Environmental aspects of aggregate dredging - refined source terms for plume dispersion studies

HR Wallingford was commissioned by the Department of the Environment to undertake a study to improve the understanding of the processes associated with the release of fine material during aggregate dredging. The knowledge gained from this study will be used to improve predictive capability so that the environmental aspects of future aggregate dredging proposals can be better assessed. The effect of dredging operations on the dispersion of fine material has received greater attention in recent years. These research programmes have included basic research in the UK, Netherlands, USA and Hong Kong. Whilst much of this research is generic, only work in Hong Kong and the UK relates to sand winning and it is only the UK that research has been undertaken on the extraction of marine gravel sources.