Designing with Nature (from “Sea Change”)

As we experience worsening impacts from climate change, we’re wondering: How can we rethink engineering? Instead of trying to control nature, can we design with nature?

There are more than a thousand miles of levees and floodgates lining each side of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Thousands of dams also hold back water and sediment throughout the Mississippi basin. But the thing is, you can’t totally harness a river such as the Mississippi. And research has shown that our efforts to tame the river have actually made our risk of flooding worse when you add climate change to the mix.

In this episode of Sea Change, we talk to MacArthur award-winning landscape architect Kate Orff, and renowned environmental scientist Don Boesch, about how they envision a future where instead of concrete, we turn to nature to protect us.