Chai 

and Wu  Smart Construction and

Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4
https://doi.org/10.1007/s44268-023-00002-6 Sustainable Cities

REVIEW Open Access

Prevention/mitigation of natural disasters

in urban areas
Jinchun Chai1,2 and Hao‑Ze Wu1*    

Abstract 
Preventing/mitigating natural disasters in urban areas can indirectly be part of the 17 sustainable economic and social
development intentions according to the United Nations in 2015. Four types of natural disasters—flooding, heavy
rain-induced slope failures/landslides; earthquakes causing structure failure/collapse, and land subsidence—are
briefly considered in this article. With the increased frequency of climate change-induced extreme weathers,
the numbers of flooding and heavy rain-induced slope failures/landslides in urban areas has increased in recent years.
There are both engineering methods to prevent their occurrence, and more effectively early prediction and warning
systems to mitigate the resulting damage. However, earthquakes still cannot be predicted to an extent that is suffi‑
cient to avoid damage, and developing and adopting structures that are resilient against earthquakes, that is, struc‑
tures featuring earthquake resistance, vibration damping, and seismic isolation, are essential tasks for sustainable city
development. Land subsidence results from human activity, and is mainly due to excessive pumping of groundwater,
which is a “natural” disaster caused by human activity. Countermeasures include effective regional and/or national
freshwater management and local water recycling to avoid excessive pumping the groundwater. Finally, perspec‑
tives for risk warning and hazard prevention through enhanced field monitoring, risk assessment with multi-criteria
decision-making (MCDM), and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Keywords  Preventing natural disasters, Sustainable urban development, Flooding, Slope failure, Earthquake, land
subsidence

1 Introduction of existing cities or the creation of new ones. For exam-

Owing to convenient living environment in urban areas, ple, Shanghai, China has been developed/expanded to an
an increasing number of people worldwide are choos- urban megapolis with over 25 million inhabitants.
ing to live in these areas; that is, worldwide urbaniza- Although urban areas are convenient and comfort-
tion is occurring. Cohen [1] reported that almost half of able for people, they are vulnerable for natural disasters,
humanity now resides in urban areas. Developing coun- including floods, earthquakes, and landslides. In densely
tries experience faster growth of this kind. In China, populated urban areas, natural disasters can cause seri-
from 1980 to 2021, the ratio of people living in cities to ous property damage and death. For example, the Great
the total population increased from 19.37% to 64.72% [2]. Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that occurred in the Osaka
An increase in cities population results in the expansion metropolitan area, Japan, on 17 January 1995, with a
magnitude of 7.3 caused 6,434 casualties [3]. Further-
*Correspondence: more, global warming is one of the major environmen-
Hao‑Ze Wu tal problems worldwide. One of the consequences of
19hzwu@stu.edu.cn global warming is the frequent occurrence of extreme
1
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College
of Engineering, Shantou University, Shantou 515063, Guangdong, China weather [4], such as torrential rains or “a belt zone of
2
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saga University, 1 Honjo, heavy precipitation” [5], which can cause water-related
Saga 840‑8502, Japan disasters in urban areas. According to the United Nations

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Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 2 of 16

(September 2021), extreme weather-induced natural the Kuma River basin region, Kumamoto, Japan, with an
hazards have increased fivefold within the last 50  years. accumulated rainfall of 400–500  mm, which caused the
To maintain the sustainable development of cities, it is collapse of the bank of the Kuma River and serious flood-
essential to consider the countermeasures for prevent- ing in the area. This flood caused 65 casualties; 2 people
ing/mitigating natural disasters in the city planning and were missing, 557 houses were completely destroyed, 43
construction stages. were partially destroyed, 5,895 were flooded above the
In this article, the major natural disasters related to beds on the first floor, and 1,990 were flooded below the
urban areas are discussed. The natural disasters consid- beds on the first floor [10].
ered are: flooding, heavy rain-induced slope failure (for
cities adjacent to hills/mountains); earthquakes causing
structure failure/collapse, and land subsidence (which is 2.2 Countermeasures
regarded as a natural disaster here despite being caused
mainly by human involvement). For each type of disas- (1) Natural flood management (NFM)
ter, first, its characteristics in recent years are described
with some examples, and then the countermeasures are NFM emphasises by protecting, restoring, and emu-
discussed. lating the natural processes such as catchments, flood-
To facilitate this review article, research publications plains, rivers and the coastlines to reduce the potential
related to the four natural disaster types from the Web for flooding or mitigate the effects of floods [11].
of Science database from 2012 to 2021 were downloaded One of the main reasons for the flood that occurred
and analysed using VOSviewer [6]. The results of a brief in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, on 30 August 2022 was
bibliometric analysis are presented at the end of each poor maintenance resulting in many agricultural ponds
topic. (Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) news, 1 September 2022).

