With the development of the economy along the upstream of the Yangtze River，the construction industry is prosperous，and the demand for the sand increases rapidly，leading to an expansion of the sand excavation in the Yangtze River. The risk of the flood control and navigation safety is raised by the major sand mining. This study aims to investigate the scale of sand excavation and its influence on the gravel shoals. Based on the data set of the river bed level from Yibin to Fuling reach between 2007 and 2016，we obtain the distribution of the sand mining，and simulate the recovery process for the destroyed shoal by the 2D hydro-sediment numerical model. The results show that the amount of the sand mining is about 0.395 billion m3，the gravel shoals are destroyed，and the difference in elevation can reach to 40 m，which indicate that the influence of the sand excavation on the topographic change is beyond that of the channel self-organization and the channel regulation；the destroyed shoal cannot return to the original form，due to the reservoirs mulit-operation in the upstream and the limitation of the sediment storage in the channel.