News - Week 49, 2004

The Hamburg Declaration: From Gaps to Integration

Every three years leading experts meet for the World Dredging Congress, the single major event for the world wide dredging community to discuss the latest developments of their profession. In 2004 this major gathering took take place in Hamburg, Germany, the home of one of the world's top-ranked ports. The congress was organized by CEDA on behalf of the World Organisation of Dredging Associations* (WODA), in association with the Department of Port and River Engineering, State Ministry for Economic and Labour Affairs of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

With the theme "Dredging in a Sensitive Environment" WODCON XVII brought together researchers and practitioners from industry, academia and government from all parts of the world (35 countries) to discuss the latest developments on all aspects of dredging with a focus on dredging "with nature".

The technical programme during which 120 papers on a wide range of subjects was presented included the Environment Day, a full day in plenary session, devoted entirely to the environmental issues. The theme of the day was ‘GAPS’. Gaps exist between theory and practice, regulations and compliance, controls and actual impacts. There are also gaps in understanding between professions, for example between biologists and engineers, and between regulators and practitioners. The aim of WODCON’s Environment Day was to warn about the gaps and to discuss what might be done to bridge them.

The final session of the day was a panel led discussion leading to the adoption of The Hamburg Declaration: From Gaps to Integration.

For more information please contact: Anna Csiti, General Manager CEDA, CEDA Secretariat, Radex Building, Rotterdamseweg 183c, 2629 HD Delft, The Netherlands, Tel.: +31 (0)15 268 25 75, Fax: +31 (0)15 268 25 76, E-mail: ceda@dredging.org.       
Web: www.dredging.org

Back to the top