2 Flooding (2) Engineering methods

2.1 Occurrence tendency with some examples
Flooding is a major natural disaster occurring in urban Engineering methods mainly consist of the following.
areas. Sustainable flooding risk management is an impor-
tant component of sustainable city development [7]. (a) Building new drainage channels or increasing the
Urban flooding occurs when the stormwater increase capacity of existing drainage channels in a city [9].
rate exceeds the capacity of a city’s drainage system (b) Reinforcing river banks to prevent water overflow
(e.g. [8]). One of the consequences of global warming is from rivers.
the increased frequency and intensity of torrential rain (c) Constructing retarding basins to reduce the surface
or storms. If a city’s drainage system does not consider runoff velocity and, therefore, the rate of water flow
this type of extreme rainfall, floods can easily occur. For into rivers or urban centres.
example, in Beijing, the capital city of China, heavy flood- (d) Increasing the pump capacity in lowland areas, such
ing has occurred at least seven times over the past two as the Saga Plain, Japan, where in some areas. the
decades. Among them, one case of flooding occurred on elevation of the land is lower than the riverbed, and
21 July 2012, affected an area of 160,000 k­ m2 and 1.9 mil- the rainfall water must be pumped into the river or
lion residents, and caused 77 casualties. In the city centre sea.
area, the average daily rainfall was 215 mm [9].
In 2017, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)
introduced a new term for the phenomenon of intensive (3) Soft countermeasures
rainfall in a narrow belt area: “a belt zone of heavy pre-
cipitation” [5], which is caused by cumulonimbus clouds
occurring linearly one after another, passing through and (a) Development of early and accurate flood predic-
staying in almost the same place; and as a result, very tion techniques and warning systems. With the
heavy rain continues to fall in a specific belt area for a rapid development of computational capacity and
long time. Beginning in 2022, the JMA started to forecast high-resolution satellite imagery, early and accu-
the occurrence of belt zones of heavy precipitation. In rate weather forecasting has gradually become
Japan, in recent years, belt zones of heavy precipitation- possible. Based on the results of earlier predic-
induced floods have occurred almost every year. On 3–4 tions, earlier warning system can be established
July 2020, a belt zone of heavy precipitation occurred in (e.g. [12, 13]).
 Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 3 of 16

(b) Create detailed high-accuracy flood hazard maps, Table 1 Top 10 journals in which flooding-related research
educate residents to understand them, and effec- papers were published from 2012 to 2021
tively use them for evacuation. Journal title Publications

Water 342
Natural Hazards 263
2.3 Brief bibliometric analysis results
Journal of Hydrology 205
Sustainability 198
(1) Identified Research cluster
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 130
Science of the Total Environment 122
The search strategy code was theme = (flooding) AND
Natural Hazard and Earth System Sciences 116
((urban area). The four top research clusters were iden-
Remote Sensing 96
tified as follows:
Journal of Flood Risk Management 94
Environmental Earth Sciences 62
Cluster 1: flood vulnerability (e.g. [14–18]).
Cluster 2: urban flood management and mitigation
(e.g. [19–27]). around US$ 4.5 billion per year, US$ 2.6 billion per year,
Cluster 3: simulation of flood evolution and inunda- respectively. Landslide activity is increasing because of
tion (e.g. [28–36]). changing climate patterns result in increased regional
Cluster 4: leading cause of urban flooding (e.g. [37–45]). precipitation [47]. In recent years, the number of rain-
Number of publications and top 10 journals publish-
fall-induced slope collapses and landslides has increased
ing the papers. owing to the increased frequencies of extreme rainfalls.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and
Figure  1 shows the yearly number of research articles Tourism (MLIT), Japan [48] reported that the total num-
related to urban flooding published from 2012 to 2021. ber of sediment disasters that occurred in Japan in 2018
The number of articles has increased because of the was 3,459, of which approximately 70% were rainfall-
increasing number of floods caused by extreme rainfall induced landslides and slope collapses. There were 161
since the 2010s [46]. Table 1 shows the top ten journals in casualties and 117 injuries.
which research papers related to flooding were published. Many cities are located in landslide-prone areas, such
as Hong Kong, where landslides and slope failures occur
3 Rainfall‑induced slope failures/landslides almost every year [49]. The most famous landslides in
3.1 Occurrence and social impacts Hong Kong were a string of large landslides that occurred
Schuster [47] reported that the annual economic losses in June 1972 [50]. The landslides occurred because of the
attributable to slope fluctuations in Japan and Italy are severe rain that pounded Hong Kong in the days lead-
ing up to them. It is estimated that at least 156 people
were killed, and several apartment buildings and houses
were destroyed. Particularly, a "mammoth" downpour
of around 640 mm in 72 h precipitated the tragedies on
18 June 1972, which resulted in the collapse of a luxury
block in the Mid-Levels and the loss of 67 lives.
At around 10:30 am (JST) on 3 July 2021, a large-scale
slope failure and debris flow occurred in the Aibatsu
River in the mountain district of Izu, Atami City, Shi-
zuoka Prefecture, Japan [51]. 27 people died (includ-
ing one disaster-related death, and one missing person).
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, 2–3 days
before the disaster, warm and moist air flowed continu-
ously toward a stagnant front from western to eastern of
Japan, and the atmospheric conditions became extremely
unstable at the site. At the observation point in Ajiro,
Atami City, which was relatively close to the site, 321 mm
of precipitation was recorded in 48 h, ending at 3:20 pm
Fig. 1  Number of publications on flooding disasters on 3 July. Upstream of the river, there was land developed
Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 4 of 16

