Implementing Regional Sediment Management to Sustain Navigation at an Energetic Tidal Inlet

Regional Sediment Management (RSM) is a systems-based approach for managing multiple projects involving sediment. RSM fosters balance between infrastructure and natural system processes, resulting in reduced project costs and achievement of greater benefits. This paper introduces the RSM concept and describes how RSM is being implemented at the Mouth of the Columbia River to sustain the inlet's 100-year old navigation infrastructure and adjacent shore lands. Implementing RSM at this energetic inlet involves feeding the inlet's morphology using dredged material, and letting nature do the work of dispersing the placed dredged material to supplement the inlet's sediment budget, without compromising the reliability of the navigation channel. The paper discusses the types of data that are being collected and analyzed to understand the environmental forcing affecting the inlet's morphology. The paper also addresses how dredged material disposal is being conducted to implement RSM.