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The development of a dispersion model of a trailer hopper suction dredger is described that incorporates sub-models of the trailer hopper process and of the descent and collapse of the dynamic plume. This identifies the shape and magnitude of the source terms of release of fine sediment into the water column and onto the bed. The nature of these source terms is updated with time and the changing hydrodynamics. The release source terms are passed to a passive plume sub-model which is a Lagrangian random walk approach and tracks the three-dimensional movement of sediment particles over time and space. The effects of using such a process based approach are illustrated using a basic example. The need for high quality validation data requires comprehensive field measurements of the plumes arising from trailer dredging. A recent measurement campaign undertaken at Rotterdam Port is briefly described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]