Hydrographic Society Benelux

Workshop Harbours and Specific Survey Challenges

Nearly 100 delegates attended the workshop with the theme Harbours and Specific Survey Challenges, which was held on 8 December 2010 in the Flanders Hydraulic Research Laboratory in Antwerp, Belgium. The main subject was silt: when is it still navigable and when is dredging necessary? Are there other methods to do effective maintenance? Five experts discussed the phenomenon after a word of welcome by the chairman of the day, Nathalie Balcaen and Prof. Mostaert, head of the Laboratory.

Jeroen van Reenen set the pace by sharing best practices in the approaches taken by the Port of Rotterdam. He was aware of the influence different authorities have as the harbour is partly the responsibility of the national service and partly of the Port of Rotterdam. He was followed by Dr Norbert Greiser of Sediment Management Consulting in Germany. He proposed an alternative to dredging which is mud conditioning, applied with good results. Prof. Toorman of the Louvain University, Belgium, emphasised the complexity of mud when going into the micro-structure dynamics and the implications for survey.

After a short break, Mr Claeys, researcher at GEMS International, gave details of the aspects of theology as a survey tool and thus proved there is much more to find out about the substance. The last speaker, Prof. Van Torre from the Ghent University, explained various aspects of navigating through mud. After this, everybody was invited to visit the test laboratory, where a model of the Zeebrugge harbour is to be built. The day was concluded with drinks courtesy of Flanders Hydraulic Research Laboratory and Soresma.