CEDA: Furthering the Debate

Nearly 250 members of the dredging community gathered at Ahoy Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 5-6 November, for this year’s CEDA Dredging Days.

Dredging professionals, young, established and expert, assembled to exchange the latest ideas, knowledge and best practice, at a packed event.

Anna Csiti, General Manager CEDA and a member of the Program Committee, said: “This is always an important event for CEDA members, and the dredging community, and this occasion has been no exception. There was a real buzz at the event. The conference rooms were packed, the exhibition floor was busy, and there was a really good crowd. We are very pleased with how CEDA Dredging Days 2015 has gone.”

Highlights of the conference sessions included an informative keynote speech by Tiedo Vellinga, Professor of Ports and Waterways, Delft University of Technology and Director Environmental Monitoring Maasvlakte 2 – Port of Rotterdam, who kicked off the event with a discussion on implementing sustainable design solutions in port development.

In a featured presentation Gerard van Raalte, Hydrodynamic and Ida Brøker, DHI chairs of the CEDA working groups on Adaptive Environmental Management and Environmental Monitoring (respectively), highlighted the main messages of the two closely related CEDA papers on the subject.

The International Associations Young Authors’ Award was given to Rudy Helmons of the Delft University of Technology for his paper entitled “Modeling the effect of water depth on rock cutting processes with the use of discrete element method”.

As part of the program, young professionals were treated to the Young CEDA Pitch Talks. With an eye on the future of the dredging profession 60 promising graduate and post-graduate delegates were given funding to attend the event as part of the Young CEDA Student Program.

Furthering the debate

Dredging and the management of sediments are key elements in the sustainable development and operation of most ports.

By focusing on innovative dredging solutions for ports CEDA Dredging Days 2015 has gone some way to furthering the debate.

To complement the technical program, the exhibition floor was a busy place during the session breaks.

“We made lots of new contacts here,” said exhibitor Markus Uhle of admodus® Maritime Devices.

This year’s technical visit was to two project sites of the Dutch Water Program ‘Room for the River’ at Overdiep and Munnikenland.

Pieter de Boer, from Rijkswaterstaat, and experts from the waterboards and contractors, were on hand to explain the various solutions used to protect people and land from extreme flooding while improving the overall environmental quality in the river region.

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