The sea level is rising and the chance of heavy storms is increasing. Climate change is strongly felt all over the world. The level of the North Sea has already risen by 20 cm over the past 100 years and this rise will accelerate in the future. The combination of such a rise with heavy storms can lead to major damage to a coastal strip. Due to its low position, the Belgian coast in particular is highly vulnerable to this.
In order to protect the Belgian coast, we raise the beach. Therefore, we pump ashore a large quantity of sand keeping the shape of the coastline intact in a natural way. Our trailing suction hopper dredger Pedro Álvares Cabral dredged this sand about 50 km off the coast of Knokke and transported it to the port of Zeebrugge. Here the vessel connected to an onshore pipeline and pumped the sand to Knokke over a distance of 5 km.
