ABSTRACT

Land subsidence is a gradual settling or

sudden sinking of the Earth’s surface.
Subsidence is the mainly vertical downward
displacement of the Earth’s surface
generally due to insufficient support from
beneath, a superimposed load, or a
combination of both. It can arise from
natural causes, human activities, or, often,
by human activities destabilizing natural
systems. It has various types of impacts like
infrastructural, environmental, economic
and social. Arguably, this is the most
underrated problem or hazard which can
be fatal sometimes.

Md. Shahadat Hossain Biplab

Roll: AE-044,
MS Session: 2018-19,
Disaster and Environment Management,

LAND Department of Geology,

University of Dhaka.

SUBSIDENCE
Causes, Adverse impacts and Identification
Introduction:
Land subsidence is the lowering of the land-surface elevation due to changes that take place
underground. It is vertical downward displacement of the earth surface caused by various natural and
anthropogenic activities. Land subsidence is treated as an invisible hazard as the incidences of gradual
land subsidence cannot be noticed in naked eye. it can occur over large areas rather than in a small spot,
like a sinkhole.

Causes of Land Subsidence:

There are various causes of land subsidence. They are,

1. Water extraction and intrusion

2. hydrocompaction
3. Sediment compaction
4. subsidence caused by volcanic activity
5. Tectonic causes,
- Plate convergence
- Folding
- Faulting
6. Hydrocarbon extraction
7. Subsoil erosion
8. natural loading
9. Sinkholes (in Limestone)
10. Underground mining operation
11. Irrigation: leads to both subsidence and sliding
12. vibration under natural conditions during earthquakes or man-made activities
13. thawing permafrost

Adverse Impacts of Land Subsidence:

Land subsidence is a serious issue and one of the most dangerous invisible hazards.
Here are some adverse impacts of land subsidence,

Infrastructural Impacts,
- leads to damage of infrastructure (roads, bridges, dams) (direct)
- cracking of permanent constructions and roads (direct)
- tilting of houses and buildings (direct)
- ‘sinking’ of houses and buildings (direct)
- breaking of underground pipelines and utilities (direct)
- malfunction of sewerage and drainage system
- deterioration in function of building and infrastructures
 Environmental Impacts,
- the wider expansion of flooding areas
- changes in river canal and drain flow systems
- inundated areas and infrastructures
- tidal inundation
- problems with drainage (may be water-logging)
- inland sea water intrusion in coastal areas
- deterioration in quality of environmental condition
- Ground breaking
- Subsurface deformation

Economic Impacts,
- increase in maintenance cost of infrastructure
- decrease in land and property values
- abandoned buildings and facilities
- disruption to economic activities
- inundation problem leads to decrease food production rate and
quantity

Social Impacts,
- badly influence the quality and amenity of the living environment,
e.g., sanitation and public health
- disruption to daily activities of people

Here, among those adverse effects, some are direct effects of land subsidence and some are indirect.
Subsidence effects, both direct and indirect, are highly site-specific. Each different area may have its
own unique set of subsidence-related problems. Because of this site specific nature of the problems, it is
generally not possible to predict the consequences of subsidence of one area based on another area.
Subsidence phenomena such as tilting, sinking, and fissuring of the ground surface are more responsible
for damage than the simple vertical subsidence of the ground.

Some case study:

In the capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka, in Tejgaon and Savar area, some buildings were
identified tilted due to land subsidence. The main cause of subsidence here seems to be the drainage
which leads to differential subsidence to occur. Differential subsidence occurs due to lithological change.

In Chittagong marine academy, land subsidence along with sliding was identified. The main
cause of duel action here, seems to be due to irrigation problem. Irrigation leads to the subsoil erosion
here which further tends to subside and slide the surface.
 An excellent example of subsidence caused by volcanic activity is Crater Lake located in Oregon,
U.S.A (Fig: A). It is generally believed that large volcanic eruptions of the ancient Mount Mazama
partially emptied the magma chamber feeding this giant volcano, resulting both in the collapsing of its
top and creation of Crater Lake. Another probably more common, but less spectacular type of volcanic
subsidence is the collapsing of roofs of lava caves.

Fig: Selected examples of subsidence due to (A) volcanism (Crater Lake collapse caldera in Oregon,
U.S.A.); (B) folding (Central Valley (V) , located between the Coast Ranges (C) and the Sierra Nevada (S) ,
California, U.S.A.); and (C) faulting (horst and graben topography Basin and Range province, Nevada,
U.S.A.).
 An example of land subsidence caused by folding is the Central Valley of California (Fig: B). This
valley is a giant structural trough. It is located mostly between two mountain ranges - the Sierra Nevada
on the east, and the Coast Ranges on the west. The folding here is probably related to plate tectonics.

Typical cases of subsidence related to faulting are numerous grabens or down-faulted blocks of
the Earth's crust, such as the famous Rhine Valley in Europe. In the United States, "horst and graben"
topography is particularly well developed in the Basin and Range Province in Nevada, Arizona, and
partially, in California (Fig: C).

Land Subsidence Identification:

May be identified by using,

- GPS: by measuring geo-centric location

- Borehole: using borehole method to measure the thickness of the
formation and analyzing data of different times.
- Radar: Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has great
potential to detect and quantify land subsidence caused by aquifer
system compaction. InSAR maps have high spatial detail and
resolution of range displacement (10 mm in change of land surface
elevation).

Conclusion:
Land subsidence is one of the world’s most underrated problems. Land subsidence causes more
and more damage every year. Still. it scarcely registered on the radar of many countries. Even so, the
impact on coastal cities and peat areas is increasingly apparent. Levels of flood damage are rising and
the risk of casualties is following. As we can see, land subsidence is also lead to major economic losses
such as structural damage and high maintenance costs for roads, railways, pipelines, buildings etc. The
total bill worldwide mounts up to many billions of dollars annually. It can only rise further in the future
with population growth and the intensification of economic activities in delta areas. So, we have to be
more careful and sensitive about this invisible disaster and should take initiatives to hurdle its way of
acting like carbon monoxide.
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