Dredging and Integrated Development of Inland Waterways

摘要

Dredging, while earlier an art, is at present a scientific subject that successfully reflects human skills. This process attempts to generate material for beach nourishment, for making roads and railways or for removing settled sediments to facilitate marine transportation. The process, of course, brings about environmental problems in short and long time scales in marine and estuarine environments. Inland Waterways are the greenways of the future. After being neglected and misused for a long time, the only strategy that can resurrect it is to dredge and design navigable waterways that can act as catalysts for development in hinterland where nature can only act as the vehicle for revival. The task however goes well beyond just dredging: It requires astute planning, strategy, coordination; management and above all a philosophy of 'benefits for all'. This paper deals with the vision and some of the finer aspects of dredging in such closed waters and the benefit that accrues out of it.