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  • Review Article
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Delta sustainability from the Holocene to the Anthropocene and envisioning the future

Nature Sustainability volume 7, pages 1235–1246 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

River deltas offer numerous ecosystem services and host an estimated global population of 350 million to more than 500 million inhabitants in over 100 countries. To maintain their sustainability into the future, deltas need to withstand sea-level rise from global warming, but human pressures and diminishing sediment supplies are exacerbating their vulnerability. In this Review, we show how deltas have served as environmental incubators for societal development over the past 7,000 years, and how this tightly interlocked relationship now poses challenges to deltas globally. Without climate stabilization, the sustainability of populous low-to-mid-latitude deltas will be difficult to maintain, probably terminating the delta–human relationship that we know today.

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Fig. 1: Simplified sketch of a river delta.
Fig. 2: Anthropocene delta demography and land changes.
Fig. 3: Human intersection with delta geomorphological development over the past 7,000 years in the wake of stabilization of the postglacial SLR.
Fig. 4: Coordinated river and delta planning and management strategies to reduce vulnerability and maintain delta sustainability.
Fig. 5: SLR and delta sustainability.

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Acknowledgements

P. Pentsch assisted in drawing Figs. 1, 3, 4 and 5, and S. Anthony drew the adaptation strategies on the delta in Box 1. F.Z. benefited from a Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) postdoc during the course of this Review.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, Collège de France, CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Edward Anthony, Florin Zăinescu, Christophe Morhange & François Sabatier

  2. INSTAAR and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Jaia Syvitski

  3. Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Florin Zăinescu & Alfred Vespremeanu-Stroe

  4. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Robert J. Nicholls

  5. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Kim M. Cohen

  6. CNRS, ThéMA, Université de Franche-Comté, UMR 6049, MSHE Ledoux, Besançon, France

    Nick Marriner

  7. Estuary Research Center, Shimane University of Matsue, Shimane, Japan

    Yoshiki Saito

  8. Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, College of the Coast & Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA

    John Day

  9. Soil Geography and Landscape Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Philip S. J. Minderhoud

  10. Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering (ICEA), University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Philip S. J. Minderhoud

  11. Department of Subsurface and Groundwater Systems, Deltares Research Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Philip S. J. Minderhoud

  12. Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Alessandro Amorosi

  13. State Key Laoboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Zhongyuan Chen

  14. Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL-AOROC, Paris, France

    Christophe Morhange

  15. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Tsukuba, Japan

    Toru Tamura

  16. Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan

    Toru Tamura

  17. i-Sea, Bordeaux Technowest, Mérignac, France

    Manon Besset

  18. Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l’Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France

    David Kaniewski

  19. Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy

    Vittorio Maselli

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  1. Edward Anthony
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  2. Jaia Syvitski
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the ideas and discussions that formed the basis of this Review and to the writing and editing of the manuscript. E.A. designed Figs. 1, 3, 4 and 5, and F.Z. and N.M. designed Fig. 2. E.A. and F.Z. designed Box 1.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward Anthony.

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Anthony, E., Syvitski, J., Zăinescu, F. et al. Delta sustainability from the Holocene to the Anthropocene and envisioning the future. Nat Sustain 7, 1235–1246 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01426-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01426-3

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