Land Subsidence: the Megadanger lying in Wait for Megacities
Land Subsidence: the Megadanger lying in Wait for Megacities
Land subsidence in Venice, Credit, Venice Travel Tips
Megacities in Asia such as Bangkok, Djaka, Ho Chi Minh City, and Jakarta face the threat from land subsidence, while other cities like Chittangong, Bangladesh and Perth, Australia encounter the same situation, with the rate at which these cities sink coming faster than sea level rises.
The rate of land subsidence also comes faster than sea level increases along the coast of Africa, with many cities sinking at the rate of 10 millimeters per year, twice the global average, cities such as Lagos, Nigeria, Alexandria, Egypt, and Doula, Cameroon affected.
The eastern coast of the United States is also affected, and a recent research showed that the land that holds major cities such as New York and Baltimore sinks at the rate of one to two millimeters per year through subsidence, making the area to subside faster than sea level rises, allowing people to experience “too much water”.
Megacities in other parts of the world experience people having "too much water" too, Latin American cities like Mexico joining those in Africa, Asia, and the United States to face a global challenge, sinking at a fast rate of 30 centimeters ever year, not unlike cities in Europe such as Venice, gradually sinking into the Adriatic Sea, the victim of floods about 100 times a year.
Social economic development, in addition to population explosion, drives the demand for groundwater in Asia, with for instance groundwater levels in the North China Plain declining by about one meter per year since the 1980s, allowing groundwater withdrawal to increase the rate of land subsidence.
Groundwater withdrawal also fuels land subsidence in the coastal cities of Africa, as water often pumps out faster than it can be refilled, fuelled by a situation where the urban share of the continent's population doubled from 19 to 39 percent over the last 50 years, meaning more than 360 million new city dwellers.
Groundwater extraction also contributes to the coast of the United States having one of the fastest land subsidence rates on the globe, with New Yorkers consuming almost 900 million gallons per day of groundwater, while groundwater serves 19.8 percent of the population in Maryland in 2015, and homes and industries in eastern Virginia removing approximately 255 million gallons of groundwater.
Groundwater withdrawal no doubt causes land subsidence in Africa, Asia, the eastern coast of the United States, and other places, so cities like Venice must naturally sink into the Adriatic Sea, but when climate change through rising sea water combines with land subsidence as factors behind sinking cities on a worldwide basis, the situation becomes frightening.
It's frightening, because southeast Asia contains one of the longest coastlines in the world at 234,000 kilometers, but with the challenge of land subsidence, and the rising rate of sea levels from 1.5 to 4.4 millimeters per year along the eastern coast of Asia, millions of people could encounter great challenges.
Millions of people could also encounter great challenges on the African continent, when land subsidence is seen within the context of rising sea levels, which is projected to rise by 0.3 meters by 2030, affecting 117 million people, with a four degrees Celsius level of global warming leading to a one-meter rise in sea levels by the end of the century.
By the end of the century, sea-level rise could intensify coastal hazards in the eastern coast of the United States, home to more than a third of the US population, with a combination of sea level rises from climate change and land subsidence projected to inundate 65 square miles of the Bay Area of San Francisco by 2100.
By 2100, the combination of land subsidence and climate change through rising sea levels could become problematic in Asia, Africa, and the coastal area of the United States, making the rate of groundwater withdrawal a frightening development on a global scale.
On a global scale, cities must undergo groundwater replenishment, especially in response to the population growth of megacities, to prevent places such as Jakarta from experiencing land subsidence of up to 25 centimeters per year.
Governments should also include per year coastal subsidence as an item in their plans to tackle sea level rise, so when the measure combines with groundwater replenishment, the challenge of climate change and sinking cities will be controlled, a means to save millions from pains in the near future.
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What to Eat
Vegan food from Italy, Credit, Authentic Italian Vegans
I need to visit Venice before it's all gone! The canals people saw as they visited the city defined the international nature of the trading hub a thousand years ago, right where east met west. I wonder how many other Venices are out there, waiting for climate change to destroy them. It makes me want to travel more.
Many towns like Venice exist around the world, most of them on the coastlines. With the sea levels rising, they will certainly go under, taking everything with them.