6 cities that could disappear under water by the year 2100

Extreme weather events threaten many coastal cities around the world. In 2017, NASApublished a simulationthat nearly 300 cities are at risk of disappearing by the end of this century.

Main threats: sea level rise, coastal erosion, and more extreme weather events.

A year ago, news broke in the British press that Fairbourne, a fishing village on the coast of Wales, would be one of the first victims of rising sea levels.

The local authorities have announced that they will no longer undertake work to protect this locality from the waters. By 2050, almost one thousand inhabitants must abandon the city.

This is just a modest example of the reality facing nearly 300 cities around the world, according to NASA forecasts.

From the megalopolis of Tokyo to islands with a few thousand inhabitants, passing through iconic places such as Venice, Saint Petersburg, or New Orleans, the enemies are always the same: rising sea levels, erosion, and extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and floods.

These are just six cities on the list of 300, each fighting for survival as they know best.

Venice is one of the most iconic cities at risk of extinction. Built on marshy land in the middle of a lagoon, Venice rose from the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.

The sea became second nature to the Venetians, who created one of the world’s largest commercial empires by water.

However, the same sea is now the greatest enemy and threatens the very existence of the city due to the slow sinking of the foundations, the erosion of the land due to waves – especially since the advent of motor boats – and the seasonal phenomenon of high tides, which cause severe flooding.

The Moses project, constructing an enormous seawall to isolate the lagoon, has been delayed for more than ten years.

Malé is the capital of the Maldives, the country lying almost at sea level, one of the most at risk of disappearing due to rising waters, like other island countries such as Kiribati.

The city is built on an island with an urban area of ​​only two square kilometers, which was largely created by coastal extension works.

But this land is very sensitive to storms and erosion, so the island is surrounded by an isolation dam to prevent the waves from taking over the land.

More storms and rising sea levels may render that protection insufficient and force residents — about 130,000 people, a third of the country’s population — to evacuate the city before the end of this century.

The second most populous city in Russia – with more than five million inhabitants – is exposed to violent storms coming from the Baltic Sea. They have struck him three times in the last hundred years. Catastrophic floods occur at intervals of about 100 years.

For this reason, in 1979 the construction of a huge dam, 26 kilometers long, began. Halted in 1991 due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, work was completed in 2011.

But this measure could be ineffective since the city was built in the delta of the Neva River, a fragile terrain not only in the face of storms but also in the way of river floods.

The capital of Japan is located on the shore of the bay of the same name. It is a city built at the confluence of four great rivers. Some neighborhoods were built on land that was once under the waves.

Therefore, rising sea levels could seriously affect the Japanese capital. Added to all this is the seasonal phenomenon of rains – between June and July – and typhoons – in August and September – which cause torrential rains, strong winds, and frequent floods.

The phenomenon is not limited to the capital: some studies estimate that Japan could lose almost all its beaches by 2065.

Hurricanes and tropical storms pose the greatest danger to cities in the Caribbean and on the Atlantic coast of the United States, and each year they devastate large areas.

Cities located by the sea are the most affected and are at risk of disappearing completely.

Due to its location in the Mississippi Delta, New Orleans faces an additional risk: hurricanes are much more aggressive than typhoons or Baltic storms, so the risk to the “Jazz Music Mecca” is much greater.

Indonesia’s capital holds a sad world record: it is the fastest sinking city, with a rate of 25 centimeters per year in the most affected areas. Because of this, it could disappear even before 2050.

Here too, flooding is the main threat, but the biggest problem is that Jakarta cannot avoid it, because the city is crossed by 13 rivers that overflow due to seasonal rains.

In addition, it is located on swampy ground, in which everything sinks little by little. In an attempt to save Jakarta from extinction, a mega engineering project is underway.

It provides for the creation of an artificial lagoon surrounded by a ring of 32 kilometers, where the excess flow of rivers during floods should accumulate