on a sloped area by embankments. Forensic investigation

showed that the fill of the embankments was not properly
compacted, was in a loose state, was almost saturated by
the rainstorm, and thus failed first. Successive heavy rain
then brought the failed embankments into a debris flow.

3.2 Predicting rainfall‑induced landslides

Depending primarily on the hydromechanical qualities of
the associated soils, rainfall-induced landslides can occur
during brief, strong precipitation or after lengthy periods
of rain. There are two types of rainfall-induced landslides:
shallow and deep-seated position. Rainfall-induced deep-
seated landslides (e.g. [52]) are generally caused by rain-
fall-induced groundwater level rise, which causes positive
pore water pressures along the surface with the risk for
Fig. 2  Typical SWCCs of an unsaturated soil
slipping. This situation is normally associated with not
only surface precipitation, but also the formation of pref-
erential water flow pathways to bring surface rainfall
into deeper locations of a slope, such as the formation of
vertical cracks. There are two trigging mechanisms for
shallow landslides [53]. One is rainfall precipitation into
the surface of unsaturated soil layers, which reduces the
suction,therefore, the decrease in shear strength of the
soil layers causes landslides. Additionally, pore water
pressures inside slopes are raised resulting from the
formation of water tables, which occurs when a perme-
able soil layer rests above a substantially lower perme-
able layer. Contel et  al. [53] proposed a straightforward
criterion to identify the potential initiating mechanism
of shallow landslides triggered by rainfall in accordance
with the slope geometry, weight of unit, and strength
characteristics of the concerned soil, as follows:
′
c tanφ ′ Fig. 3  Typical permeability functions of an unsaturated soil
SF d = + (1)
γ Zsinαcosα tanα

where α is slope angle; Z is the depth of potential failure; characteristics under unsaturated conditions, that is, soil
γ is the unit weight of soil; c’ is the cohesion intercept water characteristic curve (SWCC) and permeability
under effective stress, and φ’ denotes the effective stress functions, are required. Figures 2 and 3 show the typical
angle of the soil’s resistance to shearing. If SFd ≤ 1, a land- SWCC and permeability functions of unsaturated soils
slide may be induced at a depth Z due to a decrease in the [54].
initial suction caused by rainwater infiltration. If SFd > 1, The most commonly used SWCC functions are those
landslides can only occur when the potential failure sur- proposed by Van Genuchten [55] and by Fredlund and
face is subjected to positive pore water pressures due to Xing [56]. Although several permeability functions exist
rainfall. in the literature, a generally adopted method is to deduce
To predict rainfall-induced landslides, rainfall pre- them from SWCC functions,for example, the perme-
cipitation (seepage) analysis and/or coupled seepage and ability function [57] can be combined with and SWCC
stress–strain analysis of unsaturated soil slopes must be function [55], which has an explicit expression,and Fred-
performed [54], in which numerical simulations, such as lund et al.’s [58] method, which does not have an explicit
finite difference or finite element methods, are normally expression (an integration form). In these mathematical
required. These techniques are described elsewhere and functions, fitting parameters must be determined using
will not be explained here. To perform this type of analy- measured data. However, to measure the SWCCs of
sis, hydromechanical properties, especially soil hydraulic soils, special equipment is required, and this process is
 Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 5 of 16

time-consuming (sometimes it may take several months). Deep-seated rainfall-induced slope failures are more
Therefore, in routing geotechnical site investigations, difficult to predict. They are mainly influenced by the
measuring the SWCCs of soils is not included. This type hydrogeology of a slope, and sometimes a site investiga-
of situation limits or restricts the application of unsatu- tion cannot reveal all the relevant details.
rated soil mechanics in geotechnical designs. To provide
a pragmatic solution, Chai and Gao [59] and Gao and 3.3 Methods for preventing/mitigating rainfall‑induced
Chai [60] proposed empirical methods to estimate the fit- slope failure
ting parameters in the SWCCs of Fredlund and Xing [56]
and Van Genuchten [55] using easily measured basic soil (1) Engineering/vegetation methods
properties, such as saturated permeability, grain size dis-
tribution curve, and plastic index. It is believed that this (a) Failure of shallow slopes caused by rainfall
type of estimation can effectively promote the applica-
tion of unsaturated soil mechanics in predicting rainfall- For rainfall-induced shallow slope failures, the most
induced slope failure or landslides. effective countermeasures are: (i) increasing the vegeta-
Several factors influence rainfall-induced shallow slope tion of a slope, and (ii) making the slope angle gentler.
failures. Except for the geometry and hydromechanical Other engineering methods include spraying a thin layer
properties of the slope, the most important factors are of concrete on the slope and rebar insertion methods
the rainfall rate, rainfall duration, and initial moisture [61].
content of the slope soil preceding a rainstorm. Figure 4
illustrates a chart for predicting whether rainfall will (b) Failure of deep-seated slope
induce a shallow slope failure. In the figure, the “lower”
and “higher” initial moisture contents are qualitative or Countermeasures could be classified into two cat-
relative conditions. Defining precise values is considered egories: methods of increasing the shear strength on a
impractical. For a given slope, the type of chart can be potential slip surface and/or reducing the driving force
proposed by using the hydromechanical characteristics (moment) of a slope; and methods increasing the resist-
of the slope soil and the findings of precipitation analy- ance force (moment) using other structures. The former
sis. In a region, the natural slopes may have different methods include improving drainage systems for surface
slope angles, different thicknesses of weathered soil lay- water and groundwater, removing certain soils from the
ers, and different vegetation conditions. In practice, the upward part of a slope, and adding certain soils at the toe
slopes can be classified into several groups, and a predic- of a slope. The latter methods include the anchor, resist-
tion chart for each group can be proposed. Then, using ance pile, and retaining wall methods [62]. Normally,
weather forecast information on the rainfall rate and these methods are applied when there is a sign of slope
duration, possible rainfall-induced slope failures can be instability.
predicted.
(2) Soft methods

Soft methods aim to prevent or mitigate slope fail-

ure-induced damage to human lives and property. One
method is to evacuate people from higher-risks areas,
and if that is not feasible, another method is to establish a
high-accuracy warning system.

3.4 Brief bibliometric analysis results

(1) Top four identified research clusters

The search strategy code used was: theme = (rainfall

OR rain OR precipitation) AND (slope) AND (failure OR
landslide OR lapse). The four top research clusters are as
follows:

Fig. 4  An illustration of a chart for predicting shallow slope failures

Cluster 1: failure mechanisms of landslides (e.g. [63–
caused by rainfall
68]).
Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 6 of 16

