JAKARTA/SINGAPORE: A recent study has identified Asean cities Jakarta (Indonesia) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) as among the world’s major metropolitan areas on the brink of sinking as a result of rising sea levels and extreme weather caused by climate change.
Global strategic and risk consulting company Verisk Maplecroft reported in its 2020 Environmental Risk Outlook issued during the weekend that 11 of the 15 cities most at-risk of sinking are Asian cities that are significant financial and trade centres, including Jakarta abd Ho Chi Minh City, which is especially threatened due to its location in the lowlands.
The company assessed sea level rise exposure to 500 cities with a population of more than 1 million people.
Other cities labelled high risk include Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shanghai in China and Japan's capital,Tokyo. Meanwhile, cities outside Asean and East Asia that face the same risk are Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; Alexandria, Egypt; and New York City, the United States.
Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in their report last year that the sea level was rising 3.6 millimeters per year. Based on this rate, the sea level could rise between 30 and 110 centimeters by the year 2100.
However, a 60cm to 110cm rise was most likely, the IPCC said as quoted by Verisk Maplecroft, as the world remained on a path of high emissions.
In a Bloomberg report, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest metropolis, faces an increasing risk of flood disasters given rapid infrastructure expansion driven by economic growth, according to McKinsey Global Institute.
The chance of such events could increase five to 10 times by 2050, resulting in economic and infrastructural damage that could cost billions of dollars, according to a McKinsey report, dated April. The analysis is based on hydrological simulations, land-use maps, infrastructure databases and damage curves.
Ho Chi Minh City, a historic flood area located some 1,000 miles south of the capital Hanoi, contributes about a quarter of the Vietnam’s gross domestic product. While the metropolis can cope with flood risks today that could hit 23% of its area, further urbanisation is raising the potential for land subsidence and an increase in sea levels.
Those could cause about US$8.4 billion of real-estate damage from flooding by 2050, six times the current estimated impact, McKinsey said.
The city still has time to adapt to avoid such risks by having better plans in place, including relocating homes and infrastructure assets away from flood-prone areas, McKinsey said. Investments and fund-raising are also needed to reduce exposure for roads and other critical utilities, according to the report.
Vietnam is forecast to become the world’s 20th-largest economy by 2050, given an annual economic growth rate of 5.1% estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers. - Jakarta Post/Asian News Network
Global strategic and risk consulting company Verisk Maplecroft reported in its 2020 Environmental Risk Outlook issued during the weekend that 11 of the 15 cities most at-risk of sinking are Asian cities that are significant financial and trade centres, including Jakarta abd Ho Chi Minh City, which is especially threatened due to its location in the lowlands.
The company assessed sea level rise exposure to 500 cities with a population of more than 1 million people.
Other cities labelled high risk include Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shanghai in China and Japan's capital,Tokyo. Meanwhile, cities outside Asean and East Asia that face the same risk are Dubai, the United Arab Emirates; Alexandria, Egypt; and New York City, the United States.
Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in their report last year that the sea level was rising 3.6 millimeters per year. Based on this rate, the sea level could rise between 30 and 110 centimeters by the year 2100.
However, a 60cm to 110cm rise was most likely, the IPCC said as quoted by Verisk Maplecroft, as the world remained on a path of high emissions.
In a Bloomberg report, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest metropolis, faces an increasing risk of flood disasters given rapid infrastructure expansion driven by economic growth, according to McKinsey Global Institute.
The chance of such events could increase five to 10 times by 2050, resulting in economic and infrastructural damage that could cost billions of dollars, according to a McKinsey report, dated April. The analysis is based on hydrological simulations, land-use maps, infrastructure databases and damage curves.
Ho Chi Minh City, a historic flood area located some 1,000 miles south of the capital Hanoi, contributes about a quarter of the Vietnam’s gross domestic product. While the metropolis can cope with flood risks today that could hit 23% of its area, further urbanisation is raising the potential for land subsidence and an increase in sea levels.
Those could cause about US$8.4 billion of real-estate damage from flooding by 2050, six times the current estimated impact, McKinsey said.
The city still has time to adapt to avoid such risks by having better plans in place, including relocating homes and infrastructure assets away from flood-prone areas, McKinsey said. Investments and fund-raising are also needed to reduce exposure for roads and other critical utilities, according to the report.
Vietnam is forecast to become the world’s 20th-largest economy by 2050, given an annual economic growth rate of 5.1% estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers. - Jakarta Post/Asian News Network
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