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Brief
The sediment management is critical to multiple applications across sectors, especially in the tropical waters. The rate of siltation in the tropical waters is extremely high and cannot be managed with the conventional dredging methods. The navigability of inland water transport, in the tropical rivers is a major problem due to random sediment transport patterns. Freshwater systems have multiple other issues with random sediment transport pattern as it impacts water resource management, flood management, ecosystem degradation and more. The ports find it difficult to keep the channel with adequate depth to allow the ships to pass with enough water below their keel. The coastal waters are facing severe erosion due to shifting sediment transport pattern.
The management of any resource depends on our ability to monitor the domain in real-time and also develop prediction tools to appreciate the future trends to formulate intervention strategy. Sediment transport studies are extremely critical to manage the sediment flow across applications. The Modelling & Simulations (M&S) tools have been known for their effectiveness in assessment of the trends and sediment bedload prediction of future trends. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is another terms used these days to present the M&S outcomes. The input and output of the MSP tools are not easily available and require deep appreciation of the ecosystem and resource intensive infrastructure. The availability of data is a real challenge and even building the entire infrastructure requires multi-disciplinary and multifunctional effort.
De-siltation efforts require precise information on the type of silt deposited in these systems. The precise sediment classification using effective sonars, can optimize the dredging cost and also the use of appropriate dredging equipment will minimize the damages. The precise sediment classification further facilitates effective management of the removed silt that could offset the cost of dredging. The classical sediment analysis method of coring is highly resource intensive and localized, whereas using the acoustic technique by deploying sonars can facilitate large coverage of underwater area and can be highly resource efficient.
The management will include policy intervention to manage the entire ecosystem and bring effective governance mechanisms. The policy intervention can only be effective with nuance technology intervention driven by the digital transformation. The policy & technology interventions can only be driven if we invest in acoustic capacity & capability building. Both skilling and knowledge enhancement has to be the key focus. The stakeholders and decision makers, along with the practitioners need to be appraised of the specific nuances and then the working level managers have to develop the adequate skills and appreciation to implement the framework on the ground.
The project will provide the nuanced way forward on all the three counts of policy & technology interventions, along with acoustic capacity & capability building. The diversity of the specific applications and the similarities will be addressed effectively.