Guangzhou Worldwide at Highest Risk of Damaging Floods
Climate change, rapid urbanisation and subsiding land are putting the world's coastal cities at increasing risk of dangerous and costly flooding. A study of the World Bank and the OECD forecasts that average global flood losses will multiply from $6 billion per year in 2005 to $52 billion a year by 2050 with only social-economic factors, such as increasing population and property value, taken into account. Add in the risks from sea-level rise and sinking land, and global flood damage for large coastal cities could cost $1 trillion a year if cities don’t take steps to adapt. In terms of the overall cost of damage, the cities at the greatest risk are: 1) Guangzhou, 2) Miami, 3) New York, 4) New Orleans, 5) Mumbai, 6) Nagoya, 7) Tampa, 8) Boston, 9) Shenzhen, and 10) Osaka. The top four cities alone account for 43% of the forecast total global losses. The study also lists the 10 most vulnerable cities when measured as percentage of GDP as: 1) Guangzhou; 2) New Orleans; 3) Guayaquil; 4) Ho Chi Minh City; 5) Abidjan; 6) Zhanjing; 7) Mumbai; 8) Khulna; 9) Palembang, Indonesia, and 10) Shenzhen. Along with better structural defences, cities will need better crisis management and contingency planning, including early warning systems and evacuation plans. To the article...
