Scientists predict climate change will make sea levels rise, threatening many coastal communities. A new study finds another threat could make sea level flooding worse.
Most coastal communities are making plans to withstand sea level rise, in the coming decades, but these plans generally don’t take into account land subsidence, which could threaten infrastructure and people sooner.
“Sea level rise currently is not the problem,” said Manoochehr Shirzaei, an associate professor at Virginia Tech. “Land subsidence is just as important if not more important than sea level rise.”
Land subsidence is partly a naturally occurring process, as the ground shifts and settles very slowly. But humans are also causing subsidence, mostly through groundwater extraction, pumping oil and gas, and dam building.
Flooding is already having an impact in some areas in Virginia, said Leonard Ohenhen, another researcher who worked on the study.
“Flooding could definitely get worse, and so planning for those specific areas in Virginia would be really important,” Ohenhen said.
He points to flooding in Hampton Roads, which could be a result of land subsidence, which could increase in the coming years. Land subsidence could also make levees fail.
Both researchers said they hope policy makers will consider incorporating land subsidence in their calculations, to help communities have more accurate resiliency plans.
Their study, which was published in the National Academies of Sciences, found that in some places land subsidence is occurring twice as fast as sea level rise. They predict 50 percent of infrastructure in major cities across the east coast could see damage in the coming years as a result.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
