Strategically placing fine sediment

Overview

Dredged material can have a beneficial application in the growth of ecosystems, including marshes and mangrove belts. Its strategic placement in shallow tidal environments can exploit waves and currents to disperse the material. Where sediment accretes along intertidal shoals and mudflats, it supports marsh growth. Strategic spreading of dredged sediment has quantifiable benefits relative to the traditional approaches of disposing dredged material either just beyond a port’s boundary, which has limited efficacy, or transporting it offshore, which removes sediment from the natural system.

Figure 1: Overview of the process of strategically disposing mud (source: Ecoshape leaflet Mudmotor).