The 1818 Society Urban and Water Thematic Group (TG) invites you to a Webex presentation on sinking cities. This presentation is a continuation of our Urban & Water Group’s “Talk Shop” series.
Speakers:
- Matt Wei is a geophysicist with extensive experience on measuring and understanding ground deformation by various processes. He holds a PhD in earth sciences from the University of California San Diego and is an associate professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography, Rhode Island University.
- Steve D’Hondt is a geological oceanographer with extensive experience in study of ocean change and in mapping global distributions of environmental and ecological data. He holds a PhD in geological and geophysical sciences from Princeton University and is a professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography, Rhode Island University.
Satellite data indicate that land is subsiding faster than sea level is rising in many coastal cities throughout the world. If subsidence continues at recent rates, these cities will be challenged by flooding much sooner than projected by sea level rise models. Subsidence rates in 99 coastal cities around the world between 2015 and 2020 were measured using satellite data (PS Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar method and Sentinel-1 data). Subsidence rates are highly variable within cities and from city to city. The most rapid subsidence is occurring in South, Southeast, and East Asia. However, rapid subsidence is also happening in North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Human activity—primarily groundwater extraction—is likely the main cause of this subsidence. Expanded monitoring and policy interventions are required to reduce subsidence rates and minimize their consequences. Known examples of sustained and reasonably successful management of coastal subsidence involve relatively localized subsidence, effective governance, and large capital investment. It will be a challenge to reproduce this success in cities throughout the world. However, cities and nations that fail to address the cause(s) of their subsidence will be challenged by flooding much sooner than projected by sea level rise models.
The link to a research paper by the authors is provided below:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2022GL098477
Moderator: Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic, Coordinating Committee Member of the Urban & Water Thematic Group.
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