Resource Based Dredging for Landscape-scale Regreening
Type:
Presented during:
CEDA Dredging Days 2024
Authors:
G. Bosman and D. ten Velden
Abstract
The importance of the biosphere for our water cycles and climate regulation. The burning of fossil fuels and subsequent rising CO2 levels as the main cause of climate change has become conventional wisdom among scientists and policy makers, and has led to a carbon focus for climate mitigation strategies all over the globe. However, the exclusive focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as the only cause of climate change has distracted us from another major climate-impacting development that has occurred synchronously, namely land use change. Over the past thousands of years we have altered vast areas of terrestrial surfaces by clearing forests and expanding agriculture (Ellis, 2021). This is enough to degrade up to 40% of Earth's surface, according to the UNCCD (UNCCD, 2022). This has greatly altered the capacity of the land surface to infiltrate and retain rainfall, protect soils from solar radiation and erosion and contribute to the water- and/energy cycles via evapotranspiration and cloud formation (Anthes, 1984; Lawrence et al., 2022; Seneviratne et al., 2010). Whilst recognizing CO2 emissions should be cut back, devising all climate change solutions within the carbon math paradigm will likely fall short in the long term. The state of the climate is not only a function of GHG, but also of water and radiant energy. The biosphere includes all life on Earth. The biosphere plays an important role in the partitioning of energy from the sun in latent and sensible heat (the Bowen ratio), which determines the amount of evapotranspiration and the temperature at the surface (Moon et al., 2020). Evapotranspiration refers to the combination of soil evaporation and plant transpiration processes. These exchanges and interactions between the biosphere and atmosphere regulate the hydrological cycle, govern the heat dynamics of the Earth and together produce the climate patterns we know today (te Wierik et al., 2021). A larger biosphere will enable a more stable hydrological cycle. We conclude that actions in leveraging the power of the biosphere through landscape-scale restoration is key to enhance food and water security. We found that the dredging industry, including its related water sector, can play a vital role in these restoration works.
Keywords: Regreening, desalination, reuse, Nature-based Solutions, industry, bioremediation