Evaluation of dredging activities in developing countries - overview of Brazilian ports
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XVII: "Dredging in a Sensitive Environment" - 2004, Hamburg, Germany
Authors:
R. Torres and L. Calliari
Abstract: In developing countries such as Brazil there is a lack of information related to dredging activities.
Also, few of the ports and channels that require dredging have any kind of environmental care and legal procedures when dealing with the dredging process itself and spoil disposal. There is a need to develop proper skills for monitoring dredging activities aiming towards an environmentally safe project in accordance to international policy which may be applied, and even complement the Brazilian legislation. This work presents a critical review of the dredging evaluation processes on Brazilian ports, harbors and navigation channels. We have established which ports on the Brazilian coast and the internal waterways are subject to dredging works and gathered the historical data of these ports. The major aspects analyzed are related to the type of dredge used on each particular project; the volume of sediment dredged over certain period of time; disposal alternatives; monitoring and environmental care. Finally, we identified the potential impacts of these dredging works on the environment and propose methods by which impact may be reduced to acceptable levels according to the recently approved Brazilian dredging legislation.
Keywords: Brazil, developing countries, environment, waterways, navigation channels