main question

The loss of protective mangrove forests and wetlands is progressively exposing conventional civil coastline structures of all scales and types to damage and catastrophic failure from extreme weather conditions and major tsunami wave impact. The exploration incorporates mangrove forest characteristics, such as complex interwoven structural networks and root and branch geometries, in order to inform a mangrove-like landscape as the initial substrate to ecosystem regeneration and urban development.

The Tropical Coastal Remediation (TCR) Framework is developing radically different coastal structures which would allow for a range of native biological systems to coexist with large-scale development within a constructed landscape. Mangrove forests are unique tropical and subtropical intertidal habitats that are highly adapted to the environment, responsible for filtration of agricultural and urban runoff, and essential to biodiversity that is linked to a complex network of land and marine ecosystems.

How can the interwoven ecosystems of mangroves inform our design and construction processes?

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Tropical Coastal Cities within Mangrove Habitats

Mangrove ecosystems

Mangrove ecosystems are one of the world’s most critical and threatened environmental resources and the task of preserving them cuts across many disciplines including biology, economics, engineering and architecture.

Shoreline Infrastructures

If coastal construction methods were to include at the outset physical characteristics of the native mangrove tree root system, then environmental conditions similar to that of the mangrove ecosystem would be recreated, providing habitat to marine and terrestrial species, reducing erosion and dampening wave impact for shoreline structures.

Parametric Modeling

Parametric modelling is necessary to manage complex conditions of multiple systems overlap within interdisciplinary research, and the intricacies of environmental systems produce complex geometries and changing conditions that are otherwise difficult to track.

Criteria

Mangrove Characterization

Translation of Mangrove Root System Structural Performance

Simulations

Models are synthesized through a common database to merge criteria and assess performance. Simulations are calibrated with physical models measuring mechanical displacement and hydrodynamic performance of landscape structures in a wave flume.

Tropical Coastal Remediation (TCR)

Compliant structural landscape systems for urban development and mangrove regeneration, responsible for filtration of agricultural and urban runoff, and essential to biodiversity that is linked to a complex network of land and marine ecosystems.