Ongoing impacts from the surge in sand mining during COVID-19

Enhanced river bank erosion hazard and risk in Vietnam's Mekong delta

The COVID-19 (CV19) pandemic has led to a surge in unregulated, illegal sand extraction from the (mainly) landward rivers of the Mekong delta in Vietnam. It has been shown that this already unsustainable practice has driven loss of land and damage to infrastructure and livelihoods as a result of accelerated rates of bank erosion. Our aim is to provide estimates of sand mining activity (including co-developing capacity in Vietnam for routine monitoring using remote sensing techniques), associated bank erosion rates, population dynamics, and infrastructure and gendered livelihood exposure maps. These will be combined to deliver insight into where, by whom and how the impacts of CV19 enhanced sand mining are being adversely felt and which policies might be modified or developed to address the impacts of sand mining, balanced against the economic benefits that this practice provides.