Raising Sand's Value Awareness: Science and Communication Initiatives.

Sand is one of the most used resources in the world (50 billion tonnes per year). It plays a strategic key role in delivering geosystems services, maintaining biodiversity, supporting economic development, and securing livelihoods within communities (UNEP, 2022). Sand is everywhere in our societies: buildings, roads, dams and other infrastructures. Despite this “endless” use, sand is a finite resource, and its use occurs at a faster rate than its generation by geological processes. However, the importance of sand and the need of a sustainable management of this raw material are unknow to students at basic and secondary levels and to the public in general.

The EDUCOAST project (funded by EEAGrants) aims to promote nature-based education in coastal and marine geosciences through experimental learning. A series of initiatives to increase awareness on sand conservation were carried out as part of the EDUCOAST project. They included field and lab activities for basic and secondary school students at sandy environments (such as barrier islands and dunes) and observation of various types of sand from around the world under binocular microscope.  These “hands-on” activities focused on topics such as “what is the sand made of?” and “Let’s get to know sand better”. In total, about 500 students participated in these “hands-on” activities and the conducted surveys showed very positive feedback, where the students learnt more about these sandy environments (origin and their processes), the sand characteristics (grain-size, composition, carbonates contents) and the need for more sustainable management practices for the environmental conservation of the coastal systems.

Communication and outreach play an important role in achieving the proposed objectives. In this context, the project also participated in various initiatives such as the “European Research Night”, "Science in Summer" (promoted by the Portuguese Programme "Ciência Viva") and the "Week of Science and Technology" among others, making it possible to increase awareness in addressing issues like sand importance and conservation for approximately 700 people.

These initiatives contributed to highlight the importance of public awareness and the potential for positive change through informed and engaged students and general public.

This is a contribution of the EDUCOAST (EEAGrants, PT-INNOVATION-0067) and EMSO-PT (PINFRA/22157/2016) projects.

This work was funded by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) I.P./MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) – UIDB/50019/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/ UIDB/50019/2020), UIDP/50019/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDP/50019/2020) and LA/P/0068/2020 (https://doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0068/2020)

Reference: UNEP 2022. Sand and sustainability: 10 strategic recommendations to avert a crisis. GRID-Geneva, United Nations Environment Programme, Geneva, Switzerland