Catastrophic Flooding and Societal Vulnerability during the Neolithic on the East China Coast

Abstract:

The risk of catastrophic floods (not only loss of life, property and infrastructure, but also the salinization of land and coastal erosion, etc.) in the coastal lowlands of eastern China, where a population of 144 million live within 182,000 km² of low elevation (<10 m) area, is increasing due to global warming and the associated acceleration of sea level rise. The warming of west Pacific Ocean is affecting storm surge frequency and intensity and rate of sea level rise is outpacing deposition rates and leading to long-term vulnerability. The east China coastal plain has a rich archaeological record of Neolithic cultural development where catastrophic coastal floods during the middle Holocene are recorded as cultural interruptions. In this presentation I will show typical examples of marine transgression and catastrophic flooding caused by typhoon precipitation, storm surges and channel avulsion which lead to partial or complete interruptions in the archaeological records. Results can help prepare the Shanghai region for future challenges of predicted increases in coastal flooding frequency and extent from both long-term sea level rise and short-term extreme flood events.