Cluster 2: landslide susceptibility evaluation (LSA) Table 2 Top 10 journals in which landslide-related research
(e.g. [69–71]). papers were published from 2012 to 2021
Cluster 3: prediction of rainfall-induced shallow Journal title Publications
landslides (e.g. [72–79]).
Cluster 4: soil erosion and landslide-type debris flow Landslides 349
(e.g. [12, 80–83]). Engineering Geology 197
Number of publications and top 10 journals publish- Natural Hazards 163
ing the papers Environmental Earth Sciences 147
Geomorphology 141
Figure  5 presents the number of publications on rain- Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment 118
fall-induced landslides from 2012 to 2021. From 2014 Water 89
to 2021, the number of related papers rapidly increased, Journal of Mountain Science 85
indicating increased research activity in this area. Table 2 Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 78
lists the top 10 journals in which landslide-related papers Catena 73
were published from 2012 to 2021.
in bedrock (e.g. [86]. Although there have been some
“successful” predictions, such as the Haicheng earthquake
4 Earthquake
in 1975 (M 7.3) in China [87], generally, earthquakes still
4.1 Occurrence and social impacts
cannot be predicted precisely enough to avoid damage.
It is commonly accepted that an earthquake is normally
The World health Organization [88] reported that nearly
caused by “elastic rebound” of Earth’s crust, a theory pro-
750, 000 people worldwide died as a result of earthquakes
posed by Reid [84]. This theory states that a major cause
between 1998–2017. In the emergency phase of the dis-
of earthquakes is deformation due to external forces,
aster, more than 125 million people were injured, made
primarily regional tectonic pressures. When the total
homeless or displaced affected by earthquakes during
amount of strain (energy) at a critical spot surpasses the
this period. If an earthquake occurs in a highly populated
capacity of the rock to withstand further strain, an earth-
urban area, the damage to human lives and property is
quake will occur due to brittle fractures in competent
much larger than that in a rural area. To reduce or miti-
rock or slip on preexisting weak zones. An earthquake
gate possible earthquake-induced damage, developing
fault is a region where the slip or displacement occurs
resilient structures for houses and public buildings has
[85].
become a very important topic of research and city plan-
Considerable attempts have already been made to pre-
ning strategy for sustainable city development.
dict the occurrence of an earthquake using observations
of abnormal animal activities as well as monitored strain
4.2 Resilient structures
MLIT [89], Japan, published the “Basis of Structural
Design for Buildings and Public Works”, which stated that
there are three basic performance requirements:

(a) Human life is protected from foreseeable events in

and around structures.
(b) Structure functions are adequately protected from
foreseeable threats.
(c) Restoring the structure within reasonable ranges of
cost and time will enable it to continue to be used
against foreseeable actions.

There are different detailed design considerations

for the most important structures or buildings, such
as nuclear power stations, and common office and/or
department buildings. However, developing and inno-
vating new techniques for structures resilient to earth-
quakes is a common and important task for sustainable
Fig. 5  Number of publications on rainfall-induced landslides
city development.
 Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 7 of 16

Japan is an earthquake-prone country because it The search strategy code was theme = (earthquake or
lies in the boundary region between the Eurasian and temblor or seism or quake) AND ((urban area). The four
Pacific plates, and tectonic movement of the Plates top research clusters are as follows:
causes earthquakes as well as active volcanoes. It is well
known that many houses in Japan have wooden struc- Cluster 1: ground-motion parameters and prediction
tures, which are more flexible and has better earth- (e.g. [93–95]).
quake resistance compared to other common building Cluster 2: earthquake disaster response and evalua-
types. However, they are more vulnerable to fire. It may tion (e.g. [96–101]).
be less well known that in Japan, most public buildings Cluster 3: earthquake-related geotectonic research
and apartment buildings have steel structures instead (e.g. [98, 102, 103]).
of reinforced concrete structures [90]. Steel structures Cluster 4: the site amplification effect of seismic
for building have higher earthquake resistance but are ground motion (e.g. [104–107]).
more expansive. Number of publications and top 10 journals publish-
Although there are ongoing studies about novel ing the papers
structures that are resilient against earthquakes, prac-
tically adopted resilient structures include earthquake- The yearly number of publications on earthquakes in
resistant structures, vibration-damping structures, and urban areas from 2012 to 2021 is plotted in Fig. 7. From
seismic isolation structures, as illustrated in Fig.  6. In 2014 to 2021, papers related to earthquakes increased
earthquake-resistant structures, the pillars and beams steadily, indicating with urbanisation, this subject has
that form the main frame of a building are strength- received increasing attention. Table  3 shows the top 10
ened to prevent the building from collapsing during journals in which the earthquake-related research papers
an earthquake. On the other hand, for a seismic isola- were published from 2012 to 2021.
tion structure, vibration isolation devices are installed
under the structure, and for a vibration damping struc- 5 Land subsidence
ture, dampers are installed between the beams and col- 5.1 Causes and social impact
umns to absorb seismic energy and prevent damages to The major reason of land subsidence or land-level
the main structures of a building [91]. lowering is excessive groundwater pumping [108].
It appears to occur naturally, but is a result of human
4.3 Brief bibliometric analysis results activities. Land subsidence can damage infrastruc-
ture, increase flooding potential and damage drain-
(1) Top four identified research cluster age systems of cities, and it endangers human lives
and property. With an increasing urban population

Fig. 6  Structures resilient against earthquakes (adapted from www.​eng.​nippo​nsteel.​com) [92]

Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 8 of 16

Fig. 8  Potential land subsidence areas in East Asia (adapted

Fig. 7  Number of publications on earthquakes in urban areas with permission from [110], Copyright 2021 AAAS)

Table 3 Top 10 journals in which the earthquake-related

research papers were published from 2012 to 2021
Shanghai is the largest economic city in China and
Journal title Publications has suffered serious land subsidence problems. As seen
Natural Hazards 226 in Fig. 9, The deltaic deposit of the Yangtze River forms
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering 117 the foundation of Shanghai, as illustrated in Fig. 9. The
International Journal Disaster Risk Reduction 117 primary geological layers are shown in Fig.  10, and
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 87 Quaternary deposits are approximately 300  m thick.
Soil Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering 78 In Shanghai, land subsidence was brought on by an
Pure and Applied Geophysics 70 excessive amount of ground water pumping, which also
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 66 caused the Quaternary deposit to become compressed.
Earthquake Spectra 58 In 1921, Shanghai established a programme to monitor
Seismological Research Letters 57 the subsidence of the soil. Up until the year 2000, the
Journal of Seismology 51 centre part of Shanghai had a cumulative subsidence of
between 2 and 3 m (Fig. 11). In Fig. 11, the subsidence
of land in the urban area of Shanghai can be divided
(urbanisation), the global demand for freshwater into two distinct time periods, the rapid subsidence era,
increases every year. If there is insufficient fresh surface which occurred between the years 1921 and 1965, and
water, people will inevitably use groundwater, and if the regulated phase, which occurred after 1965. From
this usage is not well managed, it will induce land sub- 1965, pumping of groundwater in the Shanghai area
sidence. Potential subsidence areas threaten 1.2 billion was strictly controlled by the local government, and the
people and 21% of the major cities worldwide, espe- land subsidence was clearly mitigated. Land subsidence
cially in coastal areas. Among them, 86% of the exposed in Shanghai has caused many social issues. An increase
population lives in Asia. Figure  8 shows a map of in the likelihood of flooding is the issue that needs to
potential areas of land subsidence in East Asia. United be addressed right away. Flooding due to precipita-
Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) tion occurred 22 times between 1981 and 1994, which
asserts this study enhances subsidence comprehension, is an average of nearly twice per year [111]. Recently,
uncovers new subsidence areas, and informs mitigation there has been a concurrent rise in the likelihood of
strategies [109]. This clearly shows that Eastern China floods caused by tides. Dike heights along the coast-
has the highest potential in this region. Therefore, for line increased four times from 1956 to 1960, with crest
sustainable city development, an economical and effec- elevations rising from 5 to 6.8 m. Damage to sewerage
tive plan to ensure safe access to water resources is systems, roads, buildings, and underground tunnels are
essential. among the other issues created by land subsidence.
 Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 9 of 16

Fig. 9  Locations of some monitoring points and cross section I-I’(data from [108] and [112])

Fig. 10  Geological strata in Shanghai (cross section I-I’in Fig. 9) data from [108] and [112]

5.2 Countermeasures to maintain sustainability of cities

(1) Regional and/or national water management

In most regions or countries, the distribution of fresh-

water resources is unbalanced;freshwater may be rich in
certain parts and lacking in other parts. It is essential for
local governments to efficiently and economically man-
age water resources.
In China, freshwater is rich (more than enough) in the
South, but in the North, there is not enough freshwater.
To solve this type of national freshwater shortage prob-
lem, the national project of the South-to-North Water
Division (Fig. 12) was commenced in 2002; parts of it have
been completed and parts are still under construction. It
Fig. 11  Subsidence curves of several benchmarks (Fig. 9) located
in the Shanghai centre (data from [108] and [113] is one of the greatest projects in Chinese history, and it
can mitigate freshwater shortages and therefore land sub-
sidence problems in North-Eastern parts of China.
Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 10 of 16

Fig. 12  China national project: South-to-North Water Division route map (adapted from http://​nsbd.​mwr.​gov.​cn/) [114]

