Using a sedimentation scanner to determine mangrove health responses to sedimentation derived from dredging. An example from northwestern Australia.

A sedimentation scanner was used to measure daily sediment height at 10 sites associated with a 14 million cubic metre dredging project in Port Hedland harbour, Western Australia, between July 2011 and May 2012. Data were collected from seven potential impact sites, where up to 35 mm of additional sedimentation was predicted via modelling to result from dredging and at three reference sites, where background variation was monitored. A variety of mangrove habitat health indices from each site (including leaf area and health, pneumatophore and faunal burrow density) were collected before, during and after dredging.