A global analysis of subsidence, relative sea-level change and coastal flood exposure

Robert J. Nicholls (), Daniel Lincke, Jochen Hinkel, Sally Brown, Athanasios T. Vafeidis, Benoit Meyssignac, Susan E. Hanson, Jan-Ludolf Merkens and Jiayi Fang
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Robert J. Nicholls: University of East Anglia (UEA)
Daniel Lincke: Global Climate Forum
Jochen Hinkel: Global Climate Forum
Sally Brown: Bournemouth University
Athanasios T. Vafeidis: Department of Geography
Benoit Meyssignac: Université de Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, UPS, IRD
Susan E. Hanson: University of Southampton
Jan-Ludolf Merkens: Department of Geography
Jiayi Fang: East China Normal University

Nature Climate Change, 2021, vol. 11, issue 4, 338-342

Abstract: Abstract Climate-induced sea-level rise and vertical land movements, including natural and human-induced subsidence in sedimentary coastal lowlands, combine to change relative sea levels around the world’s coasts. Although this affects local rates of sea-level rise, assessments of the coastal impacts of subsidence are lacking on a global scale. Here, we quantify global-mean relative sea-level rise to be 2.6 mm yr−1 over the past two decades. However, as coastal inhabitants are preferentially located in subsiding locations, they experience an average relative sea-level rise up to four times faster at 7.8 to 9.9 mm yr−1. These results indicate that the impacts and adaptation needs are much higher than reported global sea-level rise measurements suggest. In particular, human-induced subsidence in and surrounding coastal cities can be rapidly reduced with appropriate policy for groundwater utilization and drainage. Such policy would offer substantial and rapid benefits to reduce growth of coastal flood exposure due to relative sea-level rise.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-00993-z

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