10. Regional Environmental Assessment of Marine Aggregate Dredging Effects: The UK Approach

In regions where multiple marine dredging activities take place in a spatially restricted area, cumulative effects may impact sensitive receptors, both locally and regionally. In the UK, marine dredging of sand and gravel generally occurs in spatially limited regional blocks, with approximately 20 million tonnes of resource dredged each year from English and Welsh waters.

The UK marine aggregate industry has approached the assessment of cumulative marine dredging activities through a voluntary Marine Aggregate Regional Environmental Assessment (MAREA) approach. Each MAREA assesses the cumulative impacts of marine dredging activities using regional-scale hydrodynamic and sediment transport models linked to regional-scale mapping of sensitive receptors. Each MAREA characterises the physical, biological, and human context of a region, and eases the regulatory burden for site-specific Environmental Impact Assessment. This chapter will describe the MAREA methodology, and proposes that similar regional assessment exercises could contextualise the effects and impacts of multiple marine dredging activities in other parts of the world.