Analysis and modelling of sand mining pits

Massive mining of sand from the middle and lower shoreface (depths of 10 to 30 m) in large-scale mining and extraction pits/areas will be required in future in many European countries. For example, around the North Sea mining of sand will be required to nourish beaches and coastal dunes in response to increased coastal erosion due to the expected sea level rise. Furthermore, the large-scale reclamation of land and the construction of largescale artificial islands (for industrial purposes; ports and airports) in coastal seas which are presently being considered, will also require huge amounts of sand as building material. Given the scale of these undertakings, the volume of sand required in the near future (10 to 20 years) will be of the order of 100 to 1000 million m3 per country surrounding the North Sea. To meet these demands, the existing areas for mining of sand need to be extended considerably and new potentially attractive areas should be explored and exploited. Massive mining of sand may take place by dredging in artificial sand pits or channels (also navigation channels) or by removal (dredging) of existing large-scale sand banks/shoals in the offshore zone (middle and lower shoreface). The present report is focussed on the following topics of offshore sand mining: ? update of the literature review as presented earlier by Van Rijn and Walstra (2002); ? Determine the performance of the Delft3D-Online model for pits, trenches and dams in deeper water.