Management of Dredging Activities in a Highly Vulnerable Site: Simulation Modelling and Monitoring Activity

Abstract

Unfortunately, more and more contaminants, such as heavy metals and other organic micro-pollutants, degrade the good ecological status of marine systems. The removal of contaminated sediments from harbours through dredging activities may cause harmful changes in the environment. This present work shows how monitoring the activity and validated numerical models can be of great help to dredging activities that can cause environmental impacts due to the increase of the suspended solid concentration (SSC) and their dispersion and deposition far from the dredging point. This study is applied to a hypothetical dredging project in a very vulnerable coastal site in Southern Italy, the Mar Piccolo Basin. A statistical analysis of the simulated parameter SSC was carried out to numerically estimate its spatial (vertical and horizontal) variability, thereby allowing an evaluation of the potential environmental effects on the coastal area.