Ghost cities of the 22nd century

These are once once prosperous cities, crowded with people but then become ruined or disappear completely. In the next 100 years the world will have a series of cities facing the risk of becoming a ghost city for many reasons.

While the urbanization situation continues to increase the global urban population, some cities in the world are at risk of decline due to causes such as economic recession, declining birth rate and rising sea level. , desertification or earthquake, etc. In view of this situation, for many years, the German government has implemented a program called the Shrinking Cities Research Project, to explore the widespread decline of the situation. of major cities around the world. This program has so far surveyed in many cities, and below is a list of cities that are in danger of disappearing in the next 100 years:

Ivanovo, Russia

In the late 1980s, the population in Ivanovo - the former Soviet textile center - was about 480,000. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the textile industry in crisis, Ivanovo began to decline. Due to the characteristic of the textile industry, the majority of people in Ivanovo are women, which leads to an imbalance in the ratio of men and women. For many years, the birth rate in this city decreased, while the death rate increased. On the other hand, because the city lacks modern industries, the young schooling class in Ivanovo moved to Moscow, about 300km away. All of this caused Ivanovo's population to drop by only 430,000 in nearly two decades.

Banjul, Gambia

With a solid canal system, the Netherlands - a country with two-thirds of the area below sea level - may still exist when the sea level rises by 1m or even 2m. But the capital of Banjul in the Gambia, a small country in West Africa, will not survive even if the sea level is only about 10cm to 90cm as predicted by the Study on the impact of climate change on cities. The city was done by the World Bank in 2002. For years Banjul had to cope with seawater intrusion, if the sea level rose, the city would be completely submerged.

Detroit - the fastest-growing city in America (Photo: SGTT)

Detroit, USA

Detroit's population is currently 950,000, only 1/3 of the city's population in the middle of the 20th century. Detroit's population decline began in the 1950s, when the car industry's main industry was The city became degraded. A series of factories that have closed or cut labor make the unemployment rate rise, people have to move to other cities. The Detroit urban unemployment rate has now surpassed 10%, the suburban unemployment rate is even higher. If the situation continues, by 2050 Detroit will become a ghost city.

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City is sinking. The soil beneath the city is a hydrated geological layer. Oddly, the water from this geological layer is also the main source of domestic water for the people of the city. So the more millions of people in Mexico City use the water, the more it falls. Several places in this city have subsided 9m in the last 100 years. Another reality is that the geology below Mexico City is running out of water. So, although still growing, but with the risk of declining water supplies and a slowing down of the city ground, Mexico City is considered a risky city.

Naples, Italy

Vesuvius volcano, the mountain destroyed the city of Pompeii in 79 AD, every 100 years once erupted and the last eruption in 1944. Vesuvius is located in the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, not far from the city Naples. Naples has 4 million people, of which half a million people live in the red zone, around Mount Vesuvius. If Vesuvius would erupt one day, maybe in the middle of the 22nd century, and the Neapolitan people would not evacuate in time, the disaster would have happened, and Naples would become a Pompeii of modern times.

San Francisco, USA

University of California researchers predict 75% of the risk that San Francisco will suffer from an earthquake of 7 or more Richter levels by 2086. It is suggested that if there is a severe earthquake, people will live in This city will also rebuild all from ruins. But this may seem uncertain, because San Francisco is currently the fastest-growing city in California, where residents are moving away from expensive and geographically dangerous cities to move in. Inland city. A disaster like earthquake will make this migration faster.

Timbuktu, Mali

Desertification is a problem that many countries in the southern Sahara are facing. One of the most seriously threatened cities in the region is Timbuktu, Mali's 1,000-year-old city. The huge sand dunes of the desert increasingly encroach into the city. Although many tree planting projects have been implemented in Timbuktu, there have been some areas in this city buried in sand, houses half buried in sand, half exposed under hot and dry climate. harsh.

Venice, Italy

This famous Italian city has a history of subsidence for thousands of years, but the 20th century is the period of rapid rapid settlement of Venice with a subsidence of 24cm in 100 years. The risk of global sea level rise will contribute to accelerating the subsidence rate of this beautiful city. At the risk of Venice going away in the next 100 years, the Italian government has a plan to fight subsidence and build a barrier to protect the city, but it is not clear whether these projects will work or not.

Mai Huong