IEES

 EcoEng Newsletter No. 10, December 2004
 

Redefining IEES' profile - please participate!

By Anja Brüll, IEES board member
IEES Workgroup Marketing








Important: All IEES members and all interested in Ecological Engineering as a field are invited to contribute to the current process of defing IEES' profile by answering three short questions online.

--> CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE!
 

Introduction
  Since the 10th IEES anniversary, the board has discussed how the society should evolve over the next ten years and which steps would initiate this change. It was decided that the goal is to promote the implementation of ecological engineering (EE) projects and to disseminate the principles, ideas, knowledge, and experiences to a broader audience outside of IEES. This audience could include decision makers, potential clients, interested local activity groups and others.

I would like to give my personal summary on these discussions and ask the members to provide the board with feedback. We will use your feedback to gauge whether we are on the right track.

So far IEES has been an inter-communicative network exchanging contacts, ideas and information via conferences, the EE journal and the website. This has led to the formation of a very interested and engaged international community, with a deep dedication to creating good relationships between humans and their environment.

Building on this existing potential, IEES should consider the following initiatives within the next few years:

  • Take a more active part in contributing to international programs, decision making processes and global conferences.
  • Become a reference and support network for small and medium enterprises
  • Develop an Ecological Engineering Institute (IEEI) as an operational base for the society and to initiate and complete EE projects

To support these initiatives, a couple of concrete ideas and tasks were generated:

  • Set up an IEES stand at the next GTZ ECOSAN conference in Durban 2005
  • Create an IEES flyer
  • Review and update IEES statutes and website
  • Release two special issues of the EE journal on EE content and branches
  • Create an EE Award
  • Create an IEEI start up project

With the workgroup Marketing (presently Anja Brüll & Grit Bürgow; Andreas Schönborn for the website and Knut Werner Alsen for layout and design) we would like to take the initiative to work on an IEES Profile and a Corporate Identity to create a common communication basis for future activities.

Since there have been some discussions about how IEES should cover fields other than wastewater systems, a clear profile is needed.

The profile should state what "for the benefit of both" of the EE definition means in more detail, why water especially wastewater management is the main EE topic and what are some related fields. The profile shall be developed with acceptance of the IEE community and published on the website as well as in a special issue of the journal. The following sections are based on the present part of the website "About IEES" and form a draft of the potential IEES profile:
 

What is Ecological Engineering?
 

Engineering is the application of scientific principles to practical ends as the design, manufacture and operation of structures and machines (American Heritage Dictionary).

Ecological Engineering has been defined as "the design of the human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both" (Mitsch & Jorgensen, 1989).

Ecological engineering applies ecological principles such as "systems thinking", "whole systems design", "recycling strategies" etc. It integrates various existing environmental fields i.e. classical ecology, agro-ecology, and restoration ecology. The skills of these fields are used to design systems that provide useful services for the human society while at the same time retaining their functionality as ecosystems.
 

What does "for the benefit of both" mean?
  Not only humans but all living beings use energy, manage their resources and design their habitat. Therefore Ecology is rooted in the Greek word "Oicos": household. Humans and other living beings share the same water, atmosphere, nutrients etc: a common household basis. They also recreate this basis by generating patterns of water quality and quantity, climate, distribution of nutrients and so on. Their processes of life are interwoven through an uncountable number of interactions every day.

Humans have the possibility to manage their environment by their own will. This is a priori not a problem, but human. When the interactions lead to a general degeneration of ecological services, habitat and diversity it becomes a problem. Engineering - based on a culturally determent worldview and scientific outcomes - is the major discipline through which today’s constructed and cultivated environment has been realized with little respect to how other living communities live and how they regenerate essential services.

Ecological Engineering acknowledges that there will be no complete understanding of natural systems (limits of cognition), but it allows for a "dialog with nature" by carefully observing the ecological interactions. It accepts the responsibility and risks engineering involves. "Design for the benefit of both" could be understood as a management approach to keep the team with the goal called "life" working and well. It is engineering with an attitude.
 

Why is water management the main topic of Ecological Engineering?
 

Of the topics IEES members are working on, 80% are related to sustainable water management: specifically constructed wetlands, wastewater/ nutrient management, and ecological sanitation.

IEES originated from a group of people interested in wetland science and marine biology, whose idea it was to use natural purification processes for wastewater treatment and pollution prevention. The approach was and still is to regard wastewater as a resource rather than a problem. Since wastewater treatment is a classical engineering task, the field of Ecological Engineering was born. From here the ecological paradigm shall be transferred to other fields of engineering.
 

Why does it make sense to focus on water issues as the key topic of EE?
 

Classical engineering is strongly bound to energy use. However one early offspring of the engineering discipline lays in water usage: the design of irrigation and drainage systems.

All processes of life are related to water transforming the solar energy pulse. Thereby suitable soil conditions, an accommodate climate and habitat niches for a diverse group of living creatures are generated. Engineered impacts on the water patterns in the landscape (such as run-off, groundwater, precipitation, evaporation, milieu changes, conductivity etc.) are of greatest influence on the ecology of natural systems. As one result and indictor most activities of the societal metabolism by means of engineering and resource management sooner or later become visible in water bodies.

Since water patterns are created in the landscape as a whole and mediate the processes of regenerating (or degenerating) ecological services and habitat, the field of water management needs to involve many other fields and many other fields should relate to water ecology.
 

What are related fields IEES and its members work on?
 
  • Renewable energy/ waste to energy
  • Sustainable architecture, integrated building techniques
  • Landscape architecture, regenerative design
  • Permaculture, agroengineering
  • Phytoremediation
  • Transportation
  • ...
 
 

Have not found your field of work here? To get a more specific profile of the member’s professions and the presently active fields of EE we would like to ask everyone 3 very simple question --> CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE!

We would greatly appreciate your feedback. It takes 2 minutes!

No feedback will be regarded as "great work guys and girls, I have nothing to add, keep up the good work!"

I am looking forward to your contributions.
 

© 2004, International Ecological Engineering Society, Wolhusen, Switzerland