Developing a sustainability framework for eco-engineering of blue infrastructure

Coastal hardening, via marine infrastructure construction (MIC), is contributing to the urbanisation of coastal environments, adding challenges for the resilience of marine ecosystems. Concrete is the preferred material for MIC due to desirable construction properties. Ecological-engineering efforts aim to increase the ecological value of concrete use in MIC via artificial material modifications, promoting ecological functions of MIC and creating new artificial marine habitats. Generally, ecological-engineering efforts include a wide array of stakeholders with variations for any singular project dependent on a myriad of environmental, resource and societal factors which affect the scale, scope and budget of projects. This can potentially lead to missing elements for obtaining an encompassing sustainability assessment of these types of projects on a societal, environmental and economic level. This perspective communication identifies and discusses experiences from recent ecological-engineering projects with concrete. Development of a collaborative, interdisciplinary framework will hope to guide current and future projects to achieve sustainability for ecological engineering practices for MIC.