The Port of Hamburg is situated at the upper end of the Elbe estuary, 100 km from the North Sea and at the lower reaches of one of Europe's large rivers with a length of 1100 km. Environmental and economic challenges concerning dredging in the Elbe Estuary arise from a complicated suite of anthropogenic influences. In the late 1970's contamination of Elbe sediments was detected which led to treatment and safe disposal of dredged material on land. The closedown of whole industries in former Eastern Europe and the implementation of treatment plants resulted in a decreasing contamination of sediments in the 1990's which facilitated the relocation of dredged material for the port. Today due to upstream secondary sources sediment contamination in the Elbe estuary still exceeds lower guidance values of Germany's dredged material regulation, hence contamination remains a key issue. Maintenance dredging of the Tidal Elbe for navigation amounts to about 15-20 Mio. m~3 of sediments per year, of which 4 to 5 Mio. m~3 are dredged in the Port area alone. In June 2008 the German Federal Waterways Administration with the Hamburg Port Authority published a River Engineering and Sediment Management Concept for the Tidal Elbe including an overall package of measures. The primary source of motivation was the increase in energy input in the delta with disturbed material balance, the rise in the quantity of sediment to be dredged for the maintenance of the water depth, particularly in the Hamburg area and an altered legal framework, most notably the EU Birds and Habitats Directives, the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Directive. While those regulations together build a very strict, closed meshed network they also can offer opportunities for action. The paper will report on recent developments and activities concerning sediment management in the Port of Hamburg.
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