CHARACTERIZATION OF DREDGED SEDIMENTS FROM JNPT PORT MUMBAI, INDIA

Excavation of sediments from the bed of sea, rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds and lagoons is termed as dredging. It is usually executed to create, and maintain, navigable waterways/channels. It also deals with removal of the polluting toxicants from the water bodies and hence their cleaning, which helps in preserving the marine ecosystem. Dredging results in huge quantity of the dredged material (sediments) which requires a special attention as far as its handling, disposal and usage for infrastructure development is concerned. It is worth noticing that the type of the dredged material will greatly influence the method of its disposal (viz., open water disposal, confined disposal or habitat disposal) and further usages. Hence it is essential to characterize the sediments before its disposal. In this present study, an attempt has been made to characterize the sediments for physical, chemical and mineralogical properties and to classify the sediments based on their contamination.