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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Design with Dredge is a 2018 landscape-architecture research project that asked whether sediment removed from Baltimore Harbor could be treated as a resource for resilient landscape infrastructure instead of only as a disposal burden. Led by Mahan Rykiel Associates for the Maryland Port Administration, the awarded program combined sediment science, mapping, policy analysis, material experiments and community participation.
Its work is a framework for inquiry, not a documented construction project or a certified product. The project identified ways to evaluate sediment-based strategies while making clear that workshop prototypes and preliminary tests do not establish engineering durability, environmental safety or approval for a particular site.
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What Design with Dredge is
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) gave Design with Dredge: Resilient Landscape Infrastructure in the Chesapeake Bay a 2018 Professional Awards Honor Award in Research. The award record places the work in Baltimore, Maryland, credits Mahan Rykiel Associates as the firm and identifies the Maryland Port Administration as client.
| Project fact | Documented detail |
|---|---|
| Award | 2018 ASLA Professional Awards, Honor Award in Research |
| Location | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Firm | Mahan Rykiel Associates |
| Client | Maryland Port Administration |
| Research focus | Dredged-material management and resilient landscape infrastructure in the Baltimore–Chesapeake region |
The program brought together landscape architects, community members, academics, regulators, policy officials and industry representatives. Rather than treating design as a final visual package, the team used it to synthesize sediment processes, shoreline change, economic development, regulation and community priorities. The intended result was a shared basis for planning and discussing sediment reuse.
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The central proposition was deliberately open-ended: clays, silts, sands and gravels removed from Baltimore Harbor might support resilient landscapes. That proposition was set against sea-level rise, storm surges, coastal subsidence, changing port operations and competing shoreline uses. The project also connected present-day infrastructure decisions to the region’s histories of labor, innovation and environmental justice.
Why dredged sediment became a design question
Navigation channels and waterways accumulate sediment through natural and human-caused siltation. Periodic dredging keeps those channels usable, but the removed material then requires management. Design with Dredge argued that sediment should not automatically be understood as waste when it might contribute to flood-risk reduction, habitat restoration, recreation or other civic improvements.
The project materials report different annual quantities, and the sources do not reconcile them:
| Source and date | Reported annual quantity | How to read the figure |
|---|---|---|
| ASLA 2018 award project page | 1.5 million cubic yards | Figure presented in the project context |
| Maryland Port Administration GreenPort newsletter, November/December 2018 | 1.15 million cubic yards | Agency figure reported in that 2018 publication |
Neither number should be presented as a newly verified current dredging rate. The important planning point is the scale of the management challenge and the possibility of matching recurring sediment flows with carefully selected landscape needs.
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The policy setting and the barriers it did not solve
The project narrative situated its inquiry within Maryland’s Dredged Material Management Act of 2001, the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Innovative Reuse and Beneficial Use Guidance Document from 2017, and Maryland Executive Order 01.01.2017.13. The executive order, as quoted on the ASLA project page, states: “Whereas, Through source reduction, reuse, and recycling, Maryland can extend existing disposal capacity, reduce the need to construct new or expanded solid waste disposal facilities, conserve natural resources, including water and energy, increase the innovative reuse and beneficial use of dredged material, and support a productive economy through recovery of valuable resources.”
Supportive policy did not remove the practical difficulties of turning sediment into a resilience project. The research identified four recurring barriers:
- Public perception: sediment is often associated with waste or contamination, making trust and communication essential.
- Incomplete information: planners may lack usable information about sediment processes, composition and material qualities at the point where a design decision is being made.
- Planning and policy silos: navigation, environmental regulation, parks, habitat, transportation and community development can operate on separate timelines and objectives.
- Multi-benefit cost: a project expected to deliver flood protection, habitat, recreation and public value may face costs that do not fit a single agency’s budget or mandate.
These are historical observations from the project’s framing, not a current legal opinion or a substitute for site-specific permitting advice.
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How the team investigated sediment and shorelines
Design with Dredge used qualitative and quantitative methods so that no single map, laboratory result or stakeholder view carried the entire argument. The documented methods included:
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- Cartographic projection and deep sections to show sediment and shoreline conditions across time and space.
- Systems mapping to connect dredging, transport, placement, ecology, regulation and community effects.
- Historical investigation to place current shoreline and port conditions in a longer social and environmental context.
- Regional and national case studies as references for advanced dredged-material management.
- Shoreline typology studies to identify recurring local conditions and potential opportunity sites.
- Suitability modeling to explore where sediment-based resilience strategies might be feasible.
- Material testing to support further performance exploration and design projection.
- Participatory action and design projection to bring technical questions into public and professional discussion.
What the suitability model considered
The regional model was described as a flexible analytical tool for prioritizing sites. Its stated inputs included bathymetry, benthic pollutants, wetlands potential and proximity to public parkland. Those variables combine physical feasibility with environmental-justice considerations: a site must be workable, ecologically appropriate and connected to community benefits.
The published description does not provide the model’s equations, weighting, data resolution or validation results. It therefore should be treated as a way to structure questions and compare possibilities, not as a reproducible score or a current approval map.
