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The  navigation in ports and waterways must be safeguarded by maintenance

dredging, i.e. removing of deposited sediments. As maintenance dredging and
relocation of these deposits can be highly expensive, port authorities seek

for tailor-made solutions to reduce the costs and at the same time guarantee
safe navigation.

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We will consider several options for reducing dredging costs:

SHORT-TERM: dredge more efficiently & reduce sediment return flow

LONG-TERM: modify intervention protocol

Water injection dredging (WID) is an example of a technique to reduce dredging

costs on the short term. However, to avoid additional siltation in the
vicinity and/or strong return flows, WID should be applied in combination

with a favorable bed slope, ebb currents or/and a sediment trap, from which
sediment can be dredged more efficiently. The project will be linked to SURICATES,

which is aiming to optimize locations and conditions at which sediment is
released.

Revising the criterium for nautical bottom is an example of modification of

intervention protocols. Instead of removing sediment, its presence is

accepted as vessels may navigate through fluid mud layers. Local sediment
conditioning of mud by WID may be required for sailing through it. Also, good

insight into the thickness, extent and rheological properties of the fluid
mud layers is required.

The goal of the project is to deliver the multidisciplinary knowledge, which are necessary to successfully employ, quantitatively assess and generically improve the current maintenance strategies at the PoR. In particular, the results of the project can be further used for optimizing and testing novel water injection dredging scenarios at the PoR.

The project is aiming to deliver the following:

- Generated system knowledge: spatial and temporal variability of sediment at PoR  

- Improved current (flow) model

- Validated sediment model on fluid mud dynamics

- WID actions model

- Proven working background of measuring devices: the Graviprobe, the Rheotune

The developed models can be applied for optimizing the dredging maintenance,

inventory of effects of changes in infrastructure and management of dredging
maintenance, estimation of transport paths and final use of dredged sediment,
occurrence and thickness of fluid mud layers in the waterways and for research on mud transport. These applications are in line with related
projects, such as CoVadem (DEL081) and SURICATES.