Dredging activities at Marina di Carrara harbour: an innovative approach for the sediment management

Sediment management is becoming a critical issue around the world, particularly where the development of Harbor facilities, the conservation of coastal environments and needs of tourism compete for sustainable use of sediment resources. In order to apply an Integrated Coastal Zone Management policy, new approaches for management of the dredged harbor material need to be considered by the scientific community and local stakeholders. The information contained in the Italian Ministry of the Environment Acts related to dredging of Carrara Harbor determined the sediment volume dredged between 1993 and 2008 (849,500 m3) and allows us to estimate an average rate of material dredged from the harbor mouth (10,000–13,000 m3/yr). Different management options were chosen by the authorities based on the contamination level of dredged sediment: nourishment (344,500 m3), offshore dumping (305,000 m3), disposal in landfill (10,000 m3) or in Confined Disposal Facilities (215,000 m3). The present study’s goal is to determine the sedimentary budget of the Apuo-Versilian coast and to use the result to guide a compensation strategy to reduce the sediment deficit caused by the disposal of sediments out of the sand-sharing system. In particular, the present study provides a detailed reference frame that can lead to adopt a compensation strategy to balance the eroding evolutionary trend of the coastline adjacent to shallow water dredging areas. The procedure described in the paper is a policy initiative based on scientific results and could provide a model for other jurisdictions developing their own sediment quantitative estimation within an ICZM approach and a sustainable development of sedimentary resource’s management.