Talk:Sinking cities

Urbanization

It's not just the overextraction of groundwater that's a problem. Another issue is the weight of the city itself (see https://interestingengineering.com/7-sinking-cities-around-the-world ). As I understand it, the weight of the concrete buildings simply make the earth below it more compact (soil compaction) and probably also push out water out from the soil. Mention in article. --Genetics4good (talk) 14:07, 20 April 2021 (UTC)

Hi! I understand that you're saying that weight of the city plays a role in compacting the soil and pushing water out of the soil, causing land subsidence. However, after doing some research, I'm understanding more that both overextraction of groundwater and weight of the city are problems, but groundwater extraction plays a bigger role in land subsidence than the weight of the city (see Land under the country’s largest cities is sinking. Here’s where — and why - The Washington Post). Sunkiszed13 (talk) 03:32, 26 April 2026 (UTC)

Chart "Subsidence in Coastal Cities"

There is an obvious error in the chart "Subsidence in Coastal Cities." For New Orleans, it shows the "Mean current subsidence rate (mm/year)" as 60, yet it lists the "Maximum subsidence rate (mm/year)" for the same city as only 26. One does not need to be a statistician to know that "mean" means average, "maximum" means maximum, and the mean (average) can never be higher than the maximum, but 60 (the alleged mean) is greater than 26 (the alleged maximum). Since it's impossible for the mean to be higher than the maximum, were the two figures (60 and 26) accidentally reversed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gato63 (talk • contribs) 02:31, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for spotting this. Seems like a typo: source says 6 as the mean, not 60. Fixed it, and it looks like the other numbers are correct from the source. Nymaker (talk) 00:24, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Causes of cities sinking

Climate change is not a cause of cities sinking. Even the sources and the reasons in that section only state that it may only be an impact after cities sink due to the other reasons mentioned in the causes section, mainly land subsidence.

Therefore it should not be in the causes sections. Perhaps it could in another section instead. 24.246.8.112 (talk) 03:42, 7 February 2025 (UTC)

Hi! After doing some research, I've also come to the conclusion that Climate Change is not a cause of cities sinking but that its does play a role in contributing to this problem. Therefore, I created a mini section under "Causes" labeled "Contributing factors" to still acknowledge that Climate change affects other processes that do contribute to sinking cities but that it's not the main cause of the actual cities sinking. Thank you. Sunkiszed13 (talk) 00:15, 28 April 2026 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Complexities

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 19 March 2026 and 30 April 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sunkiszed13, Whdmk (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Nymaker (talk) 01:22, 12 April 2026 (UTC)