Using sediments as a resource

17 May 2017

In Nord-Pas-de-Calais, total waterway traffic in 2015 was 12.3 million tonnes of freight, up 22% over 10 years for the network. Inland shipping replaces annually the equivalent of 610,000 trucks: a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Alluvio is a joint initiative of Voies navigables de France, the Hauts de France region, the Artois-Picardie Water Agency and the ADEME to set a global strategy dedicated to the management and valorisation of river sediments, creating opportunities for the development of new economic and innovative sectors for Northern France.

• Sediments are a sustainable raw material. Several scientific programs have proved the feasibility of their valorisation in different economic sectors:
• Manufacture of bricks, cements or concretes,
• Realization of roads and road sub-layers
• Landscaping
• Reconstruction of soils (agricultural valorisation, rehabilitation of urban wasteland)
• Restoration and stabilization of banks by concrete rockfill
• Backfill

Alluvio brings together authorities, industrialists and scientists to measure the economic and technical potential of these sectors: estimating sediment deposits, identifying the most promising sectors, etc.