Dredging Volumes Prediction for the Access Channel of Santos Port Considering Different Design Depths

Santos is the most important Brazilian port, handling about 114 million of tons in 2016. In 2010, there was a great capital dredging in order to deepen the Access Channel to 15m deep (Chart Datum - CD). This depth was not achieved, due to inefficiency on dredging procedures. As deepening and maintaining design depths are indispensable, this study presents an analysis of sediment deposition in Santos Port Access Channel and an annual dredging volumes prediction, considering current bathymetric survey and design depths of 15, 16 and 17 m (CD).A numerical hydrodynamic and morphological model was developed for the interest area, by using Delft3D®, calibrated with waves, currents and water level data measured within Santos Port adjacen-cies. Sediment transport model was calibrated with suspended sediment data and historic series of dredged volumes from Santos Port Access Channel. Two different scenarios were simulated for each design depth, according to the regional environmental characteristics. For current bathymetric scenario, the model estimates that it would be necessary to dredge an annual average of about 4,325,000 m³ from Santos Port access chan-nel to maintain current depth condition. Regarding design depths of 15, 16, 17 meters, it would be an in-crease of 15%, 55%, and 80%.