Research project S4P/25/SEDICAST (Research action S4P)
Sand extraction in the Belgian part of the North Sea (BPNS) is essential to meet the growing demand for marine aggregates, but it generates sediment plumes that increase turbidity and can affect benthic habitats far from the extraction site. The far-field dispersal of these plumes remains poorly constrained, and acoustic monitoring (e.g. multibeam echosounders) is too costly for routine, large-scale surveillance.
SEDICAST aims to develop and validate an operational forecasting system to predict the dispersion of sand-extraction plumes in the BPNS. The system couples the unstructured-mesh ocean model SLIM3D with the coastal wave model SWAN, achieving sub-100 m resolution over sandbanks and ripples, together with a dedicated Lagrangian (particle-based) sediment model tailored to dredging operations. Running on GPU-based high-performance computing, it will produce daily one-week forecasts of the sea state and enable near-real-time simulations of sediment plumes from planned dredging activities.
Model calibration and validation will rely on existing datasets and new in-situ measurements (ADCP profiling, overflow sampling) provided by DEME Dredging. The outputs will be made accessible through a user-friendly, cloud-based web interface developed by SeaLab. The system will deliver actionable insights to support the FPS Economy in the sustainable management of Belgian sand extraction.
