Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene
Sand, gravel, and crushed rock, together referred to as construction aggregates, are the most extracted solid materials. Growing demand is damaging ecosystems, triggering social conflicts, and fueling concerns over sand scarcity. Balancing protection efforts and extraction to meet society's nee...
Published in: | One Earth |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Elsevier BV
2021
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/254204 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 |
id |
ftunivlouvain:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:254204 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivlouvain:oai:dial.uclouvain.be:boreal:254204 2024-05-12T08:04:35+00:00 Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene Torres Moreno, Aurora Simoni, Mark U. Keiding, Jakob K. Müller, Daniel B. zu Ermgassen, Sophus O.S.E. Liu, Jianguo Jaeger, Jochen A.G. Winter, Marten Lambin, Eric UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate 2021 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/254204 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 eng eng Elsevier BV boreal:254204 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/254204 doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 urn:ISSN:2590-3322 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess One Earth, Vol. 4, no.5, p. 639-650 (2021) info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2021 ftunivlouvain https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 2024-04-17T16:36:52Z Sand, gravel, and crushed rock, together referred to as construction aggregates, are the most extracted solid materials. Growing demand is damaging ecosystems, triggering social conflicts, and fueling concerns over sand scarcity. Balancing protection efforts and extraction to meet society's needs requires designing sustainable pathways at a system level. Here, we present a perspective on global sand sustainability that shifts the focus from the mining site to the entire sand-supply network (SSN) of a region understood as a coupled human-natural system whose backbone is the physical system of construction aggregates. We introduce the idea of transitions in sand production from subsistence mining toward larger-scale regional supply systems that include mega-quarries for crushed rock, marine dredging, and recycled secondary materials. We discuss claims of an imminent global sand scarcity, evaluate whether new mining frontiers such as Greenland could alleviate it, and highlight three action fields to foster a sustainable global sand system. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) Greenland One Earth 4 5 639 650 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DIAL@UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivlouvain |
language |
English |
description |
Sand, gravel, and crushed rock, together referred to as construction aggregates, are the most extracted solid materials. Growing demand is damaging ecosystems, triggering social conflicts, and fueling concerns over sand scarcity. Balancing protection efforts and extraction to meet society's needs requires designing sustainable pathways at a system level. Here, we present a perspective on global sand sustainability that shifts the focus from the mining site to the entire sand-supply network (SSN) of a region understood as a coupled human-natural system whose backbone is the physical system of construction aggregates. We introduce the idea of transitions in sand production from subsistence mining toward larger-scale regional supply systems that include mega-quarries for crushed rock, marine dredging, and recycled secondary materials. We discuss claims of an imminent global sand scarcity, evaluate whether new mining frontiers such as Greenland could alleviate it, and highlight three action fields to foster a sustainable global sand system. |
author2 |
UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Torres Moreno, Aurora Simoni, Mark U. Keiding, Jakob K. Müller, Daniel B. zu Ermgassen, Sophus O.S.E. Liu, Jianguo Jaeger, Jochen A.G. Winter, Marten Lambin, Eric |
spellingShingle |
Torres Moreno, Aurora Simoni, Mark U. Keiding, Jakob K. Müller, Daniel B. zu Ermgassen, Sophus O.S.E. Liu, Jianguo Jaeger, Jochen A.G. Winter, Marten Lambin, Eric Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene |
author_facet |
Torres Moreno, Aurora Simoni, Mark U. Keiding, Jakob K. Müller, Daniel B. zu Ermgassen, Sophus O.S.E. Liu, Jianguo Jaeger, Jochen A.G. Winter, Marten Lambin, Eric |
author_sort |
Torres Moreno, Aurora |
title |
Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene |
title_short |
Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene |
title_full |
Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene |
title_fullStr |
Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sustainability of the global sand system in the Anthropocene |
title_sort |
sustainability of the global sand system in the anthropocene |
publisher |
Elsevier BV |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/254204 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
One Earth, Vol. 4, no.5, p. 639-650 (2021) |
op_relation |
boreal:254204 http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/254204 doi:10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 urn:ISSN:2590-3322 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.011 |
container_title |
One Earth |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
639 |
op_container_end_page |
650 |
_version_ |
1798846799186755584 |