Historically, dredged material (DM) has been placed at the nearest available placement site. There has been an increasing trend of beneficial use projects recently, often using innovative methods. Thin layer placement (TLP) involves one- to two-foot-thick DM placement, compared to traditional, thicker sediment placement applications, to restore coastal wetlands. The main idea of TLP is to promote the natural recolonization or reestablishment of habitat and benthic species. These guidelines presents a roadmap of TLP’s evolution and offers easily digestible examples and considerations for TLP applications in wetlands and open-water environments. Offered as a tool to the practitioner, the eight chapters of these guidelines covers the history of TLP, characterization of the project area, setting goals and objectives, project design, construction considerations, monitoring and adaptive management, knowledge gaps, and future research needs. Several case studies are presented as examples of how such applications have been implemented and highlight lessons learned, particularly best-management practices. These guidelines offers consideration of TLP as a critical component in the project development phase, a tool for the sustainable management of DM, and a method that may create, maintain, enhance, or restore ecological function while supporting navigation channel infrastructure and providing flood risk management benefits.
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