Facing the new challenges and new demands of the global economy and social development, the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals have set a new position for the dredging industry to turn to high-quality development and improve service capabilities. The dredging industry should play an indispensable role in promoting global sustainable development, and only achieve the greatest value in this process in order to obtain its own continuous progress.
The first prerequisite for achieving sustainable development is that it must adapt to the basic requirements of global ecological environment construction. This is the meaning of the theme “Driering and ecological harmony” as determined by the 22nd World Dredging Conference.
How can dredging enterprises play an active role in ecosystem construction? How do dredging enterprises grasp the environmental impact of dredging projects? These are all important topics for sustainable dredging. In this regard, the reporter interviewed Mr. Daan Rijks, the person in charge of the environmental impact of the Boscaris Research Institute.
Boscars Research Institute Daan Rijks
Mr. Daan Rijks is the head of the environmental impact of the previous program at the Poscarris Institute. The reporter asked Daan Rijks to focus on his understanding of how to face environmental impacts and how to treat sustainable dredging.
Daan reports at the International Symposium on Sediment Disposal and Resource Utilization of the Chinese Dredging Association
Daan Rijks believes that the current global ecological environment issues are becoming more and more prominent, and there is no doubt that the dredging project and the dredging industry have some influence. Because of environmental problems, the dredging works that can be carried out can no longer be done according to the previous methods or schemes, which makes the world's dredging enterprises face difficulties in their operation. However, it is an important trend to attach importance to environmental impacts. There is no doubt that this is something that dredging enterprises cannot avoid. Now there is a problem. When we look at the environmental impact of dredging projects, some of the views still only see some of the negative effects of dredging, but not from the perspective of the entire ecosystem, such as the dredging project to the regional economy and society. And the impact of the natural holistic ecological environment, which has a positive and positive effect, there are also some problems of environmental intrusion. In this regard, we need to look at it in a comprehensive way.
Environmental impact issues are not a matter of dredging companies. Daan Rijks believes that education in this area should be strengthened, including the government, institutions, and the public, so that it can build consensus from the ecosystem; and of course, through education, the dredging enterprises themselves can raise their awareness of environmental impacts, and then The government, institutions, and the public will discuss and evaluate the environmental impacts of dredging projects together, and then adopt a correct and positive attitude to jointly promote appropriate dredging projects under the goal of protecting the environment. In recent years, Europe has made some efforts to promote the understanding of various aspects of the environmental impact of dredging projects. For example, the concept and plan of “co-construction with nature” is evaluated by government authorities, environmental agencies, research institutes, citizens and dredging enterprises. To study the results of the solution.
“It is necessary to fully consider the coordination between the dredging project and the natural environment” Daan Rijks said, considering the comprehensive impact of the entire ecosystem, rather than limiting the problems such as water turbidity generated during the implementation of dredging projects, which is to promote dredging. An important way for engineering to adapt to the natural environment. It is necessary to proceed from the needs of nature and minimize the intrusion of dredging works into the natural environment. For example, when implementing a dredging project, if there is no sand in the area, it is necessary to use the natural resources available locally for the project. In addition, consider the level of acceptance of the population, consider the maintenance of biodiversity, and then optimize the choice of dredging methods and tools. Dredging projects must definitely consider economics, but now, in the early stage, we must focus on and systematically evaluate the cost of the project's operation period, starting from a comprehensive consideration of comprehensive environmental impact factors. Find the most economical cost model and achieve the best solution to the big environment. It is necessary to consider all aspects and adapt to the requirements of the ecosystem.
"For example, if we are doing a coastal protection project, we should negotiate with the coastal protection department, the water conservancy department, and the environmental department to combine the protection engineering, water conservancy projects, and environmental restoration projects that were originally promoted by the respective organizations. It should also reduce the relative cost. Like some municipal projects, today, the trenches are laid on the roads; the installation pipes are dug up after two days. The environmental impact is obviously not good. Therefore, it should be combined at an early stage. Think about it in order to put more burden on the natural environment. The earlier and more comprehensive such considerations, the better the ecological effects and economic effects will be.''
In the implementation of the Mark Wadden project, Poscarris cooperated with other institutions to consider the role of natural hydrodynamics to digest the impact of floating mud on water ecology, changing the way in which large areas of dredging were usually adopted. The deep trough is excavated to naturally store the floating mud, and the sand obtained by excavating the deep trough is used to construct the wetland in the lake, creating a “bird paradise”. Before implementing this project, we will communicate and negotiate with various stakeholders in advance to finally recognize this win-win solution. Therefore, an important feature of the development of ecological dredging is to stand at the height of the ecosystem to consider the coordinated development of the economy, people's livelihood and ecological environment, rather than only confining to “dug dredging”.
In recent years, Poscalis has implemented a number of river basin ecological management projects. Together with governments or competent authorities at all levels, they have coordinated various tasks such as safety flood control, transportation infrastructure improvement, and natural ecological restoration to implement overall solutions. For example, in the planning stage of the Noordwaardt project, they found a map of the area 100 years ago, and analyzed the environmental impacts caused by the measures taken by the people to “cut and straighten” the river. In the restoration of the new ecosystem, Based on the natural and objective laws, comprehensive measures such as smooth water flow, district water storage, river water level reduction, and beautification of the environment have been adopted to achieve the purpose of protecting local historical dwellings and promoting ecological balance.
Noordwaardt project
Noordwaardt Project Site
Daan Rijks said that more attention should be paid to the important role of the design phase. He even believes that “design is better than implementation” in terms of how future dredging projects can better adapt to development requirements. Because the design can fully consider and comprehensively and coordinate the relationship between economy, people's livelihood and natural environment, it is the key to realize the maximum value of dredging project including ecological value, and make the dredging enterprise obtain the expected return.
The 22nd World Dredging Conference just concluded is an important meeting for the dredging industry to explore the sustainable development goals and paths. The "Shanghai Consensus" issued by the conference clearly puts forward the mission of "sustainable dredging to make the world a better place" and will guide the dredging industry along the road. The general direction of following the laws governing the development of natural ecology and the “modernization of harmony between man and nature” is moving forward. Dredging enterprises need to think deeply about how to construct an ecological dredging system that is more in line with the requirements of sustainable development. It is necessary to change concepts, concepts, engineering models, technological processes, enhance the coverage of industrial chains and collaborative innovation capabilities, and thus play an important role in the construction of human ecological civilization. At the same time, it promotes the long-term success of the dredging community.
