Abstract
This chapter examines the effects of sea level rise in the Pearl River Delta in Southern China and how it will affect China’s maritime economy. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) is one of the most important economic regions in China and represents almost 10 percent of China’s national GDP. Beijing plans to turn the nine municipalities in the PRD into one large megacity by mid-century. These plans fail to account for the changing reality of climate change-induced sea level rise in the region, where sea levels could rise 1 meter by the end of the century due to a 4-degree Celsius rise in temperature and the nature of the Earth’s oceans. If nothing is done, the PRD faces extraordinary economic and human loss.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Mimi Lau, “Flooding paralyses rush hour traffic in Southern Chinese cities amid huge downpour,” South China Morning Post, May 10, 2016, http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1943046/flooding-paralyses-rush-hour-traffic-southern-chinese-cities-amid; “Heavy rains flood streets in Guangzhou,” China Daily, last updated May 10, 2016, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-05/10/content_25189842.htm
- 2.
“PRD Economic Profile,” Hong Kong Trade and Development Council, accessed May 1, 2016, http://china-trade-research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/Fast-Facts/PRD-Economic-Profile/ff/en/1/1X000000/1X06BW84.htm
- 3.
Mark Magnier, “China’s Economic Growth in 2015 is Slowest in 25 years,” Wall Street Journal, January 19, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-economic-growth-slows-to-6-9-on-year-in-2015-1453169398
- 4.
Adam Vaughn, “Paris climate deal: key points at a glance,” The Guardian, December 12, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/12/paris-climate-deal-key-points
- 5.
Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security, “Paris Climate Agreement Cannot Be Met Without Emissions Reduction Target for Agriculture,” University of Vermont, May 16, 2016, https://ccafs.cgiar.org/news/media-centre/press-releases/paris-climate-agreement-cannot-be-met-without-emissions-reduction#.V5D3vfkrKM8; John Cassidy, “A Skeptical Note on the Paris Climate Deal,” The New Yorker, December 14, 2015, http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/skeptical-note-paris-climate-deal
- 6.
World Bank Group, Turn Down the Heat, Confronting the New Climate Normal (Washington, DC, 2014), 5.
- 7.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , “Factors Contributing to Sea Level Change,” https://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/411.htm
- 8.
World Bank Group, Turn Down the Heat, Confronting the New Climate Normal (Washington, DC, 2012), 8–11.
- 9.
Ibid, 20–22.
- 10.
John A. Church and Peter U. Clark, “Sea Level Change,” In Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 1142; Xia Jiangjiang et al., “Projection of the Zhujiang (Pearl) River Delta’s potential submerged area due to sea level rise during the 21st Century based on CMIP5 Projections,” Acta Oceanologica Sinica 34 (2015), accessed April 6, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-015-0700-1
- 11.
Mukang Han, Jianjun Hou, and Lun Wu, “Potential Impacts of Sea-Level Rise on China’s Coastal Environment and Cities: A National Assessment,” Journal of Coastal Research (1995), 79–80, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25735702
- 12.
D.J. Dwyer, “The Pearl River Delta.” Geography 74 (1989), 363, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40571752
- 13.
Jinhai Zheng et al., “Understanding Space-Time Patterns of Long Term Tidal Fluctuation over the Pearl River Delta, South China,” Journal of Coastal Research 30 (2014), 517, https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-13-00060.1
- 14.
Mukang Han, Jianjun Hou, and Lun Wu, 87–88; Alexandra Tracy, Kate Trumbull, and Christine Loh, “Impact of Climate Change in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta,” China Perspectives (2007), 19–21, https://chinaperspectives.revues.org/1173?file=1
- 15.
Thomas M.H. Chan et al., The Greater Pearl River Delta: A report commissioned by Invest Hong Kong (Invest Hong Kong, 2014), 14–16, http://www.investhk.gov.hk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/InvestHK_GPRD-Book_Eng_Apr2014.pdf; “PRD Economic Profile.”
- 16.
Zeng, Douglas Zhihua, “Global Experiences with Special Economic Zones,” The World Bank (2015), 4, http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/Event/Africa/Investing%20in%20Africa%20Forum/2015/investing-in-africa-forum-global-experiences-with-special-economic-zones-with-a-focus-on-china-and-africa.pdf
- 17.
“PRD Economic Profile.”
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Chan et al., 52–52.
- 20.
“Top 50 World Container Ports,” World Shipping Council, http://www.worldshipping.org/about-the-industry/global-trade/top-50-world-container-ports
- 21.
Chan et al., 17.
- 22.
Ibid, 17.
- 23.
“PRD Economic Profile.”
- 24.
Xia Jiangjiang et al., 81.
- 25.
Zheng et al., 515; Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 21.
- 26.
Jasper Moiseiwitsch, “Insurers consider likelihood of catastrophic storm in the Pearl River Delta,” South China Morning Post, July 7, 2014, http://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1548221/insurers-wary-flood-risks-china
- 27.
Lau, “Flooding paralyses rush hour traffic in Southern Chinese cities amid huge downpour.”
- 28.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 23.
- 29.
L.M. Zhang, Y. Xu, Y. Liu, and M. Peng, “Assessment of flood risks in Pearl River Delta due to levee breaching,” Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards 7 (2013), 122, https://doi.org/10.1080/17499518.2013.790733
- 30.
“Floods: Recurrence intervals and 100-year floods (USGS),” US Geological Survey, accessed May 25, 2016, http://water.usgs.gov/edu/100yearflood.html
- 31.
Zhang, Xu, Liu, and Peng, 122.
- 32.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 22.
- 33.
Zhang, Xu, Liu, and Peng, 122.
- 34.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 22.
- 35.
