Detroit and other cities are slowly sinking
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
The biggest U.S. cities are sinking, and Detroit is among those where the problem is most widespread.
Why it matters: Land subsidence, or elevation loss, is an invisible and slow but growing threat to urban infrastructure. It's cracking roads, destabilizing buildings and making low-lying areas even more flood-prone.
- Detroit, a river-adjacent city that suffers from aging water infrastructure, has had several devastating floods in the last decade.
Driving the news: In a peer-reviewed study published last week in Nature, researchers analyzed six years of satellite radar data in the 28 most populous U.S. cities.
- They found that 25 of the 28 cities are subsiding, affecting more than 33 million people — roughly 10% of Americans — who live on sinking land.
- The cities are sinking by 2 to 10 millimeters — or 0.08 to 0.39 inches — per year, the study found.
- The new research finds that around 98% of Detroit's land area is sinking at measurable rates. It's among the 10 cities with the most subsidence in the country, the report says.
- Detroit's mean subsidence rate is 1.7 millimeters per year — not as fast as New York (2.4) or Houston (5.2).
State of play: Subsidence doesn't just threaten coasts. The new research shows it's a widespread issue across the U.S.
- Detroit is among inland urban areas where a main cause is the land's ongoing response to glaciers melting from the last ice age.
What they're saying: Researchers urge cities to factor subsidence into zoning, infrastructure upgrades and flood planning.
- They also call for long-term ground monitoring and public outreach to ensure communities are prepared for slow but damaging shifts.
Go deeper: Read the study