DREDGING
DREDGING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY A dredger is a tool. For hundreds of years, this tool has been used to shape and manipulate the interface between land and water in order to support a variety of human activities, including navigation, coastal protection and flood risk management, as well as residential, commercial, agricultural and hydro-power development. The use of dredging to achieve these purposes has always been guided by an understanding of the costs and benefits of applying the tool. However, in the last several decades, the understanding of what constitutes costs and benefits has evolved substantially beyond the direct monetary costs of using the tool and the direct monetary benefits of what the tool was used to create. Over the last 50 years, the cost-benefit evolution was aided by the environmental movement. Dredging makes the implementation of marine infrastructure possible. Whether the infrastructure is for port development, flood protection measures, reclamations or windfarms, dredging is a tool which manipulates the physical structure of the environment to produce a function that nature didn't create on its own. The activity has been and will be essential for global development and prosperity into the future. THE GROWING FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY An increasing amount of attention is being given to the concept of sustainability as an approach to informing social, environmental and economic development. In 2015, the United Nations released its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a part of its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A total of 17 goals were established and encompass a very broad range interests, values and objectives. As a means for developing water resources infrastructure, dredging and its relationship to each of the SDGs varies from weakly to strongly connected. For example, the use of dredging to construct efficient and productive navigation infrastructure is directly connected to SDGs 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16. As a tool used to provide coastal protection and infrastructure 8 René is Secretary General of the IADC
16 | SUMMER 2020
Photo: UN
An increasing amount of attention is being given to the concept of sustainability and dredging has been evolving to keep up, writes René Kolman, Secretary General of the IADC
supporting flood risk management, dredging clearly supports SDGs 1, 3, 7, 10, 12 and 14, among others. The dredging and water infrastructure community is working towards incorporating these goals into the infrastructure development process and effectively communicating how such projects support the SDGs. Over the past ten to 15 years, the international dredging community has embraced a different kind of thinking, looking beyond the scope of isolated dredging activities towards a wider
8 The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the UN
Over the past ten to 15 years, the international dredging community has embraced a different kind of thinking, looking beyond the scope of isolated dredging activities towards a wider context. - Réne Kolman context. Water infrastructure development projects are viewed as an opportunity to add value to the natural and socio-economic systems, finding opportunities to cooperate and collaborate with natural processes. This approach adapts ports to coastal ecosystems, ships to rivers and local communities to cycles of low and high water. Dredging is but one component of an infrastructure project. Any one piece of infrastructure functions as a part of a larger network of infrastructure as well as the surrounding ecosystem. The word infrastructure is used to refer to the diverse range of structures, features and capabilities that are developed through the use of dredging such as navigation channels and waterways, ports and harbours, levees and dykes, as well as nature-based infrastructure such as beaches and dunes, islands, wetlands and many other forms of habitat. IADC promotes sustainable activities among the dredging industry and the public, presenting radically different methods to address the increasing climate pressures on low-lying deltas as
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