Climate Change Adaption through Ecologcically Sensitive Coastal Infrastructure

Ecostructure will raise awareness of eco-engineering solutions to the challenge of coastal adaptation to climate change by providing developers and regulators with accessible tools and resources, based on interdisciplinary research in the fields of ecology, engineering and socioeconomics. Ecostructure aims to promote the incorporation of secondary ecological and societal benefits into coastal defence and renewable energy structures, with benefits to the environment, to coastal communities and to the blue and green sectors of the Irish and Welsh economies.

Ecostructure was an interdisciplinary European research project that ran from 2017 to 2022 which explored eco-engineering and biosecurity solutions for coastal adaptation to climate change. The Ecostructure project brought together five universities in Wales and Ireland to explore how eco-engineering could be used to increase the biodiversity of artificial marine structures, how it could bring other benefits to society and the environment and explored the potential impacts of invasive non-native species. Between 2014 and 2022 several research streams resulted in outputs such as applications (‘apps’), tools and papers. This Guide compiles and describes the outputs to raise awareness and facilitate eco-engineering and biosecurity interventions in the coastal and marine environment. The focus of the Ecostructure project was to: - Explore how eco-engineering could be used to increase the biodiversity and ecosystem functions of artificial coastal and marine structures. - Explore the potential impacts of artificial coastal and marine structures on the spread of marine invasive non-native species. - Promote the incorporation of secondary ecological and societal benefits into coastal defence and renewable energy structures, with benefits to the environment, to coastal communities, and to the blue and green sectors of the Irish and Welsh economies. To accompany the research and experimental designs, Ecostructure produced practitioner facing tools and resources designed to raise awareness and facilitate uptake of opportunities to employ coastal eco-engineering solutions to climate change adaptation and support evidence-based planning and decision-making for marine artificial structures. This Guide produced by Arup for Ecostructure compiles and describes the main Ecostructure project outputs to allow practitioners to understand the research objectives of each one, main findings and how they can be used in practice to support decision making.