Project Overview

Sand is the second most extracted natural resource after water, and it is critical for modern infrastructure and technology. However, the environmental impact of river sand mining, particularly its carbon footprint and role in climate change, remains unexamined. This project aims to address this gap by investigating the carbon emissions from river sand mining in Southeast Asia, focusing on the Mekong Delta as a testbed for this first of a kind study. To achieve this, the project will pursue three specific aims sequentially. First, we will use remote sensing and field surveys to map and categorize sand mining boat activities by enhancing deep learning models previously developed by the PI's research team. Second, we will integrate this data with emission estimates for each boat type to calculate the total annual carbon emissions from sand mining in the Mekong Delta over the past decade (since 2010). Third, we will compare these estimates against data from the Global Carbon Project and the Climate Watch Data Explorer to quantify the significance of sand mining emissions within the broader context of regional and national carbon budgets. The proposed project will provide the first baseline information on the carbon footprint of sand mining and expand our understanding of the contribution of sand mining activities to climate change. This research aligns with Singapore's vision to be a sustainability leader in southeast Asia as our work seeks to address and mitigate the environmental impacts of sand mining. Additionally, this project has the potential to position NIE/NTU at the forefront of environmental sustainability research in the specific domain of sand mining.