Ecological engineering, or eco-engineering, is the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human societies with their natural environment for the benefit of both. While this ideal has been around for the last 40 years, it is only in the last 15 years that this has flourished in the marine environment.
For millennia, humans have been altering coastal ecosystems by extracting resources, draining swamplands and building cities. This has led to the hardening of the global coastline, with solid engineered structures such as seawalls and coastal defence structures.
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