- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN) - Indonesia has said the country will relocate its capital city, partly because it is sinking into the Java Sea.
Jakarta is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, due to sea level rise and excessive groundwater extraction.
LOOK: Indonesia will build a new capital in Borneo because Jakarta sinks into the Java Sea
But it is not the only city in trouble. Here is a look at some others that are also at risk.
Houston
Houston has sunk for decades and, like Jakarta, excessive groundwater extraction is partly to blame.
The Houston Chronicle reported that parts of Harris County, which contains Houston, have sunk between 3 and 3.6 meters since the 1920s, according to data from the United States Geological Survey. The areas have continued to fall to 5.1 centimeters per year, an amount that can accumulate rapidly.
Lawmakers have tried to address the problem, creating a special purpose district designed to regulate groundwater extraction in 1975. But the problem has persisted, with private wells and water providers that continue to extract from aquifers.
Lagos
The city of Lagos is located on the coast of Nigeria, built partly on the mainland, partly on some nearby islands.
It is also the most populous city in Africa.
Its geography makes Lagos especially prone to flooding, and the coast has already eroded. As sea levels rise due to global warming, the city is increasingly at risk.
LOOK: A tiger takes a nap in the bed of a house in India after fleeing the floods
A 2012 study revealed that, because the coast of Nigeria is so low, an increase in sea level of only 1 to 3 meters "will have a catastrophic effect on human activities in these regions."
A separate study this year found that global sea levels could rise more than two meters by the end of this century.
New Orleans
Until the 1930s, only one third of New Orleans was below sea level. When Katrina arrived in 2005, that number rose by half.
The city is vulnerable to rising sea levels because it was built on loose land and placed very close to the coast. In combination with its sinking, scientists have discovered that it is falling at the rate of 1 centimeter per year.
MIRA: How to get to know New Orleans in less than 24 hours? Let the music guide you
Beijing
A 2016 study showed that Beijing is sinking up to 10.2 centimeters in some areas per year.
Investigators said the cause of the sinking was the depletion of groundwater, similar to the situation in Jakarta and Houston.
Beijing, which is not a coastal city, relies heavily on groundwater as its main source of this liquid. Water has been accumulating for many years, but its extraction has dried the soil and made it compact, leading to sinking.
Washington
Washington is one of the most important cities in the United States, and it is also sinking.
A 2015 investigation showed that the US capital it will fall more than 15.2 centimeters in the next 100 years.
But unlike Jakarta, the sinking of Washington has nothing to do with aquifers or sea level rise, it is actually due to an ice sheet of the last ice age.
A 1,600 meter ice sheet pushed land beneath the Chesapeake Bay upwards. When the ice sheet melted thousands of years ago, the earth settled again. Researchers now believe that the area is gradually sinking, a process that could last thousands of years.
But sea levels in the Chesapeake Bay are also rising, which could cause additional problems.
