Its location on a low-lying alluvial plain near the mouth of Asia's longest river, the Yangtze, had already left it prone, but researchers warn that forests of skyscrapers sprouting across the ambitious metropolis could compound the threat by causing its marshy ground to sink.


"Shanghai came from the ocean, and has been facing the threat of rising sea levels," said Wang Pingxian, a member of the prestigious China Academy of Sciences and professor of ocean geology at Tongji University in Shanghai.

"The rising sea level is a worldwide problem, caused by global warming, but Shanghai and Tianjin, among China's coastal cities, face the biggest challenge, mainly because of land subsidence," Wang said as part of the Reuters Global Environment Summit.