Nature-aligned engineering in coastal infrastructure development: a systematised review

The growing urbanisation-induced impacts of climate change on coastal communities and ecosystems call for engineers to adopt more holistic sustainable, adaptive, and ecologically conscious approaches when developing coastal infrastructure. This paper presents a systematised review of literature on nature-aligned engineering (NAE) in coastal infrastructure development, synthesising existing evidence to highlight the state of knowledge, current implementation approaches, performance outcomes, and emerging opportunities and barriers. The review applies structured inclusion criteria and a PRISMA-guided search to identify key design practices, performance outcomes, and policy actions that support integration of natural processes into engineered coastal systems. Three databases were selected for the review process: Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The latter was chosen to facilitate access to policy documents and technical reports. The study reveals key strategic actions needed, namely, advancement of skills and knowledge on NAE, policy support, establishment of standardised performance evaluation metrics, targeted research to fill data gaps, and greater coordination and collaboration of ecological, planning, and engineering experts to realise technical feasibility, environmental sustainability, social acceptance, and economic viability of NAE solutions. The insights generated provide practical guidance for engineers, planners, and policymakers seeking to enhance coastal resilience through sustainable, nature-aligned design practices.