Deltas at risk

The long-term sustainability of populated deltas is often more affected by large-scale engineering projects than sea-level rise associated with global warming and the global ocean volume increase. On deltas, the rate of relative eustatic sea-level rise is often smaller than the rate for isostatic-co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability science 2008-04, Vol.3 (1), p.23-32
Main Author: Syvitski, James P. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Climate change
Climate Change Management and Policy
Coastal erosion
Compaction
Cultivated lands
Deltas
Earth and Environmental Science
Environment
Environmental Economics
Environmental Management
Global warming
Groundwater mining
Landscape Ecology
Lithosphere
Load
Mangroves
Public Health
River discharge
River flow
Rivers
Salinization
Sea level
Sediments
Special Feature: Original Article
Studies
Subsidence
Sustainability
Sustainable Development
Swamps
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Summary:The long-term sustainability of populated deltas is often more affected by large-scale engineering projects than sea-level rise associated with global warming and the global ocean volume increase. On deltas, the rate of relative eustatic sea-level rise is often smaller than the rate for isostatic-controlled subsidence and of the same order of magnitude as natural sediment compaction. Accelerated compaction associated with petroleum and groundwater mining can exceed natural subsidence rates by an order of magnitude. The reduction in sediment delivery to deltas due to trapping behind dams, along with the human control of routing river discharge across delta plains, contributes to the sinking of world deltas. Consequences include shoreline erosion, threatened mangroves swamps and wetlands, increased salinization of cultivated land, and hundreds of millions of humans put at risk.
ISSN:1862-4065
1862-4057
DOI:10.1007/s11625-008-0043-3