Zhang, Xu, Liu, and Peng, 130.
- 36.
Shin-pei Tsay and Victoria Herrmann, “Protecting Coastal Cities From Rising Seas,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 16, 2013, http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/05/16/protecting-coastal-cities-from-rising-seas-pub-51814
- 37.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 24.
- 38.
Tsay and Herrmann, “Protecting Coastal Cities From Rising Seas.”
- 39.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 23.
- 40.
Zhihe Chen, Zhihua Zhu, Lei Yin, Shuai Wei, and Lulu Deng, “The Changing Water Quality Characteristics From Urban Drinking Water Sources in Guangdong, China,” Water Resources Management 29 (2015), 989–990, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-014-0855-0
- 41.
Zhang Xinfeng and Deng Jiaquan, “Affecting Factors of Salinity Intrusion In Pearl River Estuary and Sustainable Utilization of Water Resources in Pearl River Delta,” In Sustainability in Food and Water: An Asian Perspective edited by Kensuke Fukushi, Khondoker Mahbub Hassan, Ryo Honda, and Akimasa Sumi, (Springer, 2010), 12.
- 42.
Han, Hou, and Wu, 90.
- 43.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 23.
- 44.
Chris Weller, “The world’s largest megacity already has more people than Canada, Argentina, or Australia,” Business Insider, July 8, 2015, http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-mega-city-has-more-people-than-canada-argentina-or-australia-2015-7
- 45.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 23.
- 46.
Maren Lau, “Adaptation to Sea-level Rise in The People’s Republic of China: Assessing the Institutional Dimensions of Alternative Organisational Frameworks,” Center For Marine and Atmospheric Research, 2006, 8, http://www.fnu.zmaw.de/fileadmin/fnu-files/publication/working-papers/CLCH_fnu_LAU.pdf
- 47.
Ibid, 14.
- 48.
Hu De and Ma Hailong, “Government Power and Its Impact on Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation: Cooperative Networks and Regional Governance,” In China’s Pan-Pearl River Delta: Regional Cooperation and Development, edited by Yeh Anthony G. O. and Xu Jiang (Hong Kong University Press, 2011), 181–186, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xwcwr.16
- 49.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 28; Lau, 14.
- 50.
Ibid, 16–17.
- 51.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 29; “State Oceanic Administration,” The People’s Republic of China, accessed May 14, 2016, http://english.gov.cn/state_council/2014/10/06/content_281474992889983.htm
- 52.
Lau, 24.
- 53.
Ibid, 24.
- 54.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 27–28.
- 55.
Lau, 20–23.
- 56.
Ibid, 24–26.
- 57.
Qihao Weng, “A historical perspective of river basin management in the Pearl River Delta of China,” Journal of Environmental Management 85 (2007), 1053–1054, http://qihaoweng.net/refereed%20journal/JEMA07b.pdf
- 58.
Tsay and Herrmann, “Protecting Coastal Cities From Rising Seas.”
- 59.
Tracy, Trumbull, and Loh, 25.
- 60.
Lau, 12.
- 61.
Masahiro Atsumi, “River management in Japan: With focus on river levee,” River Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, accessed June 1, 2016, http://www.mlit.go.jp/river/basic_info/english/pdf/conf_05.pdf
- 62.
Connecting Delta Cities, Resilient Cities and Climate Adaptation Strategies (City of Rotterdam, 2013), 129.
- 63.
“Tokyo, Osaka, other mega cities will be swamped by surging sea levels, even at 2 degree rise: study,” The Japan Times, November 9, 2015, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/09/world/study-says-tokyo-osaka-mega-cities-will-swamped-surging-sea-levels-even-2-celsius-rise/#.V4fgX_krKM9; Sayaka Hoshino et al., “Estimation of increase in storm surge damage due to climate change and sea level rise in the Greater Tokyo area,” Natural Hazards 80 (2016), 540–541.
- 64.
Hoshino et al., 557–563.
- 65.
Connecting Delta Cities, 131.
- 66.
Jacob Adelman, “Tokyo Tackles Flood Control as Typhoons Swamp Subways,” Bloomberg, August 14, 2014, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-14/tokyo-tackles-flood-control-as-typhoons-swamp-subways
- 67.
“PRD Economic Profile.”
- 68.
Connecting Delta Cities, 117.
- 69.
Lau, 12–13.
- 70.
Connecting Delta Cities, 67–75.
- 71.
Han, Hou, and Wu, 88–90.
- 72.
Canfei He and Lei Yang, “Urban Development and Climate Change in China’s Pearl River Delta,” Land Lines (2014), 5.
- 73.
Chris Weller, “The world’s largest megacity already has more people than Canada, Argentina, or Australia.”
- 74.
Institution of Civil Engineers, Infrastructure: Shaping Hong Kong (ICE, 2016), 2, https://www.ice.org.uk/getattachment/99fb73e1-304d-4b4f-a0b5-924315694d89/attachment.aspx
- 75.
Association For State Wetland Managers, Wetlands and Climate Change: Considerations for Wetland Program Managers (Association For State Wetland Managers, 2015), 6–7, http://www.aswm.org/pdf_lib/wetlands_and_climate_change_consideratons_for_wetland_program_managers_0715.pdf; Connecting Delta Cities, 142.
- 76.
Minh Thien Ngo et al., “The sustainability risk of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, due to saltwater intrusion,” Geosciences Journal 19 (2015), 549.
- 77.
Connecting Delta Cities, 142.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
White, Z. (2018). Sea Level Rise in the Pearl River Delta. In: Gresh, G.F. (eds) Eurasia’s Maritime Rise and Global Security. Palgrave Studies in Maritime Politics and Security. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71806-4_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71806-4_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71805-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71806-4
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)