Nearly half of China's major cities are sinking -- some 'rapidly'

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01149-7

NEWS
18 April 2024

Nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking — some ‘rapidly’

Tens of millions of people in the country’s coastal lands might find their homes below sea level by 2120 owing to sinking and sea-level rise.

By Xiaoying You

One in ten residents of China’s coastal cities could be living below sea level within a century, as a result of land subsidence and climate change, according to a paper published in Science today1.

Some 16% of the mapped area of China’s major cities is sinking “rapidly” — faster than 10 millimetres every year. An even greater area, roughly 45%, is sinking at a “moderate” rate, the paper says, meaning a downward trajectory of greater than 3 mm annually. Affected cities include the capital Beijing, as well as regional capitals, including Fuzhou, Hefei and Xi’an.

The situation could see one-quarter of China’s coastal lands slip below sea level within a few decades, posing “serious threats” to the hundreds of millions of people who live on the coast, the paper notes.

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The paper’s authors did not reply to Nature’s request for comment.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01149-7