CEDA Environment Commission & working Group on positive aspects of dredging
The CEDA Environment Commission (CEC) develops and implements the environmental policy of CEDA and contributes to the overall environmental knowledge and awareness within the wide dredging community. From there, it also represents the Association at meetings of international conventions and other regulatory forums. Many of the CEDA position papers and information papers are also produced under the remit of the CEC. CEC was set up in 1990 and meets two times a year.
In March 2024, the CEDA environment commission met in Valencia at the premises of the local Port Authority. Part of the meeting was held jointly with the Spanish-Portuguese Working group GTAPD: Grupo de trabajo aspectos positivos del dragado (positive aspects of dredging).
This working group held their first meeting in June 2014. Spanish and Portuguese delegates from ports, institutions and state agencies, universities, consulting engineering and dredging companies have since come together to accomplish the following:
- Become the knowledge reference in dredging for the Iberian Peninsula.
- Support and promote the career development of its members.
- Foster dredging knowledge among new professionals.
They reach these goals through communicating and exchanging on operational state of the art dredging projects, sharing best practices and exploring innovative frontrunning ideas towards more sustainable dredging works.
This first joint CEDA-GTAPD meeting was a great example of a fruitful and inspiring cooperation.
We started with a welcome and introduction by the Valencia Port Authority and introductions by CEDA and the Working Group. Further, presentations were given on the Markermeerdijken project, on Dredging in sensitive environmental systems and on Saler regeneration and future Cullera deposit projects.
Afterwards everyone enjoyed a site visit to the Port of Valencia which has a lot of new developments in the pipeline.
Both groups indicated an interest in continuing the cooperation and possibly holding more joint meetings in the future.
A big thank you to our hosts, Port of Valencia and dedicated sponsors of the event, DRAVO and DEME.