SBIR Phase I: Building A Reef Mimicking Coral-Independent Habitat Support Structure

The broader/commercial impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop a novel modular construction technology to simultaneously provide shoreline protection and restore the most economically important aspects of coral reefs. This technology aims to solve two fundamental problems of traditional coral restoration where corals are transported from nurseries and secured back onto reef habitats: (1) that coral reefs naturally develop slowly over centuries, which means coral restoration efforts are slow to offer measurable returns to investors; and (2) that successful restoration of the reef ecosystem and concomitant services is dependent on coral survival, which is threatened on many levels. The strategy offered by this project is to replace the structure of mature reefs and provide immediate valuable shoreline protection and fish habitat, so that this approach to restoring reef ecosystem services can succeed even when coral mortality events occur. More traditional shoreline protection structures like seawalls change the physical parameters of the marine environment, making customers choose between habitat restoration and coastal protection. This technology offers both long term storm damage reduction to shoreline properties and increased value of natural ecosystems and the resultant blue economy. The product under development in this project is an engineered habitat support structure for reef ecosystems, novel for its relatively larger size and degree of surface complexity. Most artificial reef systems are orders of magnitude smaller or are constructed of large piles of recycled materials that lack the surface features critical to nature-based solutions. While the proposed technology may demand large upfront investments, it can substantially shorten the recovery time of degraded reefs by facilitating self-organization of supporting ecosystems. A major innovation of the product is its modular design, which will allow it to be built of scalable block-like components while also being customizable to a variety of installation sites. This Phase I project will test the feasibility of developing this product as a commercial technology that can be built and installed at scales relevant to coral restoration and shoreline protection needs for customers in several industries across the Caribbean. It will also test tradeoffs between strength and mass of various block shapes, and a variety of block joints that can be used to reduce the cost of construction without reducing the performance of the resulting structure. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.