The relative contribution of peat compaction and oxidation to subsidence in built-up areas in the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands

Highlights: • Subsidence by peat compaction and oxidation severely impacts built-up coastal areas. • Field data shows that this type of subsidence is highly variable in time and space. • This variability mostly relates to subsurface buildup and characteristics and groundwater depth. • We expect a considerable subsidence potential in many peat-rich coastal areas. • Therefore we call for subsurface-based spatial planning in peat-rich coastal zones. An increasing number of people lives in coastal zones with a subsurface consisting of heterogenic soft-soil sequences. Many of these sequences contain substantial amounts of peat. While population growth and urbanization continues in coastal zones, they are threatened by global sea-level rise and land subsidence. Peat compaction and oxidation, caused by loading and drainage, are important contributors to land subsidence, and hence relative sea-level rise, in peat-rich coastal zones. Especially built-up areas, having densely-spaced urban assets, are heavily impacted by land subsidence, in terms of livelihoods and damage-related costs. Yet, built-up areas have been largely avoided in peat compaction and oxidation field studies. Consequently, essential information on the relative contributions of both processes to total subsidence and underlying mechanisms, which is required for developing effective land use planning strategies, is lacking. Therefore, we quantified subsidence due to peat compaction and oxidation in built-up areas in the Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands, using lithological borehole data and measurements of dry bulk density, organic matter, and CO₂ respiration. We reconstructed subsidence over the last 1000 years of up to ~4 m, and recent subsidence rates of up to ~140 mm·yr⁻¹ averaged over an 11-year time span. The amount and rate of subsidence due to peat compaction and oxidation is variable in time and space, depending on the Holocene sequence composition, overburden thickness, loading time, organic-matter content, and groundwater-table depth. In our study area, the potential for future subsidence due to peat compaction and oxidation is substantial, especially where the peat layer occurs at shallow depth and is relatively uncompacted. We expect this is the case for many peat-rich coastal zones worldwide. We propose to use subsurface-based spatial planning, using specific subsurface information mentioned above, to inform land use planners about the most optimal building sites in organo-clastic coastal zones.