Dredging is essential for the maintenance and development of ports, harbours and waterways for navigation and other purposes, for example flood management and recreation. The dredging of these waterways worldwide creates large volumes of dredged material. This material is basically a valuable resource that can be used although much of it is currently disposed because of economic, logistical, legislative or environmental constraints in both international and national domains.
In 1992 PIANC PTC2 working group 19 produced a report entitled ?Beneficial Uses of Dredged Material ? A Practical Guide?. This provided guidance on the procedure to follow to assess the possibilities of use of dredged material in specific situations. Since 1992 experience has been gained throughout the world on using dredged material, and PIANC set out to capture some of this experience in the current report, to examine the constraints on use, which still exist, and to make recommendations based on that experience.
Much of the material dredged for navigation and other purposes is merely the material naturally present in inland waterways, estuaries and seas and is relatively uncontaminated. Such material may be suitable for direct use or with limited pre-treatment. Small quantities of dredged material, usually those from industrial areas, or from areas historically subject to industrial discharges are contaminated with a range of chemical contaminants. Some of these dredged materials may also be suitable for use, but will usually require pre-treatment to remove or stabilise the contaminants within the material.
Using dredged material is in line with current understanding of sustainable development of our aquatic environments, and many uses, both environmental and engineering, provide opportunities for working with nature in a sustainable way.
