Combatting Sinking Cities: Strategies and Challenges

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The chapter explores the impacts of land subsidence on coastal areas using examples like Chesapeake Bay, highlighting issues like erosion, flooding, and uninhabitable houses. It delves into the challenges faced by sinking cities like Jakarta and Tokyo due to groundwater extraction, discussing potential solutions ranging from accommodation to reclaiming land from the sea. Futuristic ideas such as floating cities are considered as innovative approaches to address the complexities of sinking cities amidst environmental changes.

A study has found that more than two dozen US coastal cities are sinking by more than 2mm a year. It’s a similar picture across the world. Nearly half of China’s major cities, as well as places such as Tehran and Jakarta, are facing similar problems. These issues are compounded by sea level rises caused by global heating. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech University and Prof Robert Nicholls of the University of East Anglia to find out what’s making our cities sink and whether anything can be done to rescue them from the sea. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod