Biomimetic design and engineering to enhance resilience and regenerative performance outcomes for infrastructure

Abstract

Infrastructure assets and networks including transport, water and energy systems, are impacted by a range of complex 21st Century challenges from climate change and resource scarcity to rapid technological advances and changing user demands. These challenges highlight that infrastructure assets are integrated components of complex social, ecological and technological systems, rather than siloed technical entities. It is critical therefore that design and engineering responses to such challenges are similarly multi-faceted, adaptive and systems focussed. The relationship between infrastructure and socio-ecological systems is typically twofold. First, infrastructure can negatively impact and disturb living systems, through resource consumption, waste and emissions generation, for example. Secondly, living systems can themselves cause damage to infrastructure, through extreme weather events such as storms, floods and earthquakes, and longer-term trends such as anthropogenic climate change. In this context, infrastructure must become a) more resilient, and capable of withstanding disturbances and impacts generated by living systems, and b) more sustainable, avoiding damage and degradation of those systems. Efforts to enhance both infrastructure sustainability and resilience have typically focused on incremental reductions in damage, however given the scale and complexity of emerging challenges there is increasing demand for innovative responses that move beyond damage reduction towards net positive performance objectives. Here, the intention is to deliver infrastructure and built environments that do not degrade living systems but positively contribute to them. Regenerative design is an emerging discipline that seeks to achieve this. Actionable frameworks and mechanisms for pursuing regenerative design and performance outcomes in infrastructure contexts are critical, though identifying these and making them widely accessible to industry and government has been challenging. A logical source of inspiration is provided by living systems that have developed, tested and refined regenerative design approaches to similarly complex challenges for almost 4 billion years. This approach to learning from living systems is called ‘biomimicry’. This research explores how biomimicry- namely biomimetic design and engineering approaches- can support industry and government in enabling regenerative performance outcomes for infrastructure. Since multi-faceted challenges benefit from multi-faceted research approaches, this research commences with a multidisciplinary review of traditional engineering approaches to resilience and adaptation, and how these approaches may benefit from characteristics of resilience seen in living systems, such as multifunctionality, adaptability, regeneration and real-time sensing and feedback loops. A systematic literature review then provides a first of its kind snapshot of research into biomimetic products, technologies and approaches that can be applied to infrastructure design and engineering. It reveals extensive research into ‘form’ (physical shape and structure) and ‘process’ level solutions, but a clear lack of information regarding ‘system-level’ biomimicry approaches (e.g. patterns and principles) in the built environment. Pursuing regenerative design solutions in response to system-wide challenges, and drawing inspiration from living systems, means it is vital that solutions are also available at the system-level. Though not captured in peer reviewed research, system-level biomimetic design methodologies are indeed being piloted by leaders in industry and government. Hence, challenges and lessons learned were identified by investigating the practical project experiences of six case study projects. Learning from their project, organisation and market level challenges and priorities enabled a distillation of focus areas for future efforts, including 1) improving organisational innovation cultures, 2) enabling emerging market transitions, 3) fostering knowledge sharing and 4) facilitating standardisation through frameworks and standards. This research identifies three pathways for enabling industry and government to readily uptake and mainstream biomimetic design and engineering approaches, informed by those case studies as well as industry workshops undertaken in Australia and the United States of America. The first establishes that infrastructure project governance structures and delivery models can influence the appetite and capacity for innovation in infrastructure design and engineering. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) models are investigated for this purpose, revealing that the IPD model can support biomimetic innovation by encouraging collaboration across project partners and supply chain. The second pathway is an action framework developed to build the capability of industry, government and academia to implement biomimetic place-based design at the city or regional scale. This pathway allows for upfront biomimetic research and design to benefit multiple projects, assets and networks, improving the feasibility of biomimetic place-based infrastructure design. The third pathway for mainstreaming biomimetic design and engineering is by creating opportunities for government and industry to integrate ‘ecological performance standards’ into environmental impact assessments (EIA) and sustainability rating schemes. This action is enabled through proposed adjustments to the EIA process, as well as the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Rating Scheme as an Australian example. This research reveals new insights into the challenges and priorities for government and industry in using biomimetic approaches in infrastructure design and engineering, and establishes pathways for mainstreaming that can guide industry and government in adopting regenerative biomimetic approaches in an infrastructure context. Using biomimicry to create design and engineering solutions inspired by nature can enable solutions that move beyond incremental damage reduction and narrow adaptation approaches, towards infrastructure assets and networks that leverage place-based resilience approaches, adaptive and flexible design, and that generate net positive environmental outcomes.