Standardization and Innovation, Can They Coexist? - Seeking The Best of Both for Stream Restoration
Lindsay Nicoll
McCormick Taylor
Baltimore, MD
Standardization is often pursued in search of consistency and quality. Standardization can foster clarity and efficiency in design, review, and construction. Standards offer familiarity, a sense of tried and true, and reliability for the designer, owner, and regulators. Once familiar and understood, there is an ease with which one can navigate standards. Working in a dynamic environment, creating clear and consistent techniques and approaches is desirable.
How do we navigate settings when stakeholders (e.g., designers, clients, regulators, etc.) work within differing sets of standards? How do we foster standardization, in pursuit of consistency and quality, while not stifling creativity, innovation, and natural variability? This presentation offers considerations relative to standardization and innovation in design and construction of stream restoration projects. Lessons learned from design, permitting, and construction experience in the Mid-Atlantic region will be discussed.
About Lindsay Nicoll
Lindsay Nicoll has over 20 years of experience specializing in stream assessment and restoration design. She is a manager in the environmental restoration and watershed services discipline at McCormick Taylor. Lindsay designs, manages, monitors, and oversees construction of environmental restoration projects. Her experience ranges from small bank repairs to watershed scale assessments and comprehensive multi-mile stream restorations. Lindsay grew up playing in streams in her home state of Maryland and feels fortunate to have a career doing so today.
