Shanghai and Tianjin are among those facing the biggest threat. In the past 30 years, Shanghai has seen a sea-level rise of 115mm, the report said, whereas Tianjin has seen the seas rise by as much as 196mm. The country’s overall sea level has risen 90mm over the same period, the report added.
As a comparison, while the global average sea-level rise every year between 1975 and 2007 was 1.7mm, the report said, the Chinese average was 2.5mm.
Global warming is the main reason for rising sea levels, officials were quoted as saying, but surface subsidence is also to blame for the threat of floods in Shanghai and Tianjin, exacerbated by the cities’ "indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater resources."
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