Eco-friendly Dredging seminar in St Petersburg

Titled ‘

Eco-friendly Dredging in the Modern World’

, will focus on environmental and sustainability issues and will provide participants with a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas with their fellow professionals. The event will be held 13 and 14 October at the Hotel Moscow in St Petersburg.

Polite Laboyrie, chairman of CEDA’s Environment Commission was pleased to be invited to co-organise the event, saying, ‘We will now have the opportunity to connect our experience and knowledge with the Russian technical community. Over the last decade we have learned a lot about creating an infrastructure that ensures economic, environmental and social effects are treated in a balanced way. We have developed the tools and experience. One of the things we have learned is that there is no real “cook book” available, every location and project is unique and has to be treated on a case by case basis. That is why the CEDA community is very interested to hear the Russian experience so that we can learn from them too. In having a balanced program with local and international CEDA speakers I am convinced we will have a very fruitful seminar.’

Professor Shilin of RSHU, co-chair of the proceedings and the driving force behind the event, explained the rationale behind inviting CEDA. He said, ‘There are many unresolved issues relating to the assessment and monitoring of the environmental effects associated with dredging works in the Gulf of Finland. These need open and objective discussions with the specialists in this field. This is why it is absolutely natural, and logical, that in their search for qualified and experienced answers, the Russian specialists who carry out the EIA for these projects on the northern and southern coasts of the Finnish Gulf are looking forward to an exchange with their CEDA colleagues.’

In keeping with other CEDA events, this promises to be a truly international seminar attended by academics, scientists and practitioners, from all over the world, and from the full range of disciplines across the industry.

Dmitrij Alekseevich Golubev, Head of the Department of Environment in the City Government St. Petersburg, will give the keynote speech on their experiences with dredging projects in the St. Petersburg area and the role of the Helsinki Convention. The comprehensive two day programme will also include a technical visit to the St. Petersburg Flood Protection Barrier.

This event will be of interest to scientists and practitioners representing academic and research institutions, port, coastal and environmental authorities, owners of infrastructure projects, regulators, environmental organisations, dredging contractors, consultants, designers and builders of dredging equipment.

Details of the full programme and registration form are available at www.dredgingconferences.org/st-petersburg2009

The seminar is sponsored and supported by the Government of St. Petersburg’s Committee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety.