Dredging Operations and

Environmental Research

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Tools

DOER provides tools to support diverse field needs benefitting the USACE dredging program.

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Beneficial Use Goods and Services Tool (BUGS)

The Beneficial Use Goods and Services (BUGS) Tool is a preliminary planning aid designed to document and compare beneficial use placement site options along with their associated ecosystem goods and services. This approach supports multiple viable beneficial use (BU) options with varying benefits. The tool aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of short- and long-term benefits and costs for each beneficial use alternative. The information generated through the BUGS Tool can be referenced in future USACE BUGS efforts, studies, and projects, allowing users to build on past successes. The initial effort involves organizing thoughts and some data. This foundational layer sets the stage for future use and expansion. Each subsequent year, this initial information is leveraged, and additional layers are added. These layers include new data, refined analyses, and updated insights. Over time, this layered approach results in a comprehensive, rich repository of information that enhances decision-making and project planning. By continuously building and layering information, users can create a robust, evolving resource that grows more valuable and insightful with each iteration. This method ensures that the initial investment in organizing data and thoughts pays dividends in the long term, providing a solid foundation for ongoing and future projects.

Version 2 of the Beneficial Use Goods and Services (BUGS) Tool has been released. This update streamlines ecosystem goods and services (EGS) selection. Choices in Table 2 now automatically populate the weighted decision matrix. The "show your work" feature is now more meaningful and directly linked to user inputs, providing a more transparent and integrated experience. Building and searching attribute lists for each EGS is simpler, and new summary reports better enable communication of the results.

Dredging Evaluation Management, Analysis and Networked Documentation (DEMAND) Application

The Dredging Evaluation Management, Analysis and Networked Documentation (DEMAND) Application is designed to guide a dredged material program manager, risk assessor or data generator through 103 or 404 dredging evaluations. The tool was produced through DOER project 19-11. DEMAND can be used for initial project planning and documentation as well as recording decisions made during the dredging evaluation process. The application provides step-by-step procedures for planning and executing a dredging evaluation (e.g., what and when to test) and document rationale for decisions and communication with stakeholders. The application is useful for stakeholder decision documentation so that the same conversations and decisions are not revisited. Installation instructions can be found in the Technical Report “Advances in Dredged Material Evaluations for Inland and Ocean Aquatic Placement: Modernized Processes and Supportive Tools”.

Dredging Evaluation Visualization, Organization and Integration Database (DEVOID) Tool

The Dredging Evaluation Visualization, Organization and Integration Database (DEVOID) tool is a data visualization application. The tool was produced through DOER project 19-11. The application mines a dredging database file represented within a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The DEVOID tool was written using the R programming language and packaged using the 7-Zip compression software. The DEVOID tool facilitates examination of historic information (e.g., prior dredging evaluations) to support the initial evaluation and management decisions prompted within the DEMAND tool. For the DEVOID tool to be valuable, its associated database must be populated with the most recent dredging evaluations of the location(s) of interest.

Dredging Operations Technical Support (DOTS) Databases

DOTS provides access to several dredging related databases including the (1) Ocean Disposal Database (ODD), (2) Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factor Database (BSAF), (3) Environmental Residue Effects Database (ERED), (4) Environmental Effects & Dredging and Disposal Literature Database (E2D2), (5) Threatened & Endangered Species Cost Database, and (6) Dredging Extracts from the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers.

Dredging Operations Technical Support (DOTS) Models

DOTS provides access to several dredging related models including the (1) FishRand-Migration Probalistic Bioaccumulation Model (FR-M), (2) Dredged Material Disposal Management Model (D2M2), (3) Bioaccumulation Risk Assessment Modeling System (BRAMS), (4) DREDGeABiLity (DREDGABL), (5) Automated Dredging and Disposal Alternatives Modeling System (ADDAMS).

USACE Navigation Portal

USACE staff collect, store, visualize, analyze, and distribute huge amounts of navigation-related data. The Navigation Data Integration Framework (NDIF), which forms the basis of this Navigation Portal, is an effort to establish a detailed methodology to link data and tools across the Navigation Business line and make them easily available to our stakeholders.

Nearshore Nourishment Knowledge Hub

Nearshore placement of dredged sediment is one common method to beneficially use dredged material. The Nearshore Nourishment Knowledge Hub consolidates the current state of the nearshore placement knowledge and best practices into one location.

Dredging Technologies

A tool to identify appropriate models based on selected criteria.

  • Type: Web application
  • User: Public and USACE
  • Visit Dredging Technologies website
Engineering With Nature Project Mapper (ProMap)

ProMap is a geography-based data viewer for projects that fit within the EWN context. The aim of the mapper is to allow users to explore information that can be helpful in developing EWN ideas during the planning of their own projects. Projects can be viewed based upon infrastructure type (e.g., dredging project, breakwater, lock & dam) or by their intended environmental or social benefits.
(see User's Guide)

ProMap User's Guide

EWN ProMap is an interactive geospatial map viewer containing water resources projects which fit within the EWN definition of intentionally aligning natural and engineering processes to efficiently and sustainably deliver economic, environmental, and social benefits through collaborative processes. In addition to EWN projects, ProMap includes Working with Nature (WwN) and EcoShape projects.

Projects in ProMap can be displayed ranging from the global scale to the project scale by using the zoom tool. Using the Map Layers, projects can be displayed by the associated infrastructure project type (AIPT) (e.g., navigation dredging, breakwater, chevron, etc.) or the project designers' intended EWN benefits (Benefit 1, Benefit 2, Benefit 3) (e.g., vegetated habitat, beach nourishment, fish habitat, etc.).

The AIPT defines the goal of the original infrastructure project itself and not the EWN benefits. For example, when a channel is dredged and the sediment is used to create a wetland, the AIPT is Navigation Dredging (a channel, anchorage, turning basin, or other such feature). The EWN benefits depend on the original targeted resources of the project, which for this wetland creation example could reasonably be Benefit 1: vegetated habitat, Benefit 2: bird habitat, and Benefit 3: fish habitat. The project might also benefit other resources, such as invertebrates or provide aesthetic or recreational benefits, but those are in addition to the primary intent of the proponents. The key intent of the EWN benefits is to focus on the primary targeted resources.

When an AIPT or particular EWN benefit is selected by the user, the display will populate with all of the possible site candidate types in the database. Thus, if a user is interested in ideas associated with breakwaters or sites that are intended to provide fish habitat, they will be able to quickly narrow their search by checking on and off in the Map Layers. The Map Widget panel also allows the user to find specific sites using a keyword search. The user is able to view site attribute information by clicking on a site icon. The site icon pop-up bubble provides non-spatial information including the site description, data files, site images, and hyperlinks.

The Map Widget panel also allows the user to change the basemap (e.g., imagery, topographic, etc.), measure a site by area or distance and determine the latitude/longitude, and create a printout of a point of interest.

EWN ProMap also has a function that allows users to submit sites that they believe should be included in the database. The process is initiated by the user clicking on the Submit Study link in the top, right of the page. The user should fill out the form in its entirety and either enter the latitude/longitude or select the site location on the map and click submit. The submit button is used to send the data to the EWN administrator for review and approval. Once the site is approve for inclusion, an administrator will be in contact to retrieve additional project information and supplemental data as needed.

Do you have a project that you think should be included in our EWN ProMap? Consider the EWN essential ingredients which have been rephrased as criteria that can be used to describe the degree to which a project applies the EWN concept. These criteria are:

  1. Extent to which natural processes are used to produce benefits and outcomes.
  2. Extent to which the project and its configuration broaden the base of benefits provided (economic, social, and environmental).
  3. Extent to which the project makes use of collaborative processes to organize and focus interests, stakeholders, and partners.
  4. Extent to which the project produces and makes use of efficiencies to contribute to sustainable delivery of project benefits, including consideration of how the project function is sustainable in the broader systematic context (e.g., regional watershed or sediment systems).
Particle Tracking Model (PTM)

PTM has been developed to accurately predict the fate of sediments and other water-borne particulates to aid coastal engineering and dredged material management. PTM can be used to assess the impact of dredging and placement operations on contaminant transport, sensitive habitat, endangered species, rehandling, and beneficial use. PTM has a user friendly interface within the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS) that provides effective visualization for model results. SMS is free for all USACE employees and can be purchased for private use. To learn more about PTM visit the Dredging Technologies website.

Thin Layer Placement (TLP)

A new website dedicated to the practice of thin layer placement of dredged material is now available. The ultimate goal of the site is to consolidate all information and data available from projects and literature relevant to thin layer placement as a living resource. The website contains a growing body of searchable resources pertaining to all stages of dredged material based beneficial use projects, including those pertinent to conceptualization, design, implementation and long-term management.

Last updated on 11/3/2025.