The port of Rotterdam is located within the Rhine-Meuse estuary where a substantial amount of fine sediment transport takes place. Therefore, the port of Rotterdam is subject to significant siltation, requiring maintenance dredging to guarantee a sufficient nautical depth of fairways and harbour basins. To optimise the dredging strategy in the port of Rotterdam, a pilot study has been carried out wherein sediment is reallocated in the Rotterdam Waterway, during ebb, instead of offshore in the North Sea. Between May and November 2019, 210,000 tons of sediment has been reallocated. This pilot study has been carried out in the context of the larger EU-Interreg Sediment Uses as Resources in Circular and Territorial Economies (SURICATES) project. The main goals are to re-use the sediment as a resource and to reduce the sailing time of the dredging vessels. Both ideas comply with the Building with Nature philosophy; a concept gaining popularity over recent years in The Netherlands focusing on, amongst others the optimisation of dredging strategies. It is expected that the reallocated sediment is mainly transported offshore, while at the same time some of the sediment will nourish the river banks of the Rotterdam Waterway enhancing its flood resilience. This thesis focuses on understanding the fine sediment behaviour of the SURICATES pilot project on two different scales. This is done by analysing measurements and model hindcasts. The measurement campaign is set-up by Deltares and the Port of Rotterdam. For the model hindcasts an operational hydrodynamic and sediment model is used. On the small scale this is done by focusing on the behaviour of a single disposal over a tidal cycle. The large scale focuses on the cumulative long term behaviour of all sediment reallocations. For the small scale two measurement surveys are analysed. In both surveys it is found that a sediment reallocation executed by bow coupling is subject to mixing up to halfway the water column. Subsequently, the sediment plume is advected around and below the pycnocline. Further measurements in the mid field are lacking, but it is hypothesised that the majority of the sediment settles during subsequent low water slack. For the other execution method, drawing the bottom doors, which is used to reallocate the majority of the sediment, useful measurements are absent. It is hypothesised that the majority of this reallocated sediment is confined in the salt wedge and therefore mainly transported upstream over time. To assess the long term behaviour of the cumulative behaviour of all sediment reallocations, a different measurement campaign is set-up. In this measurement campaign, bed samples are collected prior to and during the pilot study to determine the change of the bed composition. In this campaign an indication for increased sedimentation related to the pilot study is found for nearly all the sample locations. The short term model study is set-up to enhance the understanding of the short term behaviour of a sediment plume, to derive an accurate source term for the sediment disposals and to carry out a sensitivity analysis. This sensitivity analysis is executed to derive the influence of differences in disposal method, timing of disposal, and uncertainties in the model. It is found that the execution method has the largest influence on the critical sediment fluxes on the short term, followed by the timing of disposal. From the long term model hindcast, in which the entire pilot study is hindcasted, it is found that 27% of the total amount of reallocated sediment flows downstream from the location of disposal and 73% upstream. These estimations are in line with the hypothesis and long term measurement results, but a thorough calibration of the results is lacking. To conclude, in this thesis a pilot study utilising a different sediment reallocation strategy in the port of Rotterdam has been investigated. This study shows that majority of the sediment disposed, in the current set-up of the pilot study, is estimated to flow upstream. In the sensitivity analysis, it is predicted that this might be caused by the timing of disposal or method of execution. It is also found that the initial behaviour of the sediment plume and the long term measurement contain a large amount of uncertainties. As most important recommendation for future work an expansion of the current measurement survey is proposed with at least two fixed locations: one downstream and one upstream of the location of disposal. In this way sediment fluxes can be established, which can also be used to verify and calibrate the sediment model. ... Read more

This report contains the conceptual lay-out for two possible expansions of the port of Bahía Blanca. To determine the best conceptual lay-outs, emphasis is drawn to understand the physical system to determine the effect of the expansion of the port on the natural system. The port of Bahía Blanca is situated at the end of a ria, or tidal basin. For the designs, different conceptual lay-outs are developed and simulated in a hydrodynamic model called MOHID. This is a 2D depth-averaged model (2DH), which uses a rough bathymetry grid of the ria to determine the effect of the port development. There are three mutations of the different port expansions on the environment, which are investigated using the MOHID-model: (1) the East expansion, containing reclamation of tidal flats and closure of a side channel; (2) the South expansion, containing a widening and elongation of the channel and reclamation of tidal flats; and (3) the deepening of the entire navigation channel to various minimum depths. From the results of the MOHID-model on the East expansion conclusions on the mutations of the different port expansions are drawn. For the East expansion, only small changes are predicted; only local erosion in the navigation channel near the expansion may occur. For the South expansion, the flow velocities reduce in the entire stretch and there seems to be sedimentation at the eastern part of the expansion.
As a conclusion the best and most feasible designs are chosen. The best design is the lay-out that obtained the highest score in the MultiCriteria- Analysis (MCA). The most feasible design is the design having the highest cost/benefit ratio determined by a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). The east bank is located close to the current port, Ingeniero White, on tidal flats which are inundated at high-water and dry at low-water. For the East expansion, different port lay-outs are developed mainly differing in amount of reclaimed land, length of viaducts and the presence of a mooring basin. The best design on the east is characterised as being very compact and having small viaducts between the dry bulk and agribulk terminals and jetties. The main advantage of this design is the small expected increase of siltation, good safety and sufficient future expansion possibilities. The most feasible design, however, is characterised by long viaducts reducing the costs of the design. The other appointed location for the port expansion is the south bank, opposite of the current port development. This location, however, is characterised by one main disadvantage; It is far from any form of connection with the hinterland. Nevertheless, in 2013, the port authority (CGPBB) initiated the start of small reclamation works. The best and most feasible design fully utilises this reclaimed portion of land. Moreover, the best design has a small expected increase of siltation in the port area. For a final designs, all previous designs are combined to create a design in which all the advantages of each of the designs are fully incorporated. Therefore, this design has little reclamation as well as viaducts with only intermediate lengths. ... Read more