Posted on June 17, 2026
With the theme, “It’s a Zoo out there!”, Dredging Days 2026 took place in the historic A Room with a Zoo conference centre, adjacent to the legendary Antwerp Zoo. The location was strategically intended to draw a parallel between the chaotic, unpredictable nature of global geopolitics and the complex environmental and technical landscapes facing the dredging industry today.
Over three intensive days of knowledge-sharing, parallel technical and non-technical sessions, and interactive discussions, the message from Antwerp was clear: the dredging industry is no longer just about moving sediment. It is an important stakeholder in combating climate change, enabling the global energy transition, and fostering sustainable coastal resilience.
CEDA utilised a centralised Clubhouse, which encouraged a collaborative atmosphere of knowledge sharing and networking. It hosted paper and informal non-paper sessions, and interactive learning sessions incorporating the zoo next door. By shifting the focus away from traditional monologues towards collaborative, face-to-face problem-solving, the format successfully democratised the space, allowing all attendees – from young professionals to industry veterans – to interact as peers.
The event was officially opened by Kathleen De Wit, President of CEDA. The programme reflected current pressures, including technological disruption, geopolitical challenges, and environmental stewardship. Across multiple tracks, several dominant narratives emerged that will shape the dredging industry over the next decade, including decarbonisation and new fuels, the importance of nature-based solutions, technological innovation, and adapting to evolving situations and global dynamics.
Keynote address by Professor Haroon Sheikh of VU Amsterdam (Copyright: CEDA)
Building on this opening, Professor Haroon Sheikh of VU Amsterdam set the tone for the wider conference with a keynote on Hydropolitics: he convincingly explained how water, maritime access and maritime traditions play a powerful role in shaping cultures, economies and global influence. Looking beyond water as a physical resource or feature on a map, he explored how maritime access and maritime tradition shape cultures, economies and global influence. The session also opened the conference to a broader geopolitical frame, connecting the technical work of dredging to questions of trade, climate pressure, connectivity, and shifting global power. Before delegates moved into specialist sessions on infrastructure, technology, sustainability, and project delivery, the keynote placed dredging within a much larger context: a sector operating at the intersection of water, trade, climate pressure, and shifting global power.
Infrastructure and Projects
The programme honed in on its host country by treating attendees to deep-dive sessions on the Oosterweel link project, which is one of Europe’s largest infrastructure undertakings designed to close the Antwerp ring road. Delegates received exclusive engineering briefings on the construction of the new Scheldt Tunnel, including insights from Johan Klaps, Vice Mayor for the Port and Economy of the City of Antwerp/President of the Port of Antwerp and Bruges, and from Dirk Vermeiren, Policy Officer at Lantis.
The project relies on massive immersed tunnel elements constructed in a dedicated dock, which are then towed via the river and precisely sunken into a pre-dredged trench. The tolerance levels for dredging this trench are incredibly tight, demanding the highest tier of hydrographic surveying and real-time sediment control.
Beyond the lecture halls, the conference featured a site visit to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, giving international experts a firsthand look at Damen’s Volta, a 100% electric, zero-emission tugboat; CMB Tech’s hydrogen-powered Hydrotug; and ABC’s methanol vessel Methatug.
Visit to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges (Copyright CEDA)
Project delivery, risk, and practical decision-making
Beyond major infrastructure, several sessions focused on the practical realities that determine whether dredging projects are delivered safely, clearly, and successfully. The session on (Perceived) Gap between Specification and Verification through Surveys addressed a challenge familiar to many project teams: how small ambiguities in survey specifications can create large disputes or claims around verification and project outcomes.
This practical focus continued through the Safety Workshops, which moved away from traditional QHSE presentations and instead used compact, hands-on demonstrations to make safety more direct, engaging, and applicable to dredging operations. The session, Let’s Talk about Preparation: Why Projects Fail, and how ECI Can Assist to Get Things Done, also brought a strong delivery focus, using role play and expert discussion to explore whether contracting strategies, including early contractor involvement, can help avoid problems before major projects even begin.
Sustainability and Innovation
In dedicated paper sessions on Energy Transition and Decarbonisation, researchers presented data on the viability of green hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia for heavy-duty maritime operations. The consensus among panellists during the highly anticipated Decarbonisation Commission update was that while alternative fuels are advancing, the short-term transition relies heavily on efficiency optimisation. To that end, multiple presentations focused on the integration of machine learning algorithms to optimise engine loads and cutter suction dredger efficiency in real-time, shaving off vital percentage points of carbon emissions per cubic meter of relocated sediment.
The programme also showed how technical innovation is reshaping dredging operations. Sessions such as Dredging Technologies and Processes explored how improvements in equipment performance, monitoring, modelling, and process control are helping the sector work with greater precision and efficiency. Presentations ranged from dredge pump performance and booster pump control to seabed behaviour, sediment modelling, and mixture flow assurance, reflecting a clear focus on making dredging operations smarter, safer, and more predictable.
