Environmental impacts resulting from the disposal of dredged material at the S1 dumping site, Belgian Continental Shelf

To guarantee a safe access to harbours, dredging of the maritime access channels is needed. Moreover, shipping channels have to be adapted to the continuously increasing size of vessels. In some cases, the dredged material is reused for beach nourishments or infrastructure projects, but mostly, it is dumped on offshore dumping sites. The efficiency of a dumping place is determined by economic, physical and ecological criteria: (1) dumping places need to be situated close to the navigation channels; (2) a low recirculation of the dumped material towards the dredging places is aimed at; and (3)... Mehr ...