From Large to Small Scale Environmental Dredging, Lessons Learned
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XXII - Enhance the Harmony between Dredging and Ecology
Authors:
M.O. Winkelman,S. Wang, M. Hendrikx and O.P. Marcus
Abstract
"Environmental projects are not anymore the big clean-up projects from the past, like the Ketelmeer project (1992-1996) in the Netherlands. Increasingly, restauration, maintenance and projects that allow new economic infrastructure to be built in harmony with nature, are smaller in scope and impact. They tend to be very site specific and tailored to the boundary conditions set by the owner. Moreover, the opinion of other stakeholders weighs heavily in designing a project and selecting equipment. Usually dredging equipment becomes more energy efficient and effective as size and installed power increases. For the new dredging projects, increase in size is no longer feasible as big equipment in not in balance with the size of the projects. In the Netherlands, the Ketelmeer project was used to establish yardsticks on the effectivity and the environmental impact of the various dredging methods available. From the report from that practical study, the consequences for downscaling equipment are investigated. Trends can be distinguished that point to viable concepts in downscaling equipment. Currently available small dredging equipment and noteworthy proposed new dredging methods are surveyed and matched to the investigated trends in project setup and viable dredging concepts. Interestingly, flexible and adaptable dredging equipment is very suitable to be used on such small scale or inland dredging projects. Not only construction and arrangement, but also drive and control. Ultimately this should be easily configurable and intelligent enough for semi-autonomous operation."
Keywords: Environmental dredging, Intelligent dredging, Ketelmeer project, Small scale dredging