Shanghai the largest city in China having a population of more than 25 million people, located on the coast of the East China sea, mouth of the Yangtze River the economic center of China. Now Shanghai faces a major problem due to climate change causing the sea level to rise, it is in jeopardy of sinking affecting the lives of millions.
Shanghai is considered a disaster region affected hardest by global warming, as well as one of the cities in China that is most likely to be submerged because Shanghai has already sunk 1.76 meters from 1921-1965 due to pumping of groundwater. Now Shanghai has become too heavy for the ground that it is built on with all the infrastructures and buildings, making Shanghai more vulnerable to sea level rise. It is believed that in 2050 the global average temperature will rise by 2 °C and Shanghai will submerge. Research from the Tianjin-based National Marine Data and Information Service states that by 2050 the sea level at Yangtze river will rise by 20 to 60 cm.
With sea level rising, Shanghai’s flood control and flood prevention infrastructure construction, urban water source protection, urban security and socio-economic areas, such as coastal economic development, are at risk of flood disasters are all being affected. The threat of storm surges and floods has also increased. Sea level rise leads to water resources being polluted, and urban water sources supplying becomes leads to health problems, coastal erosion causes shoal siltation to slow down, affecting coastal engineering and coastal tourism.
Solutions
When it comes to creating a solution to stop Shanghai from sinking, you must stop sea level rise, which is associated with climate change. In Shanghai engineers have stretched hundreds of miles of levees along its rivers. Till this day the entire world is working to stop climate change, we have the Paris agreement having 195 countries being part of it. But what else could you do? Well I was reading an article about John Moore a professor at the Beijing Normal University came up with an idea which I think is interesting. He thinks since the crisis of rising sea levels is mainly due to the melting of glaciers in the Antarctic and the Arctic, we should build a dam to stop melting glaciers. He proposed on building a 100-meter-high dam in a fjord 5 km wide before the glacier to prevent warm ocean water from reaching and further eroding glaciers. I think this method is worth a try if it works it’s going to save millions of people not just in Shanghai but the entire world.
Reference
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-03/30/content_839982.htm
http://shanghaiist.com/2017/03/23/shanghai_submerged-2/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674927817300035
