The cause and characteristics of land subsidence in Xi'an, China

Abstract

Land subsidence is one of the most prominent geological disasters in Xi'an, China. Base on the review of the occurrence and development of land subsidence in Xi'an, the causes of it was analysed. The research results indicate that: over-exploitation of confined water is the main cause of land subsidence in Xi'an; regional tectonic activity is one but not the leading cause; the engineering activities have a certain influence on the land subsidence while the loess collapsibility has no general effect on it. Then the characteristics of the land subsidence were summarized. The land subsidence in Xi'an has the characters of the being consistent with confined water cones of depression, being inheritable of subsidence centers and unevenness in space and in time. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.