Identification of a low cost and environmental suitable strategy for sediments management in small harbors - The COAST-BEST project

Dredging operations in harbour and marine coastal areas, usually performed to maintain operational water-depth, might represent a viable option to mitigate environmental pollution if applied to remove contaminated sediments from the water body. Sediment landfilling could generate relevant environmental burdens due to the amounts of materials to be disposed of; however, the implementation of alternative management options aimed at re-use is hindered by the high cost of technology and the absence of a market for the recovered materials. The present project, named COAST BEST “CO-ordinated Approach for Sediment Treatment and BEneficial reuse in Small harbours networks” and funded in the framework of the LIFE08+ ENV European call, is aimed to find out a method to integrate all the phases (i.e., dredging, treatment, valorisation and disposal) of sediment management, through the creation of a network-based system including different small harbours which can be geographically interconnected