Redefining ecological engineering to promote its integration with sustainable development and tighten its links with the whole of ecology

Ecological engineering was defined several decades ago, both in the academic field and in management. However, ecological engineering seems to be re-emerging as an academic field and as a cornerstone concept in French ecologists' writings. I first summarize Barbault and Pavé's [Barbault, R., Pavé, A., 2003. Territoire de l'écologie et écologie des territoires. In: Caseau, P. (Ed.), Etudes sur l'environnement: de l'échelle du territoire à celle du continent, Tec et Doc Lavoisier, Paris, pp. 1-49] point of view on why ecological engineering now seems rehabilitated in France. I next propose a definition of ecological engineering, in accordance with the two reasons for its French re-emergence, i.e. the prevalence of the concept of sustainable development and the development of applied ecological sub-disciplines. This leads us to suggest that ecological engineering should be ecological in the broad sense, and not only targeted to the ecosystem level. I end the paper by discussing some problems and characteristics of ecological engineering that stem from this definition.