By Andy Hodges
The Port of Beijing is sinking at 11cm per year as a result of excessive pumping of wells to groundwater, experts say after using satellite imagery of China's capital.
Beijing is a popular destination for cruise ship tourists, but its central business district has become an environmental threat because of growth and the excessive need to exploit underground water, which is expected to affect at least 50 cities in the country.
While 11cm sounds small, that translates to 4 inches. This means the city is sinking further into the ground at a rate of 4 inches per year.
Details about the study was published in the journal Remote Sensing and is based on InSAR, a technique for mapping ground deformation using radar images.
Researchers conclude that Beijing sits on extensive natural reservoirs of water that are quickly becoming dry through human use and it's continued method is posing a serious threat to the city's infrastructure, especially it's high-speed railway that passengers use to travel from city to city in China.
"We are currently carrying out a detailed analysis of the impacts of subsidence on critical infrastructure (eg high-speed railways) in the Beijing plain. Hopefully a paper summarising our findings will come out later this year," the researchers told The Guardian.
While Beijing is sinking, the problem actually comes from the Chaoyang district, where the area has boomed since 1990 with hotels and offices. Chaoyang Park is also visited by cruise ship passengers entering the Port of Beijing.
Researchers say that tens of thousands of wells exist around the city that are used for agriculture and landscaping purposes, but the state has the authority over the installation of wells even though they are not enforced.
The cruise port offers tourists a lifetime experience to explore Beijing, which is dubbed the undulating metropolis located in remote northeastern China. This incredible city can take passengers from several cruise lines to witness Beijing's epic history, with human fossil records dating back more than 230,000 years.
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