China: Shanghai,Tianjin,and Taiyuan,capital of north China's Shanxi Province, have sunk more than two meters

[Moderating Staff]

April 24, 2012

MORE than 300 of China's 657 cities are short of groundwater, with over 70 seeing land-subsidence hazards due to exploitation, including Shanghai.

The overdrafting of water has formed around 150,000 square kilometers of sinking areas, from Harbin in the northeast to Haikou in the far south, from Shanghai in the east to Urumqi in the west, said Wang Guangqian, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

 

Meanwhile, nearly 72,000 square kilometers of land surrounding the Bohai Sea has subsided in the last 50 years. The over-exploitation causes cracks in the ground and poses great threats to the urban infrastructure.

Shanghai, Tianjin, and Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, have sunk more than two meters. In February, a 10-meter-long road crack emerged in the Lujiazui area, Shanghai's financial zone.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/print.asp?id=499605