Subsidence and Relative Sea-level Rise in Threatened Deltas

Abstract:

In determining the risk lowland deltaic topography, as threatened by sea level rise and land subsidence, a number of important processes must be evaluated. Sea level rise is a global process but with local manifestations. Asian deltas have been experiencing higher rates of sea level rise due to the steric impact on dynamic (ocean) topography. Other large scale geophysical impacts on relative sea level at the local scale include the isostatic and flexural response to Holocene sea level history, Holocene sediment loads, and in former ice sheet zones --- glacial rebound. Tectonism does play a role on relative sea level rise, particularly in South America where the Eastern coastline, particularly Argentina, is rising relative to regional sea levels. Subsidence is impacted by both natural ground compaction, and accelerated compaction due to, for example, peat oxidation that often has a human driver (e.g. swamp reclammation). Subsidence is also impacted by the extraction of deeper deposits of petroleum and water. Rates of delta subsidence vary widely, depending on the magnitude of the anthropogenic driver, from a few mm/y to 100's of mm/y. Ground water withdrawal is the dominant reason behind much of the world's coastal subsidence, with important exceptions. On average subsidence rates (all causes) now contribute to local sea level innundations at rates four times faster then sea level is rising. New technologies, particularly InSAR and GPS methods, can often pin point the local cause (e.g. water withdrawl for agriculture versus for aquaculture). Subsurface soil or rock heterogeneity, and other very local geological patterns such as historical river pathways, also influence the temporal and spatial patterns associated with delta subsidence.