Much is said about climate change and how much we feel its consequences. Ever thought the underground could feel them too? Also silently destabilize the buildings?
We have seen here that the surface of Spanish soil is boiling and has exceeded the incredible temperature of 60°C. Although we see and feel some of the consequences of climate change, there are actually a number of others that are unfamiliar to us.
For example the basement. As the heat diffuses, underground temperatures rise. Heat has altered the subsoil of a city in the United States to levels beyond what most buildings can withstand, according to a new study.
Incidentally, it has recently been revealed that New York may be sinking due to the connection between the weight of its skyscrapers and the weakening of the subsoil.
Civil engineer Alessandro Rotta Loria of Northwestern University in Illinois used the Chicago Loop district as a case study and three years of data from a wireless temperature sensor network. He created a 3D computer model to simulate the effects of rising temperatures on the subsurface environment.
Rotta graduate student Anjali Naidu Thota installs a temperature sensor underground in the Chicago Loop
Loria’s simulations span an entire century, from 1951 (the year Chicago completed its subway tunnels) to 2051.
[Revelam] a silent but potentially problematic impact of underground urban heat islands on the performance of civilian structures and infrastructure.
Wrote the civil engineer in an article that has already been reviewed by peers, according to Science Alert.
Alessandro Rotta Loria, civil engineer at Northwestern University in Illinois
In addition to subway tunnels, heat accumulates from electric cables crossing cities, building foundations, parking lots, and sanitary facilities.
While all built environments absorb the sun’s heat, finegrained clay sediments like that under Chicago “are particularly prone to shrink or swell with heat and water.”
Ground temperatures measured in the clay layer below the Chicago Loop
Furthermore, while the buildings were built to tolerate some flexing, the older infrastructures were not designed to accommodate the flexing that occurs today.
The ground is hotter and buildings may not be able to withstand these climate changes
According to Loria, buildings are unlikely to collapse due to the slow deformation from heat. However, subtle changes of just a few millimeters can deform or mobilize foundations, affecting the durability or performance of building materials over time.
The earth [de Chicago] It deforms with changes in temperature, and no existing structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these changes.
According to the model results, the temperatures in the different soil layers in the entire district varied by about 15 °C on average. Depending on the soil type, higher temperatures led to displacements of 8 to 12 millimeters under different buildings.
While this phenomenon does not necessarily pose a threat to human safety, it does affect the normal daytoday operation of foundation systems and civil infrastructure in general.
Explained the civil engineer, who found that ground temperatures in Chicago are currently warming at about 0.14°C per year.
We are not aware of an issue that needs to be prevented
According to Loria, it’s highly likely that subsurface climate change has already led to rifts and excessive colonization. However, due to a lack of awareness, they have not been linked to this phenomenon.
Ongoing subsurface climate change must be mitigated to avoid undesirable impacts on civil structures and infrastructure in the future.
While reducing emissions to lower global temperatures would ease the burden, some cities are experimenting with using waste heat from transportation systems like the Paris Metro to heat apartment blocks and hot water systems.
This strategy is called heat recycling: scientists say it’s a viable idea and may become more necessary as the world warms and cities expand.