This textbook chapter featured in "A Handbook on Resilience of Socio-Technical Systems" (2019) explores the connection between urban development, shoreline armoring and ecosystem health to identify opportunities for design to support socio-technical and ecological resilience in the urban coastal landscape. Building on three centuries of ecological theory, we examine how an understanding of natural ecosystems can inform the sustainable design of coastal infrastructure, and can proactively address the range of social, ecological and practical considerations inherent in coupled human-natural systems.