Civil infrastructure will be essential to face the interlinked existential threats of climate change and rising resource demands while ensuring a livable Anthropocene for all. However, conventional infrastructure planning largely neglects the contributions and maintenance of Earth’s ecological life support systems, which provide irreplaceable services supporting human well-being. The stability and performance of these services depend on biodiversity, but conventional infrastructure practices, narrowly focused on controlling natural capital, have inadvertently degraded biodiversity while perpetuating social inequities. Here, we envision a new infrastructure paradigm wherein biodiversity and ecosystem services are a central objective of civil engineering. In particular, we reimagine infrastructure practice such that 1) ecosystem integrity and species conservation are explicit objectives from the outset of project planning; 2) infrastructure practices integrate biodiversity into diverse project portfolios along a spectrum from conventional to nature-based solutions and natural habitats; 3) ecosystem functions reinforce and enhance the performance and lifespan of infrastructure assets; and 4) civil engineering promotes environmental justice by counteracting legacies of social inequity in infrastructure development and nature conservation. This vision calls for a fundamental rethinking of the standards, practices, and mission of infrastructure development agencies and a broadening of scope for conservation science. We critically examine the legal and professional precedents for this paradigm shift, as well as the moral and economic imperatives for manifesting equitable infrastructure planning that mainstreams biodiversity and nature’s benefits to people. Finally, we set an applied research agenda for supporting this vision and highlight financial, professional, and policy pathways for achieving it.

La utilización de los estudios de montaña requiere de narrativas integradoras para la geoalfabetización sobre paisajes socioecológicos productivos y motiva más investigaciones transdisciplinares en el campo de la montología. Concebimos este artículo como la confluencia de la experiencia individual y el razonamiento colectivo hacia la formación de grupos de investigación sinérgicos que se ocupan de la ciencia de montaña convergente, para hacer avanzar la montología a un nuevo nivel, mediante el cual el pensamiento innovador sobre la ciencia de la sustentabilidad y el desarrollo regenerativo incorpora propuestas alternativas para el mantenimiento, la mejora, o regeneración de las condiciones de vida de los paisajes de montaña. Buscamos utilizar este marco contemporáneo de sustentabilidad y restauración ecológica como el ímpetu para comprender mejor las relaciones de la naturaleza y la cultura, desde una perspectiva transdisciplinar, en montañas habitadas que operan en cuatro dimensiones (largo, ancho, alto y tiempo). El artículo está orientado a potenciar la transversalidad de temáticas en torno a las montañas como sistemas socioecológicos productivos, en una nueva disciplina académica institucionalizada y convergente. Concluimos con un llamado a un desarrollo regenerativo, sustentable y consiliente en las montañas del mundo.

We examine public opinions about future water availability using results of a survey conducted in 2008 – 2010 in nine southern states. Because a large percentage of respondents in Florida, Georgia, and Texas were concerned with water availability, and many in Tennessee believed a prolonged drought was likely, residents of these states may be more responsive to water conservation educational programs. To increase public awareness about water issues, Extension should tailor educational programs to new state residents and those with lower educational levels. Extension programs focusing on global warming impacts on water resources can have high effects in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Limited information is available on the optimum placement of designed plant communities that reference the historic Piedmont prairies of southeastern North America. Characterized as “a hybrid of horticulture and ecology,” a designed plant communities approach looks to naturally occurring plant associations for both aesthetic inspiration and guidance on ideal environmental conditions and plant composition. Designed plant communities are not intended to be facsimiles of native plant communities and are not ecological restorations. Through semi-novel plant combinations and plant selection aimed at creating vibrant multi-season bloom events for continual visual interest, these hypernatural plantings emphasize public enjoyment. Through the incorporation of the plants’ natural tendencies, however, designed plant communities can also provide ease of maintenance in tough environments and various ecological benefits. This study was conducted to identify optimum locations for the installation of hypernatural Piedmont prairie plantings in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia. Using ArcMap, the authors employed an exclusion and screening process based on the environmental factors identified in literature related to the restoration of natural Piedmont prairies, in addition to logistics related to their implementation within Athens-Clarke County (with appropriate locations limited to public or institutional properties). Appropriate variables were selected and combined to map candidate sites. The process identified 128 ha (318 ac) for hypernatural Piedmont prairie conversion in the county. Suitable locations range from dense urban areas to outlying rural parcels and included power line easements, open parklands, and roadsides. The process was designed to be easily replicated for other Piedmont locations where hypernatural Piedmont prairie plantings are desired.