As many cities develop, they often respond to growing water demand with groundwater extraction. This leads to the phenomenon of land subsistence: as the water is pumped to the surface, the land beneath settles lower. Oil and gas drilling and manic construction are also culprits.
Data from Tay et al 2022 shows that many of the most populous coastal cities, shown on this map, are suffering from subsistence on a scale of centimetres every year.
Not all cities are sinking at the same rate, and not all parts of a city sink equally. Areas shown in red are where a city’s most intense subsistence is taking place.
Global sea rise is not shown on this map - it is occurring on top of the land subsistence you see here. Cities will have to contend with both in order to protect their residents.
Methodology
The authors of this study used a type of radar called interferometric synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR. Some parts of the city that were not directly measured by InSAR were interpolated, or filled in statistically.
Some parts of the data are less precisely estimated than others. Use the checkbox in the lower left to screen out areas with less precise measurements (more than 25% normalised standard deviation).
The city subsistence areas presented here have been reprojected for display on an interactive map, and they may not line up exactly with the underlying map. For georeferenced versions of this data, see our GitHub repository.