Quaternary clayey soils of 10 to 30  m thickness were cars, and water plants. This could help reduce the
deposited in the Saga Plain, Japan [115]. In Shiroishi Dis- amount of groundwater used in certain areas and miti-
trict, Saga, the Quaternary soil layers were compressed gate possible land subsidence.
due to excessive groundwater pumping for agricultural
purposes and approximately 1.0  m of subsidence from 5.3 Brief bibliometric analysis results
1970 to 2000. After that, there were restrictions on the
amount of groundwater to be pumped, and land subsid- (1) Top three identified research clusters
ence was mitigated. Furthermore, from 2012, surface
water from Kasegawa Dam was diverted to Shiroishi Dis- The search strategy code was theme = (land OR ground
trict and pumping of groundwater was largely stopped, OR soil OR earth surface) AND (subsidence OR settle-
which prevented further land subsidence. ment) AND (urban area). The top three identified top
three research clusters are as follows:
(2) Efficient use of water
Cluster 1: the possible causes of urban ground sub-
With the increasing of world populations and lim- sidence (e.g. [116–118]).
ited freshwater resource, aside from diverting water Cluster 2: land subsidence monitoring techniques
from rivers into cities, recycling locally available water (e.g. [119–121]).
resources is an effective way to ensure water safety in Cluster 3: the land subsidence prediction model (e.g.
urban areas and maintain sustainable development. A [113, 117, 122, 123]).
community can recycle its wastewater, such as from Number of publications and top 10 journals publish-
bathtubs and washing machines, to flush toilets, wash ing the papers
 Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 11 of 16

these technologies should be operated in parallel with

traditional methods to provide explicit insights into the
investigated systems. Tools such as multiple-sensor,
high-precision GPS, radars and geodetic methods (e.g.,
levelling) generally help in natural object monitoring,
while automatic monitoring systems allow the approxi-
mation of future seismological, climatic, and ground-
water level changes associated with hazard occurrences.
Furthermore, with technological breakthroughs, satellite
technologies are increasing utilised for monitoring natu-
ral disasters. The primary advantage of this approach is
its relatively large and movable coverage range. Adopted
by agencies such as the Asia–Pacific Regional Space
Agency Forum (APRSAF), the hybridisation of space-
based technology and WEB-GIS technology has proven
to be an efficient tool for disasters management [127].
Although strengthening field monitoring can improve
Fig. 13  Number of publications of land subsidence the understanding of natural disasters, the assessment
of the risk associated with these hazards as well as early
warnings of their occurrence is imperative to achieve dis-
Table 4 Top 10 journals in which the land subsidence-related aster resilience.
research papers were published from 2012 to 2021
Journal title Publications 6.2 MCDM risk assessment
Remote Sensing 197
Disaster risk assessment in urban areas is crucial for
Sustainability 137
long-term planning and policymaking processes for local
communities. The aim of quantifying disaster risks is typ-
Environmental Earth Sciences 72
ically to determine their nature and magnitudes such as
Natural Hazards 58
the probability of high-intensity flood [42], areas affected
Remote Sensing of Environment 49
by landslides [128], seismic intensity [129], and degree
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 45
of land subsidence [101]. This is carried out by analysing
Engineering Geology 39
hazards and assessing the punctual states of vulnerability
Science of the Total Environment 38
that could endanger exposed people and their immediate
Arabian Journal of Geosciences 29
environment. In this regard, tremendous developments
Landscape and Urban Planning 29
have been achieved in recent years to quantify the effects
of disasters occurring in urban areas. Current state-of-
Figure 13 presents the number of publications on land the-art risk assessment approaches include probabilistic
subsidence in urban areas from 2012 to 2021. Table  4 and statistical [130], fuzzy set ([131], [132], GIS-enabled
shows the top 10 journals in which the land subsidence- zoning [133], and risk characterisation [134] methods.
related papers were published from 2012 to 2021. Nevertheless, a resurgence of some traditional frame-
works (that are continuously improving) such as scenario
6 Perspectives for risk warning and hazards analysis, comentropy, or grey system techniques has also
prevention been observed in recent years [135]. Because the preci-
6.1 Strengthening field monitoring sion of disaster risk assessment is primarily contingent
Natural disaster monitoring is a prominent compo- on the data quality and spatial–temporal coverage of the
nent of response strategies for natural hazards. Field assessment model, existing methods inherently embody
monitoring not only enables the evaluation of the risks or generate constraints that limit their efficiency in
associated with these hazards, but also allows the opti- assessing the true exposure of people and their environ-
mization of their prevention. For instance, remote sens- ment to natural disaster risks. Focusing on climate risk
ing technologies are highly effective for enhancing the assessment, Arribas et  al. [136] argued that improve-
understanding of spatial and temporal trends of phe- ments should be made to consider compounding risks,
nomena such as flooding [44, 100], landslides [124, 125], comprehensive databases, and comparison/combinations
earthquakes (..), and land subsidence [43, 126]. However, of different assessments results.
Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 12 of 16

