Water is a unique resource because it never looses value, it just changes form. This makes it an excellent candidate for networks that mimic the maximization of value extraction found in food webs and the use of detritivore-type actors that transform low-quality resources into something that can be used by the rest of the system again. Wastewater treatment plants, greywater reuse, and other methods are all water network actors that mimic the role of earthworms, fungi, and other detritivores found in ecological food webs.

You can learn more about our search to define sustainability-supporting design guidelines using biological food webs in Texas A&M Engineering News’ article on our water network-focused work “Following nature’s cue, researchers build successful, sustainable industrial networks” by Vandana Suresh (April 26, 2021)

Industrial Water Networks:

• (2021) *Chatterjee, A.; *Brehm, C.; Layton, A. “A Quantitative Benefits Evaluation of Ecologically-Inspired Nested Architectures for Industrial Networks,” Resources Conservation & Recycling, 167. DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105423
• (2020) *Dave, T.; Layton, A. “Designing Ecologically-Inspired Robustness into a Water Distribution Network.” Journal of Cleaner Production, 254(1): 120057. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120057
• (2020) *Brehm, C.; Layton, A. “Nestedness in Eco-Industrial Networks: Exploring Linkage Distribution to Promote Sustainable Industrial Growth.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 1-14. DOI: 10.1111/jiec.13057
• (2020) ; *Brehm, C.; *A. Chatterjee; A. Layton. Mimicking the nested structures of ecosystems in the design of industrial water networks. 27th CIRP Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) Conference. Grenoble, France. (virtual due to COVID-19) DOI: 10.1016/j.procir.2020.01.104
• (2019) *Brehm, C.; A. Layton. Designing eco-industrial parks in a nested structure to mimic mutualistic ecological networks. The 26th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering. West Lafayette, IN, USA.
• (2019) *Dave, T.; A. Layton. Bio-inspired design for resilient water distribution networks. The 26th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering. West Lafayette, IN, USA.

Urban Water Networks:

• (2023) *Rodriguez, L.; *A. Chatterjee; A. Layton. “Ecological Decentralization for Improving the Resilient Design of Urban Water Distribution Networks.” 21st Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER). Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-49179-5_40
• (2020) *Dave, T.; A. Layton. Extending the Use of Bio-Inspiration for Water Distribution Networks to Urban Settings. ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC). St. Louis, MO, USA. (virtual due to COVID-19) DOI: 10.1115/DETC2020-22374