What is the world’s most vulnerable city?

Level 3 l Advanced
1 Warmer
What are the biggest dangers facing the world’s largest cities? Rank the following in order from 1
(most dangerous) to 8 (least dangerous) and discuss your choices.
• traffic pollution
• war
• disease
• drought
• over-population
• climate change
• famine
• crime

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.

anomaly porous vulnerable inundated uninhabitable

pathogen wildfire sewage depletion impoverished

1. If a place is ___________________, it is easily damaged by something negative or harmful.

2. An ___________________ is something unusual, unexpected or different from what normally happens.
3. If an area of land is ___________________, it is covered with water.
4. A ___________________ substance has a lot of very small holes in it so air and water can pass through it.
5. ___________________ is waste substances, especially waste from people’s bodies, removed from buildings
by underground pipes.
6. If a place is ___________________, it is not suitable for living in.
7. An ___________________ person or place is very poor.
8. A ___________________ is something such as bacteria or a virus that causes disease.
9. ___________________ is the process by which natural resources are reduced.
10. A ___________________ starts in an area of countryside and spreads very quickly.

3 What do you know?

Decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F). Then, check your answers in the text.
1. The Piazza San Marco in Venice is inundated with water approximately one hundred times a year.
2. The capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta, has sunk around four metres over the last five years.
3. Miami is less than ten feet above sea level.
4. The Sahara Desert is gradually moving south.
5. The 38 million people of California own 20 million cars between them.
6. The capital of the Maldives, Malé, is most at risk from rising sea levels.
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NEWS LESSONS / What is the world’s most vulnerable city? / Advanced

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What is the world’s most vulnerable city?
Level 3 l Advanced
What is the world’s most
vulnerable city?
From the Maldives to Mauritania, some cities are
engaged in a constant battle for survival against
nature’s relentless forces. But which of these
metropolises is closest to being overwhelmed by
sea, sand or other natural threat?
Adrian Mourby
1 October, 2015
1 Setting aside epic disaster-movie moments such
as volcanoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, there
are two key natural factors that can make a city
vulnerable to gradual disintegration or even total
disappearance – water and sand.
2 Were climate change making the planet colder
rather than hotter, we could add ice to the list –
for nothing obliterates a city like a billion-tonne
glacier grinding its way down a valley. The impact
of a rare “ice tsunami” in 2013 on the Canadian
municipality of Ochre Beach was just a taster:
a wall of melting iceberg on Dauphin Lake was
blown by winds on to the shore, splintering every
house in its path.
3 But Ochre Beach was an anomaly. Elsewhere,
the planet’s melting ice is making cities
vulnerable by the less dramatic route of raising
sea levels. A century ago, Venice – one of the
most beautiful and low-lying cities in the world –
used to flood around ten times a year. Nowadays,
its lowest point, Piazza San Marco (only three
feet above sea level) is inundated with water
approximately 100 times annually.
4 But rising sea levels are not entirely to blame.
In many parts of the world, the land is also
sinking – in Venice’s case, subsoil compaction (a
result of industrial exploitation of the surrounding
area) lowered the city by 20cm between 1950
and 1970. Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam is also
sinking by about 2cm a year – but that’s nothing
compared to Jakarta, which is dropping 10 to
20cm annually. In the past three decades, the
city has sunk roughly four metres, rendering its
40-year-old seawall ever less effective.
5 Unfortunately for the Indonesian capital, it has
pumped out so much groundwater to support its
population that the land above is drying out and
compacting, thereby creating a bowl. Rivers that
used to flow through the city down to the sea
have had to be diverted because they cannot
drain uphill.
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NEWS LESSONS / What is the world’s most vulnerable city? / Advanced
6 While there are many plans to save Venice – and
Ho Chi Minh City and Jakarta are taking the
problem seriously – the same cannot be said for
Miami, where politicians refuse to admit the city
has a severe environmental problem.
7 Miami’s difficulties are threefold. The Florida
resort lies less than ten feet above sea level;
an increasing number of tropical storms are
inundating the city; and it is built on porous
limestone, which is absorbing the rising seawater.
This water then fills the city’s foundations and
bubbles up through drains and pipes, forcing
sewage upwards and polluting its fresh water.
There is every chance Miami may one day
become uninhabitable.
8 In the Maldives, the populations of whole islands
are now looking to abandon their homes. The
capital, Malé, population 153,379 and only
four feet above sea level, has used Japanese
investment to build a ten-foot sea wall at a cost of
$63 million – but, long term, only a stabilization of
rising sea levels will save it and the rest of
the islands.
9 And it’s not just the sea – rainfall is also
endangering cities across the world. Recently,
an entire summer’s worth of rain fell in one
morning on Detroit, overwhelming its outdated
sewerage systems. Impoverished by the collapse
of America’s car industry, the city is struggling
to build a system to cope. Drinking water is also
affected because Detroit is particularly vulnerable
to water-borne pathogens.
10 In Africa, desertification is causing the Sahara
to spread south at a rate of 30 miles per year,
threatening settlements in northern Mauritania.
Over the past 20 years, for example, the desert
has grown by more than 260 acres around the
trading and religious centre of Chinguetti, which
has seen its population decline from 20,000
people in the mid-twentieth century to just a few
thousand now. Trading has all but ceased as
sand piles up in the streets.
11 Likewise, the Californian resort of Rancho
Mirage, near Palm Springs, may have to be
abandoned in the next decade. This city is just
one example of a problem caused not so much
by global warming as human over-expansion in
the face of finite resources. California’s dream
of farming the desert made sense while its total
population remained around half a million (in
1870) – but, now, the state is home to 38 million
people, who, between them, own 32 million
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 What is the world’s most vulnerable city?
Level 3 l Advanced
vehicles and expect to be surrounded by lawns
and golