Good Practice

It was decided that the group would be a good place to share good practice from the Solent and further afield. To this end the group aim to discuss a good practice topic at each of the meetings. Information from these meetings are then added to the website with the aim of building a number of website pages detailing good practice in the Solent. There is also a good practice profoma for members to fill in detailing any good practice projects etc that they would like added to the website or put on the agenda for the nature conservation group.

Topics Discussed to date:

Beneficial use of dredgings (see below)
The South East Marine Programme and other marine conservation initiatives
The Green Blue Initiative

The first of the topics discussed was the beneficial use of dredgings. Chichester Harbour Conservancy gave a presentation sharing their experiences from a project they undertook. The project used dredgings from one of the marinas in the harbour which were then placed at the mouth of the harbour for distribution. The project produced a number of conclusions:

Basically successful;
No adverse impacts found;
Not cheap;
Partnership approach good, and may have speeded regulatory process;
Prior modelling probably essential;
Quality control essential;
Where possible will be used again in Chichester Harbour;
Some monitoring likely to continue

For further information contact Chichester Harbour Conservancy or for more details see their good practice proforma. For more information on the beneficial use of dredgings visit the websites detailed below, some give background information and others examples of studies and practical projects in the UK.

Joint Marine Consents Unit	A register of both proposed dredging projects likely to yield materials for which a beneficial use may be available and of potential schemes where dredged material of the right specification might be used us available.
The UK Marine Special Area of Conservation project	Provides some background to the topic and also discusses case studies as an illustration of what has been achieved in the UK. The case studies are: Port of Truro, beneficial use of silts as capping material for the restoration of contaminated derelict land; Harwich Harbour, intertidal recharge using dredged sands and silts for coastal defence and habitat creation; Medway Port, intertidal recharge (trickle charge) using silts to retain sediments in the estuary system.
CEFAS	Determination of the Ecological Consequences of Dredged-material Emplacement, is an umbrella group established in November 2000. The main aim is to help harmonise efforts and increase information transfer between the many beneficial use-related research projects coming on-stream within the UK at present.
DEFRA Report	Economic Evaluation of the Policy Relating to the Disposal of Dredged Waste at Sea report, produced 1999.
Poole Harbour	Poole Harbour Approach Channel Deepening and Beneficial Use Scheme. In 2004 the initial Scoping Study for the EIA was done and is available for consultation
Solent Forum DISC	The Solent Forum's metadata base DISC also holds information on some studies and projects which have been carried out
English Nature	The success of creation and restoration schemes in producing intertidal habitat suitable for waterbirds, report produced 2001
ABP Mer	Review of coastal habitat creation, restoration and recharge schemes, 1998
Living with the Sea Project	Coastal habitat restoration, towards good practice - The good practice guide provides an information resource for operating authorities and other practitioners and guides them as to how they can deliver habitat restoration and re-creation works

If you know of any other projects, please contact the Solent Forum and they can be added.