Abstract
Groundwater withdrawal caused drastic land subsidence in Shanghai, located in the Changjiang (Yangtze) coastal plain. Geological investigations, focusing on the need of a 3-dimensional approach, were carried out in the framework of the design of a mathematical model aiming at the management of land subsidence. The research was based on sedimentary environmental interpretation with special emphasis on the coastal processes involved.
The compaction of the sediments, due to groundwater, is occurring mainly in the upper 70 m deposits, belonging to the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The upper Pleistocene deposits consist of a sequence showing the transition from an estuarine to a proper fluvial environment reflecting the end of a transgressive phase followed by a regressive phase. In the Holocene, although characterized by the post-glacial sea level rise, the coastal processes were dominated by a huge sediment supply from the Changjiang and Huanghe rivers. This resulted initially in a considerable salt marsh deposit followed by tidal flat deposits characterized by coastal progradation.
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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Baeteman, C. (1990). Vulnerability of Coastal Lowlands. A Case Study of Land Subsidence in Shanghai, P.R. China. In: Paepe, R., Fairbridge, R.W., Jelgersma, S. (eds) Greenhouse Effect, Sea Level and Drought. NATO ASI Series, vol 325. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0701-0_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-0701-0_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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