The environmental impacts of river sand mining

The demand for construction-grade sand is growing at a tremendous rate and the world is expected to run out of this resource by 2050. Construction-grade sand, hereafter referred to as 'sand', can be found in (former) aquatic environments, such as rivers and is a provisioning ecosystem service. Even under controlled circumstances, the practice of extracting the sand from the riverbed and -banks impacts the environment. Unfortunately, many countries lack sand mining regulation policies and in combination with a high demand, this results in indiscriminate and illegal mining. To create effective policies for sustainable extraction of river sand, there is a need for both qualitative and quantitative data on the…