Abstract:
It’s estimated that the world’s annual consumption of aggregates exceeds 40 billion tons.Global demand for sand has tripled in the past 20 years.Demand for aggregates is likely to continue to increase in the future.In Europe and North America, there is less room for sand consumption to grow.In the Asia-Pacific region, demand will continue to grow rapidly.In Latin America and the Caribbean, demand will grow.At present, there is a lack of quantitative research on the physical impact caused by the development and utilization of sand and gravel resources, and the physical impact has not been linked with the impact of the ecological environment.To be sure, sand and gravel mining will reshape natural landscapes and affect infrastructure such as bridges, while sand and gravel transportation will consume energy and emit greenhouse gases.In many parts of the world, sand and gravel resources are the resources with the largest amount of exploitation but the least intensity of regulation and governance, thus causing social, political, economic, environmental, regulatory and other diverse challenges.According to relevant laws and regulations of various countries, most western countries and regions such as Europe, the United States, and Canada have not seen large-scale river sand mining activities.India, Malaysia, Cambodia, South Africa and other countries with frequent sand mining activities face governance dilemmas.