Boskalis Horizons: Building With Nature — the Right Balance Between Environmental Care, Society and Economic Development

The right balance between environmental care, society and economic development

Maintaining a balance between care for the environment, economic development and societal needs is crucial and it requires an innovative approach to embed this philosophy in marine infrastructure projects. Stefan Aarninkhof, Boskalis Program Manager and Arjan van der Weck, General Manager Hydronamic — Boskalis’ in-house engineering consultancy — address the many benefits of Building with Nature (BwN).

Why did Boskalis start focusing on BwN?

Arjan: “Sustainable development is at the forefront of the Boskalis strategy and over the past years this has become an even more important focus. Low-lying delta areas are increasingly confronted with challenges associated with urbanization, economic development, accelerated sea level rise, subsidence and climate change. In addition, mining firms and oil and gas companies are going into even more challenging and vulnerable environments. A sustainable development is naturally in everyone’s interest.”

Stefan: “In the past decade a series of projects in The Netherlands had run into problems getting delayed or even cancelled because of environmental issues, so Boskalis and the wider industry felt something needed to be done. There was clearly a lack of fundamental ecological knowledge related to the construction of maritime infrastructure. This led to the innovative BwN program of which Boskalis is one of the founders and investment partners. The program is being implemented by the Ecoshape Foundation. The Dutch government and numerous companies, equipment suppliers, engineering consultancies, research institutes and universities are also involved. This makes it possible to cluster ecological, technological and policy knowledge. With the program we gained a lot of knowledge and experience about the dynamics of nature and how to use that information to arrive at better designs for marine infrastructure projects. Building with Nature, rather than against. What is special is that the program links very strongly with daily practice, which means that the knowledge can be put directly to the test in real-life situations. The first phase of the program, which was executed in 2008-2012, led to a set of design guidelines being developed and the program has now entered its second phase under the umbrella of the Dutch government’s Top Sector policy.”

Arjan van der Weck

Arjan van der Weck is general manager of Hydronamic, the Boskalis in-house engineering consultancy. He graduated in physical geography at Utrecht University in 1993. Subsequently he worked for The Netherlands Ministry of Transport and Public Works on shipping route maintenance and flood protection works before joining WL|Delft Hydraulics in 1996.

There, Arjan was involved in environmental impact studies for fairway deepening and land reclamation projects in estuaries and coastal areas. He has worked for Boskalis in his present role since 2008. Apart from his responsibilities for general management of Hydronamic (a group of 60 professionals), he is a member of the core team of the Ecoshape Consortium and Netherlands representative in PIANC Committee MarCom.

Arjan van der Weck on the left and Stefan Aarninkhof on the right

How does Boskalis bring BwN to its own practice?

Stefan: “BwN requires a fundamentally different approach to projects. Interdisciplinary project teams take the natural system as the starting point for a design and look from the start for added value for all parties involved. All our years of involvement in this program have allowed us to develop an extensive knowledge base in the field of BwN. We have acquired a wealth of experience and built up a large national and international network.”

Arjan: “We set up a high-level task force with Boskalis top management involved and have ensured that we have all the expertise needed in-house. Ideas, concepts and opportunities are being embraced and developed and we have the support from the highest level of the company.”

What are the benefits for clients, using the BwN approach?

Arjan: “There are many advantages for our clients and this has already been proven on a number of key projects. Undoubtedly, the number one advantage — which our clients will be pleased to hear — is cost reduction. We are providing smart designs by using natural processes and always considering the impact on the environment. This eliminates the need for nature compensation schemes and environmental damage is avoided. On top of that this has implications for maintenance because a solution is much more adaptable than the more traditional solutions.”

We are providing smart designs by using natural processes and always considering the impact on the environment.

Can this approach have an impact on project lead-time?

Stefan: “Absolutely. Another major benefit is that there is a reduction in project lead-time. Essentially all the stakeholders are involved, it is a co-effort, a co-creation, therefore the design is much more acceptable and the project is less likely to be delayed or cancelled. The best-known Dutch example is the Sand Motor, an innovative solution to protect The Netherlands against the sea. The Dutch government stated that framing the Sand Motor as a BwN project has considerably helped them to run through all the necessary procedures in less than two years for this mammoth project. Quite an achievement.”

