A scientific journal says that China’s major cities are sinking

A study published by the scientific journal Sciences It indicates that nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking. The reason, according to researchers, is due to water extraction and weight gain resulting from real estate expansion.

According to the study, conducted in 82 cities, 16% of the sites analyzed fall by 10 millimeters per year and 45% of cities “fall” by 3 millimetres. In this scenario, a total of 67 million people live in areas that could collapse.

According to the researchers, the intense urbanization that China has witnessed in recent decades has led to increased water extraction from the ground, which is a way to meet the demand of the Chinese population. As a result, coastal cities are threatened by subsidence, a term used in geology to describe land level subsidence, as sea levels are already rising due to climate change.

Historical problem

This problem has affected China for several decades. Research conducted in the 1920s in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin already showed signs of sinking. For example, points in Shanghai have dropped by more than 3 meters in the last century.

Chinese coastal cities have previously featured in other reports about challenges related to rising sea levels. A study published last year in the journal Geophysical Research Letters Researchers evaluated 99 sites around the world, revealing that some major cities are sinking at a faster rate than the sea levels around them are rising. In this report, Tianjin, in China, had the highest drowning rate in the world, at 5.22 centimeters per year.

Source: Redacao Terra