21 Mar 2025

Engineering With Nature: Integrating Plant Communities into Engineering Practices. A Guidance Manual

Abstract: Applying native plant communities in environmental engineering practices can profoundly enhance the establishment and sustainment of natural ecosystems, which is imperative for the success of healthy habitats and the wildlife communities they support. The objective of this manual is to stimulate interest in applying native plants in a wide variety of settings, including inland, upland, coastal, riparian, and grassland. The information presented in this manual illustrates natural plant communities and sustainable strategies using native vegetation. This manual discusses the application of vegetation in US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) projects. Additional case studies incorporate Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) principles into the design and development of existing infrastructural facilities within a military installation. Specifically, the manual identifies desirable plant species suitable for propagation in various states based on historic plant communities and ecological composition and lists invasive species to avoid with suggested native alternatives. Further, it discusses the use of native vegetation in biotechnical applications. Intended users are USACE districts, local, state, and federal agencies, contractors (specialists), and other users (generalists) engaged in EWN projects. Finally, the publication helps practitioners think creatively about using native plant species before, during, and after project design phases.

21 Mar 2025

Cultural Landscape Management Plan for Mare Island Naval Cemetery, California

Abstract: This project was undertaken to provide the US Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration with a cultural landscape manage-ment plan for Mare Island Naval Cemetery. The approximately 2.5-acre cemetery is located in Vallejo, California, and contains more than 900 burials. Mare Island Naval Cemetery is part of the Mare Island Naval Ship-yard historic district, which was listed concurrently on the National Register of Historic Places and as a National Historic Landmark in 1975. The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) was tasked with writing a cultural landscape management plan for Mare Island Naval Cemetery. Based upon the findings of the historic landscape inventory. Treatment recommendations were made to rehabilitate the historic landscape as well as to provide a sustainable plant list for the cemetery.

19 Mar 2025

Peptide Display for Rare Earth Element Binding

Abstract: Rare earth elements (REEs) are metals that are indispensable to the function of many advanced systems and materials. The supply chain of REEs is heavily dependent on foreign sources and supply shortages are a major concern to the US government. Biological recovery approaches could be an economically feasible approach to recover REEs from unconventional or secondary sources. The objective of this project was to express a lanthanide-binding tag, with an affinity for adsorption of REEs, on the surface of the biomining bacterium, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. This was to be accomplished using synthetic biology tools. The initial cloning steps were performed in Escherichia coli, since techniques are well established in this strain. Using a peptide display approach, several DNA constructs with the binding tag were designed that were regulated by constitutive or inducible promoters and cloned into plasmids that replicate in E. coli and A. ferrooxidans. All plasmids were observed to be unstable or lethal in E. coli, exhibiting sequence rearrangements or deletion of the designed construct. Conjugation between E. coli and A. ferrooxidans and subsequent REE binding assays were thus not possible due to the absence of a structurally and functionally intact plasmid.

13 Mar 2025

Seasonality of Solute Flux and Water Source Chemistry in a Coastal Glacierized Watershed Undergoing Rapid Change: Wolverine Glacier Watershed, Alaska

Abstract: As glaciers rapidly lose mass, the tight coupling between glaciers and downstream ecosystems results in widespread impacts on global hydrologic and biogeochemical cycling. Knowledge of seasonally changing hydrologic processes and solute sources and signatures is limited. We conducted a broad water sampling campaign to understand the present-day partitioning of water sources and associated solutes in Alaska’s Wolverine Glacier watershed. We established a relationship between electrical conductivity and streamflow at the watershed outlet dividing the melt season into four hydroclimatic periods. Across hydroclimatic periods, we observed a shift in nonglacial source waters from snowmelt-dominated overland and shallow subsurface flow paths to deeper groundwater flow paths. We also observed the shift from a low- to high-efficiency subglacial drainage network and the associated flushing of water stored subglacially with higher solute loads. We used calcium from watershed outlet samples to estimate solute fluxes for each hydroclimatic period across two melt seasons. Between 40% and 55% of Ca2+ export occurred during the late season rainy period. Partitioning of the melt season coupled with a characterization of the chemical makeup and magnitude of solute export provides new insight into a rapidly changing watershed and creates a framework to quantify and predict changes to solute fluxes.

12 Mar 2025

Old River Control Low Sill Structure: Monitoring and Performance

Abstract: The Old River Low Sill Structure (ORLSS) is located approximately 25 mi south of Vidalia, LA, and is part of the Old River Control Complex. The structure is founded on steel piles and is a 566-foot-long concrete structure constructed in 1959. The structure resembles a dam with 11, 44-foot-wide gates to prevent migration of the Mississippi River’s current course to a hydraulically shorter course down the Atchafalaya River. A re-analysis was undertaken by the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center to investigate the current level of stability and the potential for adjusting the operating limitations placed on the structure because of damage during the 1973 flood. The investigation was performed by reviewing the design and post-design stability analyses, analyzing performance data, and performing an updated stability analysis. The stability analysis was performed with monitoring data that spanned several decades. Using historic monitoring data in the stability analysis, with a wide range of loading conditions, it was shown that uplift conditions were not as severe as previously considered. Performance data coupled with the stability analysis show that the structural performance supports the current operating conditions.

