New York City sinking due to its million-plus buildings | Daily News

New York City sinking due to its million-plus buildings

New York City is sinking under the collective weight of all of its buildings, a new study has found. This gradual process could spell   trouble for a city around which the sea level has been rising more than twice as fast as the global rate - and is projected to rise between 8 inches and 30 inches by 2050.

What’s more, scientists expect more frequent and extreme rainfall events such as nor’easters and hurricanes due to the human-fueled climate crisis.

“We’re a ways off from the ocean simply moving in,” said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist at the US Geological Survey. “But we’ve had a couple of major hurricane events with Sandy and Ida in New York where heavy rainfall caused inundation in the city, and some of the effects of urbanization have allowed water to come in.” The paper, published in the journal Earth’s Future, aims to show how high-rise buildings in coastal, riverfront or lakefront areas could contribute to future flood risk and that measures should be taken to mitigate the potentially hazardous impacts. (CNN)

 


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