Rivers worldwide face immense pressure from human activities like sand and gravel extraction, which threatens river ecosystems. Both small and large rivers are equally affected as industrialization and urbanization drive exponentially rising demand for riverbed materials in construction. Unscientific sand mining often degrades river basins through channel degradation and tributary incision due to harvesting beyond natural replenishment rates. Significant depletion of riverbank sand may increase flash flooding risks and nutrient concentrations in river waters.
Rivers worldwide face immense pressure from human activities like sand and gravel extraction, which threatens river ecosystems. Both small and large rivers are equally affected as industrialization and urbanization drive exponentially rising demand for riverbed materials in construction. Unscientific sand mining often degrades river basins through channel degradation and tributary incision due to harvesting beyond natural replenishment rates. Significant depletion of riverbank sand may increase flash flooding risks and nutrient concentrations in river waters.
Rivers worldwide face immense pressure from human activities like sand and gravel extraction, which threatens river ecosystems. Both small and large rivers are equally affected as industrialization and urbanization drive exponentially rising demand for riverbed materials in construction. Unscientific sand mining often degrades river basins through channel degradation and tributary incision due to harvesting beyond natural replenishment rates. Significant depletion of riverbank sand may increase flash flooding risks and nutrient concentrations in river waters.
Rivers worldwide face immense pressure from human activities like sand and gravel extraction, which threatens river ecosystems. Both small and large rivers are equally affected as industrialization and urbanization drive exponentially rising demand for riverbed materials in construction. Unscientific sand mining often degrades river basins through channel degradation and tributary incision due to harvesting beyond natural replenishment rates. Significant depletion of riverbank sand may increase flash flooding risks and nutrient concentrations in river waters.
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1/ 1
CVL 820: Case Study 1a
Rivers all over the world are under immense pressure due to various kinds of anthropogenic activities, among which indiscriminate extraction of sand and gravel is most disastrous, as the activity threatens the very existence of river ecosystems. The situation is equally alarming for small and large rivers. Due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and associated developments, the rivers are widely exploited for riverbed materials like sand and gravel. The need for sand and gravel is rising exponentially during the past few decades to meet its ever-increasing demand in the construction sector. Unscientific and haphazard sand mining, in many of the occasions, leads to severe environmental problems to river basin environments that need immediate attention and corrective measures. The rivers that are harvested at rates in excess of natural replenishments often undergo channel degradation, causing incision of the entire river system including its tributaries.
Observation 1: Significant depletion of sand from the riverbank may result in increased chances of flash floods due to reduction in the capacity to hold the surface runoff due to storm and slowly release it into the river.
Comments:
Observation 2: Riverbank sand acts as filter medium and its significant depletion may result in increased concentration of nutrients (Nitrogen and Phosphorus Compounds) into the river water due to surface runoff from the nearby agriculture fields.