6.3 AI‑enabled early warning systems Heavy rain-induced slope failures/landslides affect

The stochastic nature of disaster phenomena has driven cities adjacent to hills/mountains (such as Hong
global efforts to target the integration of AI in disaster- Kong). Again, extreme weather-induced torrential
management systems. AI possesses huge potential for rains cause more slope failures and landslides. Engi-
strengthening disaster mitigation owing to the seamless neering measures for preventing slope failures or land-
availability of data and the increasing performance of slides are often implemented after observing the signs
forecasting algorithms. These two features are critical for of slope instability. Therefore, it is important to pre-
enabling early warning systems, that is, technologies and dict rainfall-induced slope failures/landslides. With
processes that aim to predict and mitigate the harm of an accurate early prediction/warning system, damage
natural disasters. The data must be sufficient, representa- resulting from slope failures/landslides can be sub-
tive, precise (e.g. in terms of resolution), and consistent stantially mitigated.
(e.g. sequential data, real-time data) with the operat- Although considerable efforts have been made to pre-
ing algorithm. However, the rarity of some events, such dict earthquake, they still cannot be predicted effectively
as earthquakes, can hamper the creation of sufficiently enough to avoid damage. Therefore, developing struc-
large database for training algorithms. Kuglitsch et  al. tures resilient to earthquakes is an essential engineer-
[137] postulated that producing synthetic data could be ing task for sustainable city development. Three types of
a viable solution to this problem. Furthermore, predict- structures can be adopted: earthquake-resistant struc-
ing algorithms have mainly adopted the deep learning tures, vibration damping structures, and seismic isolation
paradigm because of its ability to explore massive design structures.
spaces, deal with nonlinearity, and identify multidimen- Land subsidence is a human activity, that is, the main
sional correlations. These algorithm can predict the cause is excessive groundwater pumping. With rapid
future occurrence of hazards, which is critical for organ- urbanisation, the demand for more freshwater is increas-
ising appropriate responses. Recent successes include ing worldwide, and some of the freshwater is obtained by
deep learning-based ground characterisation [138–142], pumping groundwater, which can cause land subsidence.
real-time and dynamic modelling [143–146]), ensem- Approximately, 1.2 billion people are affected by land
ble models, and hybrid model-based forecasting of the subsidence worldwide. The corresponding countermeas-
occurrence of future phenomena [147, 148]. To take full ures include effective regional and national freshwater
advantage of these technologies, they must be integrated management as well as locally water recycling.
into an interdisciplinary platform to allow the seamless To mitigate potential disasters in urban areas, the fol-
understanding of both the operating process and predic- lowing perspectives are recommended: 1) establishment
tive analysis by relevant actors, including researchers, and strengthening of field monitoring systems, 2) con-
engineers, multi-stakeholders, and decision-makers. ducting risk assessments and providing warnings based
on multi-criteria decision making models, and 3) estab-
7 Concluding remarks lishment of early warning systems based on artificial
In 2015, the UN set 17 goals for sustainable economic intelligence technologies.
and social development. Goal 11 seeks to make cities
accessible and safe for all people; Goal 13 seeks to imme- Authors’ contributions
diately mitigate the effects of climate change. Preventing The conception of the review article was primarily contributed by Jinchun
Chai, who also drafted the manuscript and performed critical revisions. Hao-
and mitigating natural disasters in urban areas can be an Ze Wu was responsible for the extensive literature search and data analysis.
indirect part of these two goals. Four types of natural dis- Hao-Ze Wu also contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript. Both
asters—flooding, heavy rain-induced slope failures/land- authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
slides, earthquakes causing structure failure/collapse; and Funding
land subsidence—are considered in this study. The char- There is no funding involved.
acteristics of each disaster in recent years and the possi-
Availability of data and materials
ble countermeasures are also discussed. Data is available upon reasonable request.
With the increasing frequency of climate change-
induced extreme weathers, the number of floods has Declarations
increased in recent years in metropolitan regions. The
countermeasures include natural flooding management, Competing interests
There is no conflict or competing interest with the third party.
such as increasing vegetation coverage of lands, engi-
neering methods for enhancing drainage capacities in
urban areas, increasing elevation of dikes, and soft meth- Received: 1 February 2023 Revised: 17 April 2023 Accepted: 23 April 2023
ods such as early warning systems and evacuation plans.
 Chai and Wu Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities (2023) 1:4 Page 13 of 16

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