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Deltas at risk

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Abstract

The long-term sustainability of populated deltas is often more affected by large-scale engineering projects than sea-level rise associated with global warming and the global ocean volume increase. On deltas, the rate of relative eustatic sea-level rise is often smaller than the rate for isostatic-controlled subsidence and of the same order of magnitude as natural sediment compaction. Accelerated compaction associated with petroleum and groundwater mining can exceed natural subsidence rates by an order of magnitude. The reduction in sediment delivery to deltas due to trapping behind dams, along with the human control of routing river discharge across delta plains, contributes to the sinking of world deltas. Consequences include shoreline erosion, threatened mangroves swamps and wetlands, increased salinization of cultivated land, and hundreds of millions of humans put at risk.

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Acknowledgments

Many scientists have contributed to this effort, including Yoshiki Saito (JGS), Charles Vörösmarty (UNH). The INSTAAR Deltaforce team, Eric Hutton, Scott Peckham, Albert Kettner, Irina Overeem, and Mark Hannon, each contributed to the developing database associated with this analysis.

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  1. Environmental Computation and Imaging Facility, INSTAAR, University of Colorado—Boulder, Boulder, CO, 80304-0595, USA

    James P. M. Syvitski

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Correspondence to James P. M. Syvitski.

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Syvitski, J.P.M. Deltas at risk . Sustain Sci 3, 23–32 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-008-0043-3

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