Climate Change Changing Shanghai

During the last term, Wellington Year 9 geography pupils undertook a fieldwork project focused on climate change in Shanghai. The pupils explored mitigation strategies to deal with the threat at Nanhuizui on the coast and Houtan Park along the Huangpu River. They produced some excellent reports explaining why Shanghai is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and analysed the pros and cons of a range of flood defences.

Following the project, Year 9 pupils David, May, Nadia & Jolin explained “Shanghai is vulnerable to the impacts of global warming due to its coastal location, the soft sediments upon which the city sits, its large population and economic significance.”

Flooding of the Huangpu River means the main economic area in Shanghai, the Central Business District (CBD), will be affected preventing the operation of banks, stock markets, and other buildings with significant value to China’s economy.

Increased sea levels could also have a social impact with regularly flooded areas forcing people to move becoming climate change refugees. Additionally, if the temperature rises Shanghai will have hotter summers and winters, resulting in increased prevalence of heat stroke and diseases, with the young and elderly especially vulnerable.

In order to assess the different approaches to managing increased flood risk in Shanghai Year 9 visited HouTan Wetland Park on the banks of the Huangpu and Nanhuizui Guanhai Park near to Dishui Lake on the coast. The Chinese government has thus far invested $5 billion on flood defences. At HouTan Park, we analysed soft engineering approaches, such as terraces and grasslands. They are cost effective, their natural appearance is attractive and also creates natural habitats.

In contrast to this is the hard engineering defences along the coast such as the sea wall, rip rap and flood gates. Although these defences last longer, they were considered less attractive and there would be a greater impact if they failed.

“In our field work, we learnt that the impacts of climate change put Shanghai at great risk. The government is using different techniques to manage this risk, each with advantages and disadvantages. Even though the seawall and flood gates along the coast are not attractive, they do stop erosion and prevent coastal flooding. The soft engineering approach along the Huangpu would stop storm surges up to certain level and create a pleasant environment, but putting them in place across the city would be hard since many places are already very developed and lacking space.”

Fieldwork is a vital part of geography. It enables the application of knowledge gained in the classroom in addition to allowing the pupils to develop data collection, analysis and presentation skills in a fun and engaging manner. Focusing the project on Shanghai allowed pupils to realise the significance of climate change within their locality; linking global processes to local impacts.