Ecological engineering: a field whose time has come

Abstract Ecological engineering is defined as “the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both.” It involves the restoration of ecosystems that have been substantially disturbed by human activities such as environmental pollution or land disturbance; and the development of new sustainable ecosystems that have both human and ecological value. While there was some early discussion of ecological engineering in the 1960s, its development was spawned later by several factors, including loss of confidence in the view that all pollution problems can be solved through technological means and the realization that with technological means, pollutants are just being moved from one form to another. Conventional approaches require massive amounts of resources to solve these problems, and that in turn perpetuates carbon and nitrogen cycle problems, for example. The development of ecological engineering was given strong impetus in the last decade with a textbook, the journal Ecological Engineering and two professional ecological engineering societies. Five principles about ecological engineering are: (1) It is based on the self-designing capacity of ecosystems; (2) It can be the acid test of ecological theories; (3) It relies on system approaches; (4) It conserves non-renewable energy sources; and (5) It supports biological conservation. Ecology as a science is not routinely integrated into engineering curricula, even in environmental engineering programs, while shortcoming, ecologists, environmental scientists, and managers miss important training in their profession—problem solving. These two problems could be solved in the integrated field of ecological engineering.