Soft mud deposits are increasingly encountered around the world, from natural offshore deposits and mud layers in estuaries, ports, and waterways to progressively growing leftover from treatment and extraction facilities, mines, and oil refineries. Reliable monitoring of the temporal and spatial strength buildup in such deposits is crucial to optimize their sediment management plan. In this study, two well-established shear strength profilers i.e. GraviProbe 2.0 (dotOcean) and RheoTune (Stema Systems) are investigated. Their working principles are described, and their performance is compared against direct strength measurement. Finally, capabilities, limitations, and points of improvement of both instruments are discussed. @en

Water Injection Dredging (WID) has been successfully applied for removing sediment deposits in reservoirs, which results in an increase of their storage capacity. This dredging method is based on the fluidization of the top sediment layer by pressurized injection of water by a dredging vessel. The fluidized sediment can be transported towards the dead storage of the reservoir or sluiced out of the reservoir through the bottom outlets of a dam. This flow can either occur by gravity induced flow or especially directed by the dredging strategy of the WID vessel. This dredging technique can increase the water storage capacity of the reservoir and prevent the erosion of the river downstream, hence the sediment blockage. Recent developments in modelling and measuring tools have enabled stakeholders to design, optimize and monitor WID in reservoirs. In this paper, we will demonstrate how modelling and measuring tools can be used to evaluate alternative dredging strategies for reservoir maintenance. In particular, we show how a mid-field and far-field modelling can be applied for designing WID actions and predicting sediment plume dynamics in a given reservoir. Additionally, we will present recently-developed in-situ measuring tools, that are currently used for monitoring turbidity in a water column and sediment properties during and after WID actions. Finally, potential benefit of applying WID in Shihmen Reservoir (Taiwan) is discussed.@en