Sand Motor project

Every year, the sea takes sand from the Dutch coast and every five years, Rijkswaterstaat (the Government Department responsible for the design, construction, management and maintenance of the main infrastructure facilities in The Netherlands) replenishes the shortage by placing sand on the beaches and in the foreshore. Without these measures, the western part of The Netherlands, which is below sea level, would be flooded.

Sand Motor

In 2011, an innovative measure was implemented to ensure long-term safety of the Delfland Coast: the Sand Motor. The Sand Motor is a peninsula consisting of no less than 21.5 million cubic meters of sand. Wind, waves and currents will gradually distribute the sand along the coast of the province of South Holland between Hook of Holland and Scheveningen, changing the shape of the Sand Motor and enabling new forms of nature development and recreation. Eventually, in about 20 years from now, the Sand Motor will be transformed into new dunes and wider beaches, thus protecting the vulnerable hinterland in a truly sustainable way.

Please look at our corporate website for more information on this project.

You can also look at a Sand Motor video on youtube.

Arjan: “In addition to a shorter lead-time there are also other benefits. By depositing a large amount of sand in a single operation, repeated disruption of the vulnerable seabed is avoided. Putting the sand in one location is also much cheaper than doing it several times in many locations. And if the Sand Motor fulfills the expectations sand replenishment will be unnecessary for the next 20 years.”

Risk management is also an important benefit for clients. Can BwN play a role here as well?

Arjan: “Yes. Again this can be shown by one of our recent capital dredging projects where we used our BwN-engineering knowledge. In Southampton, UK, Boskalis was asked to deepen the fairway. In the past this had not gone very well because there was always a significant increase in turbidity and consequently, extra sedimentation. Neighboring yacht ports were not very pleased with the outcome. Boskalis came up with a new and cost-effective solution, which manages the turbidity risks by adaptive monitoring. Boskalis conducted three months of baseline monitoring before dredging began in March this year. Continued monitoring is coupled with the use of predictive tools and models, which accurately reveal possible impacts of the dredging. Because measurements are fed directly back into live operations this is a highly flexible way of working, which allows us to reduce risks substantially, both environmentally and economically.”

How sand extraction generates ecological benefits

During the construction of Maasvlakte 2, Boskalis acquired extensive experience with alternatives for taking sand from the seabed. The traditional approach to sand extraction is to dredge a thin layer of sand from a large area. The drawback to this method is the disturbance of a lot of life on the seabed. Recovery can take a long time. An environmentally friendly approach was developed for the construction of Maasvlakte 2, which required large amounts of sand. The sand was taken from a relatively small borrow pit. From an average of 20 meters it can extend to 40 meters below sea level. A special profile was designed for the bottom of the pit, shaping the seabed. The analysis of the monitoring data showed that life on the sea bed and the fish population in the borrow area recovered quickly: five times more fish were found in the borrow area than in the surrounding areas.

“Instead of harming the environment, this approach actually generates ecological benefits,” enthuses Arjan van der Weck. “This exemplary project may have a positive impact when we apply for sand permits on other projects. Sand extraction is enormously important for Boskalis but this is an activity that is increasingly controversial in many countries. Sand permit applications almost always involve environmental impact studies and the compensation of possible environmental damage. The results of the approach for the Maasvlakte can help us to make permit procedures smoother.”

And certainly Boskalis needed to draw on all of its eco-engineering knowledge when it took part in the very prestigious Jamaican coral reef relocation project? This is the largest ever relocation of a coral reef in the world is that correct?

Arjan: “Yes, this is a great example of when BwN can make a project feasible which otherwise would not have been possible. In Jamaica, between August 2009 and April 2010, Boskalis was asked to help with the relocation of a coral reef and for dredging work for the Falmouth Cruise Ship Terminal, so the facility could receive the very largest cruise liners.”

“It was an enormous operation; a team of 80 divers was involved over a period of almost eight months. The coral was removed, together with some of the substrate and was ‘glued’ in the new locations using a special epoxy material that can even cope with severe hurricanes. Cement was also used and the substrate was fixed into position in the new locations using steel pins. The new colonies were inspected to see how healthy they were during the transplantation, but also a number of months after completion and once again in 2011. In 2011 we were able to definitely identify 86% of the transplanted coral and 96% had survived the ‘move’. That is a major success for the Jamaica coral transplant!”

