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FLOODING RISK

Wastewater disruptions

Nature Sustainability volume 1, page 158 (2018)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 22 May 2018

This article has been updated

Earth’s Future http://doi.org/cmwv (2018)

Using geographic information systems, Michelle Hummel of the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and colleagues analysed the exposure to flooding, under different sea-level-rise projections, of wastewater treatment plants across the US coasts. They also estimated the population at risk of losing wastewater services, and found that it could be five times as high as previous predictions of the number of people who would experience flooding of their homes. Finally, a comparison of wastewater exposure to marine and groundwater flooding in the San Francisco Bay Area highlighted the risks posed by groundwater flooding in the region. Overall, the researchers concluded that flooding-induced disruptions to local infrastructure networks can have far-reaching consequences to areas not affected by the floods.

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Change history

  • 22 May 2018

    In the version of this Research Highlight originally published, the researcher’s name was mistakenly spelled ‘Hummer’; it should have been ‘Hummel’. This has now been corrected in all versions.

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  1. Nature Sustainability https://www.nature.com/natsustain

    Monica Contestabile

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  1. Monica Contestabile
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Correspondence to Monica Contestabile.

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Contestabile, M. Wastewater disruptions. Nat Sustain 1, 158 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0056-6

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