As owner and President of SedTrend Analysis Limited, Patrick McLaren specializes in a technique known as Sediment Trend Analysis (STA). STA utilizes the relative changes in grain-size distributions to determine the net sediment transport patterns and dynamic behaviour of bottom sediments from any sedimentary environment. STA is widely used for all aspects of sediment management issues including (i) dredging and dredged material disposal, (ii) combatting coastal erosion, (iii) assessing the transport and remediation of contaminated sediments and (iv) settling litigation issues at contaminated sites.Unlike numerical modelling, STA does not require any a priori assumptions on what processes are resulting in sediment transport; rather STA is a kinematic model which provides an understanding of the movement and dynamic behaviour of sediments without regard to the process. No assumptions are required and the results are self-validating. The confidence in the results of the STA approach, together with its simplicity, is becoming increasingly recognized as a valuable tool to understand the behaviour of sediments and to direct and validate the more complex and expensive numerical models that are frequently used.