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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.
  1. Xiaoying You

    1. Xiaoying You is a writer based in London.

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A woman walks with a stick through a flooded street in Mengtougou district on July 31, 2023 in Beijing, China.

Scientists are saying that this subsidence could be because of groundwater depletion, among other factors. Credit: Chen Jie/VCG via Getty

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.

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

References

  1. Ao, Z. et al. Science 384, 301–306 (2024).

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  2. Erkens, G., Bucx, T., Dam, R., de Lange, G. & Lambert, J. Proc. IAHS, 372, 189–198 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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