Sediment Management in River Basin Management Plans (Round Table Discussion) and The Role of Sediments in Coastal Management (Conference)

The issue of Sediment Management is rising on the European agenda. Sediment topics will be an element of several River Basin Management Plans which are to be published in 2009 under the Water Framework Directive. Sediment Mangement is an element of a new Working Group on Estuaries, managed by the Nature and Bio-diversity unit of DG Environment of the EU Commission. Sediments are named in new EU legislation, like the Directive on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy, the Marine Strategy Directive, and the Waste Directive.

In Europe the largest amounts of sediments have to be dredged in the North Sea region, where the natural sediment regime in the sea leads to high sedimentation in ports, harbours and waterways. At the same time, due to expected sea level rise and loss of fine grained sediments in the Wadden Sea, sediments gain importance in other respects.

On this background SedNet intends to organise another event, this time in Hamburg, Germany, where still ongoing river restoration challenges coincide with dredging needs. Here sediments play a central role. Thus the region is a good example to discuss cross-cutting science-policy issues.

It is intended to follow the outline of SedNet event which took place in November 2006 in Venice with a Round Table Discussion with invited speakers and an open conference with a special focus.

The date will be Tuesday-Thursday 6-8 October 2009.

The venue will be the Patriotische Gesellschaft, a very nice old building with conference facilities in the very center of Hamburg. The conference will take place on 6-8 October 2009. Further details will be disseminated in due time.