The World's Rivers Are Running Out of Sand
A comprehensive review of 411 studies indicates that global river sand mining is occurring at unsustainable rates, far exceeding natural replenishment. This extraction is causing severe environmental damage, including riverbed incision, bank collapse, and saltwater intrusion.
Why it matters
Sand is a critical component of concrete, and its depletion threatens global construction stability and the safety of communities living along riverbanks.
Add ScienceAlert on Google (Aperture X/Moment/Getty Images) All over the world, industrial sand mining is extracting river sediment much, much faster than Earth's natural cycles can replenish it.
Our rivers are, quite literally, running out of sand.
Scientists have just published a massive review of 411 studies conducted since 1974, revealing that the global demand for river sand and gravel to create construction materials like concrete is unsustainable.
The Mekong Delta, which spills out across the southern tip of Vietnam after the river has traversed Cambodia and Laos, is a prime example.
There, a crane-equipped barge can extract 300 cubic meters (equivalent to 79,250 US gallons) of sand in just three hours.
In Vietnam, current extraction rates are about 11.8 times above the rate of natural sediment replacement, which is about 6.18 megatons per year.
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