Back to the Future
1986 was 40 years ago, 2066 is 40 years ahead. In the Back to the Future session, the Dredging Days participants collectively stepped into a time capsule to explore the past and taste the future.
To start off, a panel of experts took us back 40 years. What was the state of the dredging industry in the 1980's? On the one hand it was a troublesome time for the dredging industry, as a result of a poor state of the economy during much of the decade. But at the same time many important things happened, impacting dredging or the world in which the dredging community operates. To name a few: Completion of the Eastern Scheldt storm surge barrier, expansion projects in the ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, construction of the powerful CSD Leonardo da Vinci, inception and development of Water Injection Dredging technique and the Jedsed, and the strong rise of ecological and environmental concerns and awareness as a key factor in dredging projects.
Photo: Expert panel with Professor Stefan Aarninkhof (TU Delft), Bernard Malherbe (Jan de Nul) and Henk van Muijen (IHC, retired).
In one way or the other all of these cast a shadow forward up until today. Time-lapsing to reflect on what happened since, the participants were asked "What are the major shifts and achievements in the industry in 40 years?"
Highlighted responses were: The importance of safety, scale increase (of equipment and projects) and the industry becoming data-driven. Further, internationalization of the workforce and the implementation of modern communication technology were mentioned as factors that significantly changed the way the dredging industry works. Next to incorporating the demands from clients and society in safeguarding ecological values and Working with Nature.
2066
Fast forwarding to 2066, the question became: "What developments in the industry and the world we work in do you see?" Time for all participants to use unrestrained imagination, explore uncharted territory, and use the maritime mentality of an open mind to the max. Dreams for the dredging industry? Threats from society or nature to fear?
AI result from the prompting "Dredging in Europe 2066", chatGPT
Using the trusted method of flipovers and colourful markers the creativity of the participants was unleashed. The results are maybe not as slick as AI could generate but surely much more thought-provoking and fun, along with the opportunity to connect and exchange ideas with others from the dredging community.
Imagining "Dredging in 2066"
A few group results
Common results? High hopes for zero emission (in many shapes and forms), remote operation of unmanned vessels, submerged dredgers, increasingly applying Nature Based Solutions, larger dredgers, swarms of smaller dredgers, sand wars, survey drones, Dutch and Belgian dredging companies merging, ROV-crawler dredger, etcetera.
Presenting the future
In summary: The reality of 1986, the groundbreaking achievements of the industry since then, and most of all the unrestrained imagination of 2066 can never be captured in a few lines like in this article. But the atmosphere in the beautiful Darwin Hall of the Antwerp Zoo was what mattered most: enthusiasm, inspiration, collectiveness, a can-do attitude and pride in a great industry all characterising the CEDA community and the Dredging Days congress.
Many thanks to all participants, the panel members, and our moderators Mark Lee (HR Wallingford) and Edwin de Hoog (IHC), also known as Marty and Doc.