Ecology

The functioning of the ‘natural system’ of soil-water-atmosphere largely determines the quality of the human and natural living environment. State-of-the-art knowledge of ecology, biodiversity and water quality is therefore indispensable in the design and layout of our living environment.

Our ecologists use their expertise and tools to analyse and improve the ecological functioning of wet and dry systems. This allows us to restore these ecosystems and accommodate human activities without causing harm. We have applied our expertise in ecology in projects to improve water quality or fish stocks, nature quality, green infrastructure, area visions, onshore and off-shore wind farms and coastal restoration.

In our projects, we continuously work on knowledge development and innovation, often together with universities and research institutes. This allows us to integrate current scientific knowledge and insights into our projects.

Our areas of expertise include aquatic ecological systems analysis, nature legislation and policy, the protection of species and nature-inclusive design, landscape ecology, nature design, marine and estuarine ecology and planning ecology.

The effects of the climate crisis and the decline in biodiversity are enormous. As a company, we feel the urgency and have set the ambition to maximise the contribution of all our advice and designs to improving biodiversity by 2030.

We can integrate this theme into our designs by including biodiversity as a design task. It is essential in all projects to ask the question: how do we prevent negative environmental impact? Or better still, how can we achieve sustainable improvement of natural values in a project together with the client?

In all our projects, we consider how to fulfil our seven Sustainable Design Principles (SDPs). One of these SDPs is ‘Design with nature’. The knowledge and experience of our ecologists are indispensable in the fulfilment thereof. A key design approach is to harness the power of nature – such as water currents, wind, sand movement and vegetation – for the project, rather than coming up with interventions that go against these natural processes. This brings flexibility to the design, allowing these natural solutions to evolve with changing conditions. This is important in these times of climate change and sea level rise.