Land subsidence in the United States

Abstract

From the San Francisco Bay/Delta to the Florida Everglades and from upstate New York to Houston, people are dealing with a common problem in these diverse locations-land subsidence due to the withdrawal of ground water or the application of water at the land surface. These locations illustrate that subsidence is not an isolated problem: an area of more than 15,000 square miles in 45 States experience land subsidence. Using these locations and others as case studies, this report focuses on three principal processes causing land subsidence: the compaction of aquifer systems, the oxidation of organic soils, and the collapse of cavities in carbonate and evaporite rocks. The impacts of land subsidence, past and present, are illustrated, and most importantly, so is the value of science in effectively limiting damages from land subsidence.