Please look at our corporate website for more information on this project.

Building with Nature in Gabon

In 2013 Boskalis worked on the construction of a new industrial area in Gabon. Protecting the marine environment was a major challenge on this project. An important consideration was to avoid (noise) nuisance for whales, because Cap Lopez Bay is a key hibernation spot for humpback whales.

In Port Gentil, Gabon’s second port city, the government has designated an area of 1,500 hectares as an industrial free trade area. The first activity is the development of the Gabon Fertilizer Company (GFC), for which 80 hectares of land is being reclaimed. As the main financier of GFC, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, sets tough environmental requirements.

18 months of preparation

“The project was preceded by 18 months of preparation, studies and environmental impact analyses,” says Annemiek Hermans, an environmental engineer with Hydronamic, Boskalis’ own engineering consultancy. Together with her colleagues Stefanie Ross and James Brocklehurst she supervised the environmental aspects of the project. “There was hardly any documentation about this region, but there was great concern about the impact of the dredging works. The humpback whales were a special point of concern,” says Stefanie.

The ecological challenge

Since the international ban on whaling came into force the global population of humpbacks has risen to around 60,000. They spend part of the year within the Arctic Circles, where they build up their food reserves. When the temperature starts to plummet they swim thousands of miles to various tropical spots to spend the winter, to mate and to give birth. “Cap Lopez Bay near Port Gentil is visited every year by what we call ‘subpopulation B1’ of the humpback whales,” explains James. “Because this site is so important to the humpbacks anti-disturbance measures were needed. There were two main points in this respect. The first was to prevent any possible underwater noise pollution that may be caused by the dredging material. In addition the whales use the underwater slopes of the bay to protect and feed their young. That meant that the original shape of the bay had to be preserved.”

The BwN solution

During the preparation phase a creative solution was devised that would keep the noise level to a minimum and barely affect the shape of the bay. “The chosen solution could be called an ‘underwater sound barrier’,” says Annemiek. “Instead of extracting the sand from a large area of the seabed we opted to dredge an underwater lagoon. Thanks to this approach the slopes of the bay remained virtually unaffected.”

The environmental engineers took various initiatives to determine whether the approach would have sufficient impact on the underwater noise level. “Measurements were taken at various times and at various locations and the predictions turned out to be right: our sound barrier muffled the noise even better than we had expected. The sound of the dredging activities turned out to have no visible impact on the sea mammals’ behavior,” says James. In addition the employees of the fleet and the support ships followed the ‘Marine Mammal Observer’ training course, aimed at spotting and avoiding whales and other marine animals such as dolphins and turtles.

Stakeholder appreciation

Representatives of the IFC expressed their appreciation during a visit to the project. Josefina Doumbia, Principal Environmental and Social Specialist at the IFC, comments: “We were impressed by the way in which the stated environmental requirements had been met, and particularly by the commitment of the crew and the project team and the cooperation with the NGO Fondation Liambissi.”

The Liambissi foundation is a local NGO that monitors the turtle population along this stretch of coast. The project team asked them to handle the monitoring of the turtle population. Philippe Du Plessis, head of Fondation Liambissi, says: “To start off with we were rather sceptical about the cooperation but the final result was very satisfactory. We were able to make a contribution thanks to our knowledge of the marine life in the region and the monitoring has revealed that there has been no impact on the turtle population.” Annemiek concludes: “The data we gathered during this project has given us a lot of new insights into ways of protecting the marine environment. This knowledge is very valuable to executing future projects.”

Award

The project in Gabon has won the British Expertise Awards 2013/14 — Outstanding International Environmental Project in April 2014.

How do you see the future of BwN and will your efforts continue?

“We have many pioneering projects and studies going on. To give one example, we are looking into the use of mangroves in tropical regions as a means of coastal protection, rather than creating traditional dams or dikes. This also has the added benefit of creating opportunities for local communities, for instance for aquaculture.”

Arjan: “BwN is about creating shared values with smarter designs. Projects that may not have been feasible in the past are now within reach and it can actually help to complete projects better, faster and cheaper. We are very positive about the future.”