Climate-Functional EcoEngineering Design

Dear Colleagues,

We invite research and application papers about the critical topic of "Climate-Functional EcoEngineering Design (CFD)", which is about the prediction and optimal design of ecosystems (natural and built environment in symbiosis) considering the explicit information of climate change and ecosystem services. This particularly targets ecosystems' basic functions and services, i.e., those anchored into the hydrological cycle, such as the stability of water flows, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. The current environmental development does not or poorly consider the ecohydrological dependencies of landscape change and natural resource use, thus causing potentially irreversible impacts like increasing water and species stress. This stress ultimately affects the climate in a feedback loop.

The issue stems from the need for consequential climate science (or climate engineering), where the effect of restored natural habitats and constructed environments is assessed and included in design strategies aiming for engineering positive bioclimatic feedback vs. measuring climate impacts only. These strategies should include the key ecohydrological determinants of ecosystem function, i.e., how natural and artificial habitat components are assembled and underpin optimal or stationary ecohydrological flows.

The Special Issue is looking for CFD-related papers considering: (i) climate-adaptive integrated Water–Biodiversity–Carbon approaches for a cohesive water neutrality policy leading to transboundary decision-making that addresses climate as a global common defining the fate of Earth; (ii) ecohydrological foundations of nature-based solutions, restoration, and infrastructure construction, such as species translocation, de novo terraformation, and sustainable complex materials, as needed opportunities to reverse the negative eco-climatic feedbacks we are experiencing; (iii) multitrophic sensing of biota and enhanced hydroclimatic sensing where the increasing eco-climatic novelty of ecosystems, including the bio-/techno-mass imbalance, determines stationarity and long-range predictability a chimera; (iv) the embedding of population heath trajectories as a critical element for evaluating climate-driven ecosystem improvement and transformation; and (v) the inclusion of eco-information as a critical decision and communication strategy for common resource use and development.

(1) Hydro-structural predictive models (analytical and computational with a preference toward pattern-oriented models, such as machine learning and related) for the design of ecosystem complexity (natural and built environment) targeting the explicit inclusion of climate change and ecosystem services. This subtopic includes predictive decision models that account for built infrastructure-nature interactions and multihabitat interaction models, including multifunctionality/services (such as hazard risk reduction, biodiversity, and carbon stock) as portfolio strategies;

(2) Eco-intelligence, as inference systems (models and technology) and systemic indicators in the short- and long-term, is grounded in the ecohydrological dynamics for predicting and designing the needed ecosystem functions and services. Eco-information such as novel land-cover/land-use, eco-health indicators setting baselines on minimum vital flows and bounding extremes, and eco-networks (species–habitat–climate teleconnections) are certainly considered as ‘’eco-intelligence’’ for enhancing ecosystem diagnosis and decision-making.

(3) Sensing ecohydrological anomalies, extremes, and critical shifts by looking into global climate and local anthropogenic pressure, with attention to pressing water-driven risks (e.g., floods, droughts, heat-/cold-waves). This subtopic looks into eco-environmental sensors operating at multiple scales (e.g., hydro-sensors, eDNA, acoustics, etc.) as well as socio-economic information of ecosystem shifts assessing causes and value-impacts that are possibly anchored into water as the foundational natural asset of all species and services.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Matteo Convertino
Guest Editor

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• ecological portfolio
• ecohydrological engineering
• climate-functional design
• terraformation
• restoration
• networks