Suitability evaluation of the exploitation and utilization of marine sand resources for construction: Taking the east exit of Qiongzhou Strait as an example

Abstract

With the rapid development of economy, there is a huge demand for sand and gravel, and the development of marine sand has become a current hot spot. The east exit of Qiongzhou Strait is rich in marine sand resources, and its resource potential is in the billions of square meters. This paper evaluates the suitability of exploitation and utilization of marine sand in the east exit of Qiongzhou Strait.Six indicators of mud content, sand content, grain size, sea sand thickness, water depth and offshore distance are considered.The collected data are analyzed using analytic hierarchy process, where in the weights of considered indicators are calculated and superimposed based on constructed judgment matrix and ArcGIS spatial analysis. Furthermore, the study area are divided into five grades of exploitation suitability. It is found that the marine sand in the shoal area has the best exploitation suitability because of its large scale, good quality, shallow water depth and little influence on mining environment.In addition, this paper analyses the influence of different indicators on the suitability of marine sand exploitation. In the shoal area, the thickness and sand content contribute greatly. In near shore bay, environmental impact is the main factor. In the deep trough area, the water depth becomes the main restrictive condition for marine sand exploitation. Finally, this paper establishes a marine sand exploitation and utilization suitability evaluation system based on key factors of natural property of resources, technical conditions of exploitation, ecological environment impact and administrative management.

Keywords

• marine sand for construction
• exploitation and utilization
• suitability evaluation
• east exit of qiongzhou strait