7th Annual Meeting
May 23-25, 2007
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas
Ecological Engineering in the Great Plains Ecosystem
Please join us for this informative and stimulating conference on May 23-25, 2007, at the Kansas State University Campus in Manhattan, Kansas. A pre-conference workshop on May 21-23 will also be offered. Participants in this conference include scientists and engineers, policy makers, planners and partners from federal, state, and local agencies, tribal governments, non-government organizations, private interests, water resource engineers, water resource managers, environmental consultants, environmental policy managers, ecological scientists and researchers, hydrological modelers, students, and environmental interest groups.
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Image courtesy of usnews.com
Pre-Conference Workshop
Stream Investigation, Stabilization & Design Workshop - May 21-23, 2007
With an emphasis on innovative approaches to stream stabilization and restoration. This workshop is sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Water Operations Technical Support (WOTS) Program and Kansas State University.
Workshop Objectives:
The objectives of this workshop are to introduce the methodology and procedures for initiating, planning, analyzing, and ultimately designing long-term sustainable river and stream stabilization/restoration projects. Innovative, environmentally sensitive, and cost-effective approaches to channel restoration will be discussed. Several comprehensive case studies will also be presented. See draft agenda for details. A full day of field trips to local stream restoration projects will be conducted. Rain gear and appropriate field clothes are recommended for the field trip. Two weeks before class registered participants will be e-mailed instructions on how to download class notes from a dedicated FTP site. Participants can print & bring notes to class or bring a laptop.
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Instructors:
Dave Derrick, Research Hydraulic Engineer with the Corps of Engineer’s Engineering Research & Development Center’s Coastal & Hydraulics Laboratory (ERDC-CHL)
Luke Cory, Regulatory Team Leader, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Kanopolis, KS. Regulatory Field Office (Kansas City District)
Phil Balch, Stream Restoration Specialist with The Watershed Institute, Inc. Topeka, KS.
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Who Should Attend:
This workshop is for anyone actively working with stream systems in urban, suburban, and rural watersheds. It is ideally suited for water resources personnel from federal, state, and local agencies, water resource engineers, water resource managers, environmental consultants, environmental policy managers, ecological scientists and researchers, hydrological modelers, students, and environmental interest groups.
Student Design Competition
The first annual student design competition was held at the AEES Annual Meeting in Berkeley, California in 2006 with four teams participating. This year's competition will be similarly modeled after other successful engineering design competitions but will be based on the unique qualities of ecological engineering. Since the designs in ecological engineering are living ecosystems constructed by engineers, the AEES design competition will involve student teams creating ecosystems which are then judged by established criteria.
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The design for 2007 will consist of a rain garden (e.g., bioretention cell) microcosm to be constructed at the conference site. The student teams will be given an empty plastic column chamber at the start of the event, which must be part of the design. The rain garden microcosm will be constructed at the conference site using the column apparatus with soils and biota provided by the student team. Any soil material and biota can be used in the design. Creativity in the microcosm designs comes from the mix of soils and species seeded into the system and any additional hardware components added to the microcosm.
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The period of microcosm construction will be on May 23 from 1-10 pm and will be like the “Junkyard Wars” TV program with students scrambling to find and connect hardware and collect biota during a limited time period. Designs will be evaluated by a panel of judges who are attending the conference. Three criteria will be used to evaluate the designs: 1) infiltration dynamics, 2) species diversity, and 3) overall creativity of the design. An award will be given to the winning team. The intention is that the award would be displayed in the winning team’s academic department in recognition of the team effort.
2007 Sponsors
Silver Sponsor
K-Care
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas
http://www.oznet.k-state.edu/kcare/
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College of Engineering
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas
http://www.engg.k-state.edu/
Bronze Sponsor
City of Mission
Mission, Kansas
www.mission-ks.org
Help Build Our Archived Meeting Records
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