Identifying Sediment Sources and Optimizing Placement of Dredge Material to Protect Critical Infrastructure – Port of Lake Charles

This report covers data collection, analysis, and modeling conducted by The Water Institute of the Gulf (the Institute) in the Calcasieu Ship Channel (CSC) and Calcasieu Lake for the Port of Lake Charles in 2017-2018.

The observational data collection described here was done to support the numerical modeling work examining sediment transport in the CSC by providing fixed station and boatbased data for model setup and calibration/validation. In addition, the data collection was designed to quantify the sediment inputs and outputs to the CSC and within the CSC to examine the magnitude and sourcing of material deposited in the channel. The goal was to develop a quantified sediment budget to understand sedimentation rates and sources, a tool that can be applied to develop strategies that might reduce sediment deposition in the channel, reducing dredging needs. Read more at the Port of Lake Charles.