US EditionSinking river deltas put millions at risk of flooding
Eighteen major river deltas, home to over 236 million people, are sinking faster than sea levels due to groundwater extraction, sediment loss, and urban growth, increasing flood risks.
- Using Sentinel-1 data, researchers published in Nature on Wednesday that 40 major river deltas are sinking faster than sea levels, with land loss and flooding increasing globally.
- Researchers found groundwater extraction, sediment supply reductions and urban expansion cause rapid delta subsidence; Ohenhen said, 'In many places, groundwater extraction, sediment starvation, and rapid urbanization are causing land to sink much faster than previously recognized.'
- Average subsidence measures show deltas sinking about 4 millimeters per year on average, with some sites sinking ~8 mm per year and 38 deltas losing more than 50% of their area.
- Delta communities face threats to food supplies, ports and infrastructure as subsidence heightens near-term flood risk for more than 236 million people, with the Mississippi River Delta losing 5,000 square kilometers since 1932.
- Shirzaei urged using public Sentinel-1 data and targeted interventions like groundwater regulation and managed aquifer recharge to halt subsidence, noting regions with limited response capacity face rising flood risks.
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Why are river deltas disappearing? They’re sinking faster than many people realize.
Great white egrets stand in the wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Land in this area of the Mississippi River Delta is sinking, both on its own and in tandem with rising sea levels. (Elise Plunk/Louisiana Illuminator)A new study says river deltas around the world aren’t just disappearing because of rising seas, but because the land itself is sinking down into the waters, either as fast or faster than the rising oceans. Researchers found some of t…
18 of Earth's biggest river deltas — including the Nile and Amazon — are sinking faster than global sea levels are rising
Worldwide, millions of people live in river deltas that are sinking faster than sea levels are rising, research suggests. This exacerbates the risk of catastrophic coastal flooding and land loss.
Sinking river deltas put millions at risk of flooding
Some of the world’s biggest megacities are located in river deltas threatened by subsidence due to excessive groundwater extraction and urban expansion, compounding the threat they face from sea-level rise
The deltas of the great rivers of the planet are sinking. And they do so even at a higher rate than the one that rises the sea level, which will make these uninhabitable areas if measures are not taken and before what was thought. The large cities built on those lands, the lack of sediments due to the retention on the banks of dams or the extraction of groundwater, or of oil and gas, are causing these places, which have been the cradle of civili…
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