DHI sees key role for modelling software

As DHI points out, harbour sediments are often contaminated with a range of pollutants and, unless carefully managed, dredging may lead to dispersion of polluted harbour sludges and sediment. As DHI also noted, one of the main objectives of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) is to improve the status of water bodies, and part of the process of doing so requires looking at the sediment in ports and harbours.

Environmental regulations usually require documentation of the environmental impact that dredging and reclamation of sediment in ports and harbours may have, but the cost of producing this documentation ‘can be reduced by the use of numerical modelling of the spread and deposition of sediment in the environment.’

Simulation of these processes can be carried out using DHI’s MIKE hydrodynamic modelling software. ‘The modeling of these processes can simulate what will occur and an evaluation of whether the health of ecosystems is at risk can be made’, said the company. DHI said it has a decade of experience of environmental risk assessment in relation to dredging and reclamation of harbour sediments and has participated in a number of studies.