China's capital city Beijing is reportedly sinking, a new study employing cutting-edge satellite imagery revealed, as explained to the Guardian.

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Based on the new research, several parts of the city are reportedly beginning to submerge, up to 11 centimeters or four inchers per year. According to experts, this is due to the excessive pumping of geology under the city.

"We are currently carrying out a detailed analysis of the impacts of subsidence on critical infrastructure (eg high-speed railways) in the Beijing plain," the researchers told the Guardian. "Hopefully a paper summarising our findings will come out later this year."

Researchers discovered that the most affected part is Beijing's Chaoyang district, which has been drastically industrialized over the decades. They noted that such uneven subsidence may pose threats to modern infrastructures.

According to an environmentalist, Beijing has implemented a law to regulate installment of wells. However, enforcement of such regulations has reportedly been inconsistent.

Last year, China also conducted a huge project to alleviate the country's water crisis, constructing a 2,400-km canal and tunnel networks designed to redirect nearly 45 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing.

But even before the canal started delivering water, Beijing started to reduce groundwater pumping in January last year. Chaoyang district revealed its plans to abandon over 360 water wells, thereby lessening the use of 10 million cubic meters of underground water.

Nevertheless, researchers could not determine whether the canal deliveries are enough to recharge the aquifer and curb the subsidence rate.

Aside from Beijing, other countries are also threatened by subsidence. Mexico and Jakarta are reportedly submerging as much as 28 cm annually. And Bangkok, just like Beijing, is sinking at a 12 cm clip, Remote Sensing researchers said.

The research is published in Remote Sensing and is based on Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), which maps ground deformations of the earth using radar images from satellites. 

TagsBeijing, Beijing sinking, Chaoyang District, Remote Sensing