David Tilley
· Associate ProfessorUniversity of Maryland, College Park · Soil Science
Active 1989–2021
About
David R. Tilley is an ecological engineer and systems-oriented environmental scholar whose work connects ecological design, environmental accounting, innovation, and emerging forms of artificial intelligence. His research and teaching focus on how ecological intelligence can help society better understand, design, and manage human-dominated environments. Building on long-standing work in ecological engineering, green infrastructure, living architecture, and emergy-based systems analysis, he now explores how generative AI and related digital tools can expand environmental problem solving, education, and nature-based design. This direction is reflected in his recent publication on the use of multimodal generative AI in ecological engineering, in his course ENST 283 AI for Environmental Good, and in applied sustainability collaborations related to greener data-center futures. His work also examines how ecological engineering ideas move from research into real-world application, exemplified by concepts such as Living Umbrella and Living Canopies, which use vegetated overhead structures to provide shade, cooling, stormwater management, and ecological value in built environments. His broader interest in environmental entrepreneurship involves using ecological design, prototyping, patents, and innovation processes to translate nature-based ideas into practical solutions, linking scholarship, invention, and education in ecological technology, sustainable design, and translational innovation.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Ecology
- Finance
- Economics
- Civil engineering
- Environmental resource management
- Industrial organization
- Water resource management
- Environmental science
- Geography
- Environmental engineering
- Business
- Marketing
- Meteorology
- Engineering
Selected publications
Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment · 2021 · 8 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Environmental science
- Environmental engineering
- Water resource management
The need to develop a sustainable approach to stormwater management is rapidly becoming a priority as urban development and climate change alters urban hydrologic cycles. Green infrastructure (GI) is widely viewed as a sustainable method to managing stormwater. However, rarely have in-series systems of GI been monitored, even though most stormwater regulations require these practices to be installed. Additionally, studies on the effectiveness of GI in residential settings is lacking. This paper examines how an extensive green roof, constructed wetland (CW), and bioretention cell integrated in-series on a home in Rockville, Maryland, affected site hydrology during 116 storm events that occurred from July 2014 to June 2016. The effects of season, antecedent substrate water content, storm characteristics (size, intensity, and frequency), and green roof vegetation development (leaf area index and percent cover) on retention were evaluated. Collectively, the green roof, CW and bioretention cell stored 6,930.7 mm of stormwater over the 2-year study period. Given a total input of 19,019.1 mm over all storm events, the three systems collectively reduced site runoff by approximately 36.4%. Event size was the single biggest predictor of retention for all systems. When evaluating each system independently, the CW retained the most runoff (37.6% or 337.3 mm/m2 of water). Findings provide insight on the benefits of implementing GI in-series on residential properties.
2021
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Business
- Marketing
The world suffers from a wide variety of problems, like climate change, ocean acidification, ecological destruction, loss of biodiversity, lack of clean water and air, and an abundance of plastic waste. The aim here is to explore how more innovation and entrepreneurship can be encouraged to focus on a wide array of environmental issues in hopes that it can be more formally embraced as a valid and useful approach to adapting to climate change and improving the condition of the environment. Innovation is defined as the action of creating a new method, idea, product, or service, while entrepreneurship is defined as the activity of setting up a new business that involves financial risks for the hope of profit. Therefore, a coupling of innovation with entrepreneurship leads to an activity of transforming a new idea, product, service or method into a new business that involves financial risks for financial gain. Design Thinking, Lean Startup and storytelling, are modern, humancentered, tools that accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship, lowers the risks, and increases the likelihood of success of each. Professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Business need to learn these methods and embrace them so that the rate of positive impact can be accelerated across the globe
2019-05-07
book-chapterSenior author2019-05-07
book-chapterSenior author2019-05-07
book-chapterSenior authorNonlinear properties: magnetic surfaces and superlattices
2019-05-07
book-chapterSenior authorAGU Fall Meeting Abstracts · 2018-12-01
articleSenior authorAssessing biomass of diverse coastal marsh ecosystems using statistical and machine learning models
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation · 2018-03-20 · 30 citations
articleSenior authorEcological Indicators · 2017-08-10 · 3 citations
articleJournal of Cleaner Production · 2017-07-14 · 8 citations
article
Frequent coauthors
- 19 shared
Brandon K. Winfrey
Monash University
- 17 shared
Robert W. Nairn
- 17 shared
William H.J. Strosnider
University of South Carolina
- 7 shared
M. G. Cottam
Western University
- 6 shared
Linjun Li
Nanjing Surveying and Mapping Research Institute (China)
- 4 shared
Elliott Campbell
- 4 shared
Hongfang Lü
Southeast University
- 3 shared
Ravi Srinivasan
Labs
Environmental Science & Technology at UMDPI
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