Sustainable river mining of aggregates in developing countries

Abstract

Throughout the developing world, river sand and gravel is widely exploited as aggregate for construction. Sediment is often mined directly from the river channel and makes an important contribution to the national demand for aggregates. However, instream mining, if not carefully controlled, can cause significant damage to the river and its associated biota, and to the adjacent land, as well as creating conflict with other users of the river. The economic and environmental geology of river sand and gravel mining in developing countries is poorly known and there is little knowledge available to inform existing regulatory strategies. Research work on selected river systems in Jamaica and Costa Rica has generated a considerable amount of new information on resources and sediment budgets, on market and supply options, on the physical, biological and social impacts of extraction, and on best-practice legislative and mineral planning issues. A methodology has been developed for effective control of instream sand and gravel mining operations including a Code of Practice, which regulators can use for examining and reconciling the conflicting claims of sand and gravel extraction and the environment.

Sand, gravel, and UN Sustainable Development Goals: Conflicts, synergies, and pathways forward

“…Aggregate mining is present across a wide range of geological, social and environmental settings 115 . For example, in Fiji, river gravel extraction comprises 64% of aggregate production by volume and 76% of regulated extraction sites 116 , whilst in Cameroon, artisanal sand miners dive to collect sand from river beds by hand 117 .…”

Carbon Emission from Dredging Activities in Land Reclamation Developments: the Case of Jakarta Bay Indonesia

“…In emerging nations, economic development coupled with population growth has accelerated the demand for resources (Harrison et al, 2005;Lu et al, 2007;Padmalal and Maya, 2014). Worldwide, the utilization of materials in 2017 was 3.4 times that of 1970 (Oberle et al, 2019).…”

“…The reclamation islands in Dubai required an astonishing 1.74 billion cubic metres (m 3 ) (Pronk and Lindo, 2005). The push for proposed new landmasses is growing, although environmental concerns have emerged from development and sand mining (Harrison et al, 2005;Padmalal and Maya, 2014;Griggs, 2017;Larson, 2018).…”

A study of the greenhouse gas emissions from land reclamation activities in Jakarta Indonesia

“…In emerging nations, economic development coupled with population growth has accelerated the demand for resources (Harrison et al, 2005;Lu, Zhang, Xie, & Ma, 2007;Padmalal & Maya, 2014). Worldwide, the utilization of materials in 2017 was 3.4 times that of 1970 (Oberle et al, 2019).…”

“…The reclamation islands in Dubai required an astonishing 1.74 billion cubic metres (m 3 ) (Pronk & Lindo, 2005). The push for proposed new landmasses is growing, although environmental concerns have emerged from development and sand mining (Griggs, 2017;Harrison et al, 2005;Larson, 2018;Padmalal & Maya, 2014).…”