The project manager of EMEA, Kinga Konya, participated in the webinar “Blue is the new Green – Ecological Enhancement of Coastal and Marine Infrastructure” on 21.04.2020. The webinar was organised by ECOncrete, and presented an emerging approach for planning, designing and retrofitting hard structure which would allow to create environmentally sensitive, multifunctional blue-green infrastructure along Mediterranean coastilnes.
Addressing the issue of climate change especially affecting the coastlines in the Mediterranean, the experts call for ecological construction practices in coastline infrastructure development in order to ensure the preservation of marine habitats. One possible solution, as presented during the webinar, is ecological engineering which is the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society and its natural environment for the benefit of both. As concluded by the webinar, bringing life to coastal and marine infrastructure is a feasible, scalable and effective mean for reducing the ecological footprint of coastal infrastructure even in heavily urbanized settings. Also, it is important to integrate ecological considerations into planning, design and implementation of hard coastal infrastructure and management schemes in light of global climate change and population growth.
