Landscape Infrastructure Design Lab

Oct 6, 2023

LIDL is the Landscape Infrastructure Design Lab at Auburn University. We conduct design research using landscape architectural methods to advance the design, planning and management of nature-based infrastructures.

Currently, we are working on a broad range of coastal infrastructure projects from the Great Lakes south to the Gulf of Mexico, sponsored by funders including the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Effects of Sea Level Rise program and the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

The Natural Infrastructure Innovation Project, awarded in 2023, is sponsored by Engineering With Nature, and is being launched in partnership with the Natural Infrastructure Lab at the University of Virginia (lead investigator Brian Davis) and the EMLab at the University of Pennsylvania (lead investigator Sean Burkholder).

Through the lab director, Rob Holmes, we are affiliated with the Dredge Research Collaborative, a network of collaborators across the United States that aims to improve the design of sediment systems through writing, public events, and design research. Working with the DRC, Rob is a co-author of Silt Sand Slurry (forthcoming in 2023 from AR+D), participated in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge as a member of the Public Sediment team, and helped organize the DredgeFest event series. The DRC’s work has received a number of awards, including a 2019 ASLA Honor Award in Research for Public Sediment for Alameda Creek and 2016 ASLA Honor Award in Communications for the DredgeFest event series.

1 of 5

Conceptual design for a living jetty, Engineering With Nature + Landscape Architecture (Romina Delgado, Riffat Farjana)

The LIDL team on fieldwork at the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in summer 2023 (Rob Holmes)

Study of significant wave heights for erodible berm design, drawn in Delft3D (Marilyn Reish)

Augmenting seagrass beds as nature-based infrastructure for Perdido Bay (Maria Elena Vanegas Perez)

Transect through beach ridges on the Fort Morgan Peninsula (Marilyn Reish, Maria Elena Vanegas Perez)

Silt Sand Slurry Shines Light on Coastal Dredging and Sediment Use

Although exact figures differ, the U.S. Environmental Protection agency estimates that several billion cubic yards of sediment are dredged from the nation’s waterways every year.

Feeding Marshes and Making Islands

Rob Holmes, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, leads the Landscape Infrastructure Design Lab, which pioneers natural infrastructure for coastal resilience.

Landscape architecture professor pioneering natural approaches to Gulf Coast challenges

Rob Holmes is on a mission to develop natural approaches to challenges related to intense storms, sea level rise and erosion through landscape design.