Evaluation of the Behavior of Dredged Materials in Ocean Dumping Area

When we consider to develop a new harbor, the most important factor, we think, is the lowest water depth of waterway and approaching channel for safe navigation of vessel. The existing harbors have been being dredged to meet the international trend of jumbo sized vessels by adopting the new design criteria. As the dredged materials over the expected at the design level were common and there are still lack of land based reclamation area, we have no choice to discharge the dredged materials in open sea area In this study, we analysed the behavior of discharged materials at the dumping area of offshore, which were collected from the dredging work at the waterway in Busan New Port. We measured the tidal currents and analyzed the waters of dumping site after the dumping work. These were used to evaluate the numerical models. Suspended Solids(SS) were introduced to the diffusion model. Because of the characteristic of the dumping site, the speed of initial diffusion and settle down of the discharged materials was so fast. Therefore, we believe that the dumped materials do not cause a significant impact to the marine environment.