Why is dredging necessary

By: U. Aqua Services Aug 3, PM. In the past few years, dredging companies across the world have picked up a bad reputation due to haphazard and careless practices combined with an unwillingness to consider the environment in which they are excavating.

Here are a few reasons why dredging is necessary, how this practice can be beneficial, and how it should be done correctly.

Like we talked about in our last post, coastal erosion is a process that breaks down the coastline. When something like a hurricane, cyclone, or tropical storm makes its way inland, it displaces the sand and sediment around the beach and deposits it elsewhere, usually in awkward places like sandbars located fairly far away from the coast.

As the water line creeps closer to the towns and inhabited areas, the risk of problematic flooding and damaging storms affecting the area begins to rise as well. The distance that the beaches create between the water and the towns serves as a protective barrier. Inland dredging combats against coastal erosion by depositing sand and sediment in places where erosion is most substantial.

This effectively adds to the land and helps buffer against the effects of strong storms and flooding. Similar to coastal erosion, strong storms could also disrupt marine and beach habitats which often exist in the surrounding sand or gravel. When the habitats are disrupted, the wildlife is forced to relocate. This can cause issues in surrounding towns and can also put the wildlife at risk. Inland dredging serves as a way to safely maintain the environments where the plant and animal life inhabits.

Dredging companies, when doing their job properly, pick up materials from specific areas and transport them to places that have been affected by storms and strong waves. Basically, it recreates the sand and dunes that have been eroded or destroyed. These actually determine whether the estuary will become silted up or enlarged.

The water and sediments are transported by the channels. When it decreases, the channel will become smaller. If it becomes silted up with river and sea sediment, the volume at high tide will become smaller, creating smaller channels. Flooding results in a larger volume at high tide and therefore in larger channels.

Therefore dykes and polders result in smaller channels. Dredging enlarges the channels, while the tidal volume does not increase proportionately. This leads to more rapid silting up of areas at the side, so that the volume at high tide decreases again. As a result, it then becomes necessary to dredge more downstream.

The dredging work in the maritime access channel to the port of Antwerp concentrates mainly on the places where the river is naturally shallowest, and particularly on the sills. These are the straight part of the river situated between two successive bends.

Without dredging work the natural depth at the various sills in the Scheldt would vary between five and nine metres at low tide. What happens the day after we stop dredging? Why is dredging necessary for navigation and trade? By using dredging, one can remove the accumulated sediment that has caused this making for a healthier body of water.

What are the Benefits of Dredging? The advantages of dredging are: Widening and Deepening: Dredging can be a critical process for the commercial shipping industry. Removing sediment can maintain the appropriate width and depth for enabling the safe, unobstructed passage of cargo vessels carrying oil, raw materials, and other essential commodities. Waterway Project Preparation: Dredging is a critical underwater excavation step in many waterway construction projects such as bridges, docks, piers and underwater tunnels.

Land Reclamation Projects: Sediment removal is sometimes used as a source of materials for land-building projects. The liberated sediment can then be dried out and transported to a new location where additional land is required for building and other purposes. Explore Our Dredges Dredging also has numerous environmental benefits. The environmental benefits are: Environmental Remediation: Sediment removal can help to restore a shoreline or beachfront to its original condition by reversing the effects of soil erosion.

Cleanup Applications: Dredging can clean up a waterway after a toxic material spill or via the removal of trash, debris, decaying vegetation, sludge or other materials that can contaminate water and soil.

Preserving Aquatic Life: Dredging can produce a healthier aquatic eco-system that can result in a more suitable habitat for fish and other wildlife. It can also be used for trash and debris removal to support eco-friendly waterways. General Pollutant Removal: Water bodies located near urban areas and industrial complexes can quickly become a receptacle for various pollutants.

Sediment removal can prevent the accumulation of pollutants and keep the waterway clean and healthy. Remediation of Eutrophied Water Bodies: Eutrophication is an excessive amount of nutrients in a water body typically caused by water runoff from the surrounding land.

Eutrophication can lead to an overabundance of plant growth that results in oxygen deprivation and can cause the death of aquatic wildlife. In some cases, dredging may be the most viable remediation option when eutrophication occurs. The Sediment Removal Process: How Dredging Works During the process of dredging, a dredge is used to remove muck and mud from the bottom or side of a body of water.

Share this infographic on your site! The most common types of dredges are: Plain-Suction: A plain-suction dredge is the most common type of sediment removal equipment.

Cutter-Suction: This type of dredge contains a cutting tool that loosens material from the bottom and transports it to the mouth of the suction apparatus. The use of a cutter-suction dredge may be necessary for removing debris from hard surfaces that would prevent efficient suction via standard methods. Auger-Suction: An auger-suction dredge essentially bores holes into the bed to loosen and suck up the debris.

The rotating auger can burrow deeply into the surface. This type of dredge works well for sludge removal applications at wastewater treatment plants and other areas requiring heavy-duty sediment removal.

Jet-Lift: This technologically advanced sediment removal equipment works by injecting a high-volume stream of water to pull in nearby water, silt, and debris. GeoForm International: Your Headquarters for Top-Quality Sediment Removal Equipment GeoForm International is pleased to offer superior pond dredging equipment that can make the sediment removal process faster and more efficient, regardless of your application.

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