A national-scale assessment of land subsidence in China's major cities.
Zurui AoXiaomei HuShengli TaoXie HuGuoquan WangMingjia LiFang WangLitang HuXiuyu LiangJingfeng XiaoAsadilla YusupWenhua QiQinwei RanJiayi FangJinfeng ChangZhenzhong ZengYongshuo H FuBaolin XuePing WangKefei ZhaoLe LiWenkai LiYumei LiMi JiangYuan-He YangHaihua ShenXia ZhaoYue ShiBo WuZhengbing YanMengjia WangYanjun SuTianyu HuQin MaHao BaiLijun WangZiyan YangYuhao FengDanhua ZhangErhan HuangJiamin PanHuiying YeChen YangYanwei QinChenqi HeYanpei GuoKai ChengYu RenHaitao YangChengyang ZhengJiangling ZhuShaopeng WangChengjun JiBiao ZhuHongyan LiuZhiyao TangZhi-Heng WangShuqing ZhaoYanhong TangHanfa XingQinghua GuoYu LiuJingyun FangPublished in: Science (New York, N.Y.) (2024)
China's massive wave of urbanization may be threatened by land subsidence. Using a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar interferometry technique, we provided a systematic assessment of land subsidence in all of China's major cities from 2015 to 2022. Of the examined urban lands, 45% are subsiding faster than 3 millimeters per year, and 16% are subsiding faster than 10 millimeters per year, affecting 29 and 7% of the urban population, respectively. The subsidence appears to be associated with a range of factors such as groundwater withdrawal and the weight of buildings. By 2120, 22 to 26% of China's coastal lands will have a relative elevation lower than sea level, hosting 9 to 11% of the coastal population, because of the combined effect of city subsidence and sea-level rise. Our results underscore the necessity of enhancing protective measures to mitigate potential damages from subsidence.