What happened in the community workshops
Hands-on workshops translated the material proposition into small physical studies. Participants made seed balls by combining dredged material with compost and native meadow mixes. They also made reef balls by combining dredged material with oyster shells and cement.
These activities served several purposes at once: they gave participants a tangible way to discuss material properties, connected sediment reuse to habitat and planting ideas, and created an entry point for participatory action. They did not establish that a particular sediment source is safe for planting or marine habitat, that a mixture will meet structural specifications, or that either prototype can be installed at a real site without further testing and approvals.
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The project names native meadow mixes as an ingredient, but it does not identify a brand, species list or commercial kit. A practitioner would still need a site-appropriate ecological specification and verification of sediment quality before planning a planting application.
Who contributed and why the collaboration mattered
The award record credits Mahan Rykiel Associates, the Maryland Port Administration, Maryland Geological Survey, USACE Baltimore District, Anchor QEA, Maryland Environmental Service and Cornell University researchers. Community participants included the Innovative Reuse Committee, Turner Station Conservation Team and North Point Peninsula Council.
Richard Jones is listed as design director, and Isaac Hametz, ASLA, as team leader. Principal-investigator credits are given to Isaac Hametz and Brian Davis, ASLA. These role distinctions matter because the program was intentionally distributed across design, science, government, industry and community knowledge rather than presented as a single-discipline study.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsHow practitioners can evaluate a sediment-based opportunity
The project does not rank finished alternatives or publish a universal site-selection formula. Its stated dimensions can, however, organize an early evaluation. Treat the following as a decision sequence to investigate, not as a validated scoring recommendation.
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- Define the resilience outcome. Specify whether the intended benefit is shoreline stabilization, flood-risk reduction, habitat, recreation, public access or a combination. Multiple benefits should be named rather than assumed.
- Characterize the sediment. Establish the source, grain size, moisture, contaminants and handling requirements. Material from one dredging operation cannot be assumed equivalent to material from another.
- Check physical feasibility. Examine bathymetry, shoreline geometry, access for placement and the processes that could move or remove the material.
- Screen ecological potential. Consider wetlands and habitat objectives, benthic pollutants and the consequences of placement for existing ecosystems.
- Map public value and environmental justice. Look at proximity to public parkland, neighborhood access, historic burdens and who receives or bears the project’s effects.
- Coordinate institutions early. Bring port, environmental, parks, engineering, public works and community representatives into the same planning conversation instead of sequencing them as isolated reviews.
- Test the proposed use. Use laboratory, field or demonstration testing appropriate to the intended function. Workshop results are exploratory and cannot replace performance data.
- Build a cost and governance case. Identify capital, transport, treatment, monitoring and maintenance costs, along with the agencies or partners responsible for each benefit.
- Set monitoring and stop conditions. A real project would need measurable criteria for settlement, erosion, contaminants, habitat response, public use and maintenance before construction decisions are made.
Exploration is not proof of infrastructure performance
The project narrative explicitly cautions that its material tests do not prove statistical significance or guarantee results. That qualification is central. A seed ball or reef ball made in a workshop demonstrates a way to engage with dredged material; it does not demonstrate long-term durability, contaminant behavior, plant establishment, oyster recruitment, hydraulic performance or regulatory compliance.
Likewise, a suitability map can reveal relationships and narrow a search area without proving that a site is buildable. Bathymetry, wetlands potential and public-park proximity are screening considerations, not a permit. A design projection can show how a shoreline might function while leaving unresolved questions about engineering details, ownership, funding, maintenance and monitoring.
What the project contributes to landscape practice
Design with Dredge positions landscape architecture as a field capable of connecting technical evidence with public decisions. Its contribution is not a patented material or a completed shoreline. It is a shared language for discussing sediment as part of regional systems: where it comes from, how it moves, what qualities it has, who controls it, who may benefit from it and what risks must be managed.
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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The ASLA award page attributes this jury statement collectively to the Awards Jury: “It’s about positioning the profession in a different way through research that we in the profession should own.” In this context, owning the research means taking responsibility for the interfaces between design, science, regulation and community priorities rather than leaving those interfaces to be resolved informally after a project is selected.
What remains unresolved
The available project record does not establish whether the proposed designs were later built, what performance monitoring found, which current sediment-quality results apply to individual sites, or what present-day permits and costs would be required. It also does not resolve the difference between the 1.5-million- and 1.15-million-cubic-yard figures reported in 2018 sources.
Those unanswered questions are not minor details. They determine whether a concept can move from research into implementation. Any agency or design team considering beneficial use would need current records, site-specific characterization, environmental review, engineering analysis, stakeholder agreements and a permitting strategy appropriate to the proposed placement and use.
The project’s enduring proposition
Design with Dredge offers a disciplined way to reconsider a material that Baltimore Harbor must manage repeatedly. Its strongest claim is not that dredged sediment is automatically suitable for construction, planting or habitat. It is that sediment management can be investigated as a landscape-infrastructure question, with physical feasibility, ecological risk, public benefit, policy coordination and cost examined together. That distinction allows the project’s imaginative prototypes to be useful without mistaking them for proven engineering performance.
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