12 Mar 2025

Reading the Ground: Understanding the Response of Bioelectric Microbes to Anthropogenic Compounds in Soil Based Terrestrial Microbial Fuel Cells

Abstract: Electrogenic bacteria produce power in soil based terrestrial microbial fuel cells (tMFCs) by growing on electrodes and transferring electrons released from the breakdown of substrates. The direction and magnitude of voltage production is hypothesized to be dependent on the available substrates. A sensor technology was developed for compounds indicative of anthropological activity by exposing tMFCs to gasoline, petroleum, 2,4-dinitrotoluene, fertilizer, and urea. A machine learning classifier was trained to identify compounds based on the voltage patterns. After 5 to 10 days, the mean voltage stabilized (+/- 0.5 mV). After the entire incubation, voltage ranged from -59.1 mV to 631.8 mV, with the tMFCs containing urea and gasoline producing the highest (624 mV) and lowest (-9 mV) average voltage, respectively. The machine learning algorithm effectively discerned between gasoline, urea, and fertilizer with greater than 94% accuracy, demonstrating that this technology could be successfully operated as an environmental sensor for change detection.

12 Mar 2025

Collaborative Development of Natural and Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Resiliency in the Arctic and Adjacent Regions: A Workshop

The workshop “Collaborative Development of Natural and Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal Resiliency in the Arctic and Adjacent Regions” was held in Reston, Virginia, October 24–25, 2023. The objective was to assemble diverse international partners in a hybrid in-person and virtual setting to focus on the viability of applying Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) to solve engineering challenges in the Arctic and similar cold region locations. The goals of the two-day workshop were to share recent efforts implementing NBS to mitigate coastal hazards such as flooding and erosion in northern high latitude settings and identify requirements and develop a robust program of activities to advance this work at national, regional, and local levels. This workshop report documents the presentations and discussion and summarizes key needs and recommendations for future engagement identified by speakers and workshop participants.

7 Mar 2025

Coupling Electrokinetics and Phytoremediation to Remove Uranium from Contaminated Soil: A Laboratory Pilot-Scale Study

Abstract: Uranium is a naturally occurring trace element and radionuclide. Uranium is introduced to the environment anthropogenically because of industrial, military, and nuclear energy activities. The approach of coupled electrokinetic phytoremediation has been used to remove other heavy metals from contaminated soil. The objectives here are to investigate the distribution and solubility of uranium in soils with UO2, UO, and uranyl, and examine the processes of coupled electrokinetic phytoremediation in removing U from soils with perennial ryegrass at a laboratory pilot scale. A low-intensity direct electric current field was applied to the contaminated soil for 7 d at 8 h·d−1 after ryegrass was grown for 2 weeks, then, polarity reversal was employed for another 7 d at 8 h·d−1. The uranium redistribution took place among various solid-phase components due to changes in the pH and chemistry of the electrolyte solution. The electrokinetic field increased the U bioavailability in soils as water-soluble U and exchangeable U in contaminated soils with all U species. Thus, the EKF significantly increased the U uptake and bioaccumulation by ryegrass. The current laboratory pilot-scale test confirmed our previous observation from the pot greenhouse study–the coupled electrokinetic phytoremediation may have potential for application in remediating U-contaminated sites.

6 Mar 2025

Effect of Fighter Aircraft Traffic on Full-Depth Reclamation with Thin Surface Layers

Abstract: The US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) constructed a full-scale test section to evaluate the effectiveness of different pavement surface technologies in sustaining fighter aircraft traffic. A deteriorated thin asphalt pavement was recycled utilizing full-depth reclamation (FDR) techniques with cement stabilization. Relatively thin surfacing solutions constructed with either conventional hot mix asphalt (HMA) or nontraditional surface materials were placed on the FDR layer and trafficked with a single-wheel F-15 load cart. Rutting behavior, instrumentation response, and nondestructive evaluation measurements were monitored during traffic. Experimental results showed that thin surface treatments and microsurfacing materials placed on FDR layers were capable of supporting an extremely limited number of F-15 operations, and the generation of foreign object debris (FOD) was a major concern. A 4 in. thick HMA layer was required to sustain a meaningful number of F-15 operations, that is, approximately 3,000, and a 2 in. thick HMA layer was required to sustain approximately 100 F-15 passes. An analysis using the Airfield Pavement Evaluation subroutine in PCASE suggested that existing stabilized equivalency factors were reasonable when the minimum asphalt layer thickness was specified. A reduced equivalency factor was observed when the asphalt layer thickness was less than the minimum thickness.

6 Mar 2025

New Construction Criteria for a Changing Arctic and Subarctic: The UFC 3-130 Series Revision Process

Abstract: The DoD operates significant and strategically important installations in the Arctic and Subarctic domain. Geopolitical, economic, and climatic changes require an upgraded ability to rapidly deploy and sustain forces into Arctic and Subarctic regions. Relevant engineering criteria and guidance to support these efforts are the Unified Facility Criteria 3-130–Arctic and Subarctic Construction (UFC 3-130) documents, originally a seven-volume series. The series has been ‘inactive’, indicating the specifications are not current and potentially technically noncompliant. Therefore, designers may resort to methods that do not meet current military or civilian standards, or they may use the outdated guidance leading to costly design and construction failures. Infrastructure owners and operators must be confident that up-to-date technology and criteria are specified to ensure life safety, mission readiness, and infrastructure longevity. This report highlights the process and resources used to generate a new five-volume UFC Arctic and Subarctic series that aligns with current technology and standards while also addressing a changing climate. These new documents are appliable for use by planners, engineers, and architects when planning, designing, constructing, and maintaining DoD infrastructure. The full UFC 3-130 series is available on the Whole Building Design Guide (WBDG) website at https://www.wbdg.org/dod/ufc.