regulatory frameworks, agency initiatives, and advocates to get projects built.

A science field trip into wetlands acquired and protected by the US Army Corps of Engineers on the Charles River will highlight the principle of protecting and restoring nature as a climate resilience strategy.

Though not a prerequisite, this course will be useful for students interested in taking SES 5447: Creating Environmental Markets, which will examine Detroit in the spring semester. Creating Environmental Markets examines existing environmental markets like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and stormwater trading, as well as a potential new market, Blue Cities Exchange, where the use of the restoration approaches and methods covered in SCI 6380: Working Landscapes is the basis for water and pollution trading and preparing for the vagaries of climate. We will not resolve the climate issues that we have created with taxes and grants. To take restoration to scale, we will need to leverage capitalism and generate income in the transformative process.