Governing the sand commons: Implications of sand mining for coastal communities in India

Abstract

While the ever-increasing demand for sand, mainly used in construction, is the very foundation of urban development, it also increasingly comprises livelihoods and the resilience of socio-ecological ecosystems at the sourcing sites (Lamb et al. 2019). Especially in the periphery of coastal urban areas, said demand causes disruption of riverine and coastal food systems (e.g. fisheries) and thus critically affects food security (Torres et al. 2021). Moreover, extensive sand extraction can add to prevalent climate risk by contributing to coastal erosion as well as through the degradation of natural buffers, such as mangroves, against storm surges or flooding (Chevalier 2014, UNEP 2022). Interventions of this kind consequently affect sand flow patterns and cause environmental change beyond the spatial extent of the mere mining activities.

The present research, herein, investigates how adaptation institutions address shifting vulnerabilities of coastal communities across spatial scales along the Southeastern coast of India. Particularly, the impacts of sand mining in the state of Tamil Nadu are concerned with vulnerability over cross-spatial scales and yet remain largely unaddressed when planning adaptation projects or policies (Chi et al. 2021). With the Sagarmala project, a large-scale infrastructure project for port-led development and economic growth, at site, the case study area represents well a contested arena around urban development and coastal adaptation within a geographically dispersed set of relationships.

Following a qualitative case study based approach (Yin 2003), I aim to decompose the socio-natural politics and institutional arrangements around the governance of the sand commons trough analyzing how power relations between actors shape and (re)distribute vulnerability and thus affect their capacity to adapt to climate change. In doing so, this research project makes a significant contribution to account for a participatory process in adaptation planning by providing empirical evidence of how coastal communities are directly affected by the dynamics of rapid urbanization and coastal transformations.