Towards international excavation tasks

Over the last twenty years social opposition to mineral excavation has increased to such an extent in the densely populated Netherlands, that it is getting extremely difficult to discover new sites for quarrying coarse sand for concrete. While the Dutch government has attempted for many years to shape more effective legislation covering mineral excavation, The Netherlands is importing ever growing quantities of building materials from abroad, especially from Germany and Belgium and from Scotland and Norway. It seems almost certain that in the future some restraints will be imposed on the import of minerals (unconsolidated deposits) from populous areas in Germany and Belgium along the Rhine and the Meuse to the Netherlands.

Meanwhile it is extremely difficult for the provinces of The Netherlands to come to an agreement over the location of new extracting sites. The theoretical model is inadequate and requires practical improvement. The directives based on this model, therefore, must be broadened to include larger contextual aspects.