16th Annual Meeting

June 7-9, 2016
Downtown Hilton, Knoxville, TN

Rooftop to Rivers: Integrating Built and Natural Ecosystems

Hosted by the University of Tennessee Knoxville and the UT Institute of Agriculture

Welcome to the 16th Annual Meeting of the American Ecological Engineering Society! We will celebrate our Sweet 16 at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, along the banks of the Tennessee River and the theme of "Rooftop to Rivers - Integrating Built and Natural Ecosystems." With this meeting, we hope to create a synergy between reflecting on society's past and looking ahead to the challenges that lie before use, engaging our membership to continue to evolve with the emerging field of Ecological Engineering. In keeping with AEES tradition, a suite of technical field tours, a student design competition, and an assortment of networking activities will complement technical sessions.

Visit UTK's Meeting Website

Meeting Agenda

Field Trips

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) River Forecasting Center and UT Sedimentation and Hydraulics Lab Tour

This tour will visit the TVA Headquarters in downtown Knoxville and a new state-of-the-art research lab for river dynamics at UTK.

Making Orange Green: Green Infrastructure Demonstration Sites Tour

This tour will visit campus rain gardens and constructed wetlands as well as head across the river to see a regenerative stormater conveyance at a local middle school.

Beaver Creek Watershed Restoration Tour

This tour will head just north to Beaver Creek watershed and visit a stream restoration site and stormwater BMP park.

Conservation Fisheries Presentation & Hatchery Tour

This tour will begin with a presentation by fisheries scientists of Conservation Fisheries on restoration projects and then tour the hatchery facility to see how sensitive fish communities are being protected.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Monitoring Station

This tour will hike up to monitoring stations located within the Great Smoky National Park. Space is limited to 10 people.

Student Design Competition

This year’s annual competition focuses on stormwater runoff treatment. Students will work in teams to design a bioretention media for green infrastructure practices targeting urban runoff pollutants. Teams will have access to a suite of common media components (such as course sand, mulch, compost, perlite, etc.) and be given a transparent column for packing and testing. Students may also use other outside materials. Design media will be tested for pollutant removal efficiency using a synthetic stormwater created to simulate what you would find coming from a residential development. Students will also be asked to make a video advertisement for their product, showcasing its pollution attenuation potential and advertising price. Treatment efficiency will be measured in terms of pollutant concentration in water draining through the column (tested in a university lab). Teams will be judged on a combination of creativity, articulation of design in advertisement, product cost, and of course, treatment efficiency results.

All students will be expected to participate in the competition (especially if they received a travel award). Teams will comprise of 4-6 students, grouped according to institution. Institutions with only 1-3 representatives will be combined. Work time during the conference will be limited, so we encourage students to begin brainstorming before the conference. Winner plague awards will be presented at the business meeting.