As urban development pressures coastal environments, ecological engineering offers a promising path forward that creates habitat to enhance biodiversity on traditional marine infrastructure and provide other co-benefits. Known collectively as nature-based approaches, these solutions include soft, hybrid and hard eco-engineering approaches tailored to different shoreline conditions.

Soft engineering approaches can involve restoring natural habitats such as mangroves, saltmarshes, or oyster reefs or beach nourishment. Hybrid solutions combine natural habitats with built infrastructure, for example, wetlands behind rock sills. Hard eco-engineering approaches incorporate ecological enhancements into necessary structures like seawalls and rock revetments, often by increasing surface complexity, using eco-friendly materials or seeding habitat-forming species. The goal is holistic shoreline design to protect both people and nature while supporting long-term ecosystem health. Designing green infrastructure requires careful assessment of site-specific physical factors, such as wave energy, and clear articulation of goals including environmental goals like enhanced biodiversity, and social goals like recreation or education. Where hard structures are unavoidable, eco-engineering can reduce their environmental footprint by mimicking natural features. 

Living Seawalls is a Sydney-based eco-engineering initiative grounded in over two decades of marine ecology research. Developed by scientists, Living Seawalls transforms flat, featureless coastal infrastructure into thriving habitats by retrofitting modules designed to mimic natural shoreline features such as rockpools and crevices. Living Seawalls modules can be installed on traditional seawalls, pontoons, wharf pilings, and rocky revetments or groynes to increase complexity and boost biodiversity. Since 2018, monitoring in Sydney Harbour has shown that panels support up to 36% more biodiversity than unmodified seawalls, remaining up to 10°C cooler on hot days and supporting over 150 species - including algae, invertebrates and fish.

Living Seawalls are now installed at over 20 sites across 5 continents globally, demonstrating that ecological enhancement of hard infrastructure is both scalable and can be applied in different environmental contexts. Living Seawalls maintains an active scientific monitoring program across Australian and international sites. This ongoing data collection is essential to evaluate biodiversity outcomes, refine habitat module designs, and inform future sustainable coastal developments. Living Seawalls emphasises co-design that benefits both people and nature. Ecologically, these interventions can boost biodiversity, support native marine species, and improve key ecosystem functions such as water filtration, wave buffering and shoreline stabilisation helping to mitigate the impacts of coastal development. These installations also offer valuable educational opportunities that foster community connection and stewardship of marine environments. When integrated thoughtfully, ecological design transforms coastal assets into multifunctional spaces that improve water quality, support fisheries and build climate resilience. As cities face increasing coastal pressures, eco-engineering solutions offer a blueprint for restoring marine ecosystems while meeting the demands of urban development.

To learn more about Living Seawalls, visit their website: https://www.livingseawalls.com.au/