[Ecological engineering, a science by and for the living].

Abstract

In the 1960s, the concept of ecological engineering was theorized by Howard Odum, who showed the possibility of controlling the evolutionary trajectories of ecosystems by influencing their natural dynamics. H. Odum gave the definition of ecological engineering as "human manipulation of the environment using small amounts of additional energy to control systems in which the main sources of energy still come from natural sources". Since then, this definition has evolved, and several are currently used. The discipline then diversified, currently counting no less than 15 different fields of application, notably landscape architecture, phytoremediation, urban planning, agro-engineering, etc. Bibliometry concerning ecological engineering clearly shows the importance of this discipline worldwide. We notice its continuous evolution since 1995 with an almost exponential increase of the number of publications each year, with more than 6,500 publications in total coming from all continents.