29,000 Buildings Sinking Into The Ground

A study published in Nature City, “Land subsidence risk to infrastructure in US metropolises,” shows that most American cities are sinking.

“Here we use space geodetic measurements from 2015 to 2021 to create high-resolution maps of subsidence rates for the 28 most populous US cities. We estimate that at least 20% of the urban area is sinking in all cities due to groundwater extraction, affecting ~34 million people.” Twenty-nine thousand buildings are sinking fast enough to cause structural damage.

The Washington Post reviewed the study. “Many of these sinking cities are located in the country’s interior.” It was assumed that most cities at risk were on rising bodies of water because of climate change. That makes this new study unique.

Highways And Houses

The conclusions are shocking because so much infrastructure is at risk. The data means highways could buckle, and the foundations of homes could break. 

It would be natural to think that this problem could be solved. At least with rising tides, seawalls have been erected. In the case of the cities that are falling, there is no such remedy, and probably there is no remedy money can buy

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