GWI presents at G20 Workshop on the Circular Carbon Economy, "Remove – Nature Based Solutions"

Dr. Andrew Dansie recently gave a panel presentation at the G20 Workshop on the Circular Carbon Economy, "Remove – Nature Based Solutions". The workshop was chaired from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the chair of the G20 Climate Sustainability Working Group is now based.

Dr. Dansie spoke of the role of Engineering in the Blue Carbon System approach. He spoke about the testing of Floating Mangrove Pontoons at UNSW's Water Research Laboratory, supervised by himself and A/Professor Will Glamore, and demonstrated that where hydrology has been destroyed, the process can be reversed to once again favour salt marsh, mud flat or mangrove ecosystems. UNSW WRL has demonstrable success in this area, having worked since 2004 to re-establish natural freshwater-marine water interactions and successfully restored productive tidal ecosystems.

Saltmarshes, mangroves and mud flats offer major blue carbon capture opportunity and provide simultaneous nature based solutions that improve livelihoods, ecosystems and coastal resilience – all important aspects of humanitarian engineering.  With the increasing global human population shift to coastal areas, the opportunity exists to both restore degraded coastal ecosystems and integrate them into increasingly urbanised coastlines. Importantly, Blue Carbon offers carbon removal that does not compete with freshwater resources, noting the benefits when a Water, Energy, Food Nexus approach is considered. Further, it aligns with integrated coastal management approaches, Source to Sea coordination and enhances regional coordination for effective environmental and commercial fisheries management.