The session on The EU Emission Trade System: Join in on a Safari through the Jungle focused on the current environment, which vessels are affected, and the emissions buying curve. This session was made even more interesting by having a practical exercise to use delegates’ skills and knowledge in the ETS-jungle prepared in the zoo outside.
Deep-sea mining for marine minerals is an ongoing debate, and rules and regulations need to be defined by the UN’s Seabed Authority before stakeholders can exploit seabed minerals in international waters. The interactive session was shaped for a respectful cialogue on Marine Minerals, and delivered diverging views and debates between the pro and opposition on what is needed for the responsible extraction of marine minerals. The panel included Laurens de Jonge, Manager Marine Mining at Royal IHC, Rudy Helmons, Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology, Ruth-Marie Henckes, Ocean Campaigner for Greenpeace and Ellen Pape, Assistant Professor at Ghent University.
Marine Minerals panel discussion with Ellen Pape, Assistant Professor at Ghent University, Laurens de Jonge, Manager Marine Mining at Royal IHC, Ruth-Marie Henckes, Ocean Campaigner for Greenpeace and Rudy Helmons, Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology. (Copyright CEDA)
Technical sessions explored the desalination of dredged sediments for beneficial agricultural use, alongside structural innovations like optimising sediment layer thickness to produce sustainable clay for brick and dike construction. By converting maintenance-dredging byproducts into building materials, the industry is aligning directly with circular economy principles, significantly lowering the carbon footprint of regional construction supply chains.
Moving away from the Eurocentric focus of the dredging sector, an interactive session was held on the Big Five in African Dredging. From maintaining ports, waterways, hydroelectric dams, and irrigation channels to capital dredging, Africa brings many opportunities to the sector. However, as the session progressed, it was apparent that knowledge sharing, capacity building, and technology transfer were key challenges. The session was innovatively devised, with delegates grouped according to the Big 5 of African wildlife: elephant, rhinoceros, lion, buffalo, and leopard.
Big Five in African Dredging, interactive session in the Butterfly House (Copyright CEDA)
A further sustainability-focused discussion came through with the session on Missing Sustainable Win–Wins: The Price We Don’t Want to Pay. Rather than treating sustainability as a purely technical challenge, delegates were invited to reflect on the wider choices, trade-offs, and barriers that shape whether sustainable practices are actually embedded within organisations. Its value lay in moving the conversation beyond climate urgency alone, towards the practical question of what the sector is willing to change in order to deliver meaningful progress.
Giving space to young professionals
An important element of Dredging Days was the focus on young professionals. The interactive session on Attract and Keep Young Professionals in the Dredging Industry included an insightful discussion between Rick Bekkers, Design and Proposal Engineer at Damen, and Hilary Richards, Project Engineer at Boskalis, both young professionals, with Olivier Marcus, Director at Damen, who has been in the industry for over 35 years. The key takeaway was that it is important to understand the behaviours and work preferences of the young people entering the industry to create an environment where they will thrive while learning and gaining experiences from those who have been in dredging for decades.
The Young CEDA Pitch Talks added further energy to the programme by giving early-career professionals a platform to present focused research and new ideas across a wide technical range. The session covered topics including sediment transport during jetty construction, mechanical seagrass restoration, sandbank recovery in sediment-scarce environments, deep-sea mining dispersion, offshore energy dredging, mechanical capping, and foam-free silt curtains for marine construction.
A particular highlight was Sem Geerts,PhD Candidate from the University of Twente, who won the IADC Young Pitch Talk Award 2026 for his presentation, How do tidal sandbanks in sediment-scarce environments recover from large-scale sand extraction? His research brought attention to the importance of sediment scarcity and the need for greater understanding in how these dynamic systems respond to large-scale extraction. The award also underlined the purpose of the Pitch Talks format: to stimulate new ideas and encourage younger professionals to contribute actively to the future of the dredging industry.
The session showed that the next generation is already engaging with some of the sector’s most pressing questions, from climate resilience and biodiversity to offshore energy, circular design, and responsible resource use. Rather than treating young professionals as a side note, the Pitch Talks positioned them as active contributors to the future direction of dredging.
The future-facing tone was also captured in Back to the Future, which invited delegates to look back at the gamechangers and gradual improvements that have shaped dredging since 1986, before imagining what the industry could look like 40 years from now. It was a fitting reminder that the sector’s future will be shaped not only by technology and regulation, but also by the ambition, imagination and collaboration of the people working within it.
The sector’s future will be shaped not only by technology and regulation, but also by the ambition, imagination and collaboration of the people working within it. (Copyright CEDA)
Dredging Days 2029
The focus now shifts toward the horizon. CEDA will be preparing for its milestone 2028 event, which will mark the association’s 50th anniversary, followed by the next official iteration of the CEDA Dredging Days in 2029.
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