Nearly half of China's major cities are sinking due to groundwater extraction and the sheer weight of urban buildings and infrastructure, a new study finds.
These major cities are home to three-quarters of China's urban population, which totaled 920 million people in 2020 — the largest of any country in the world, according to the study. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over."In addition to the national pattern of city subsidence, we identified several natural and human factors that were associated with city subsidence," the team wrote in the study. Natural factors included the geological setting of each city and the depth of the bedrock, which influenced the amount of weight the ground could hold up without sinking.
Subsidence threatens infrastructure and people by destabilizing and fissuring the ground, and by increasing the risk of floods, according to the study. Sinking cities on China's east coast could soon drop below sea level, with up to 26% of the country projected to deflate below that threshold in the next 100 years. Currently, around 6% of Chinese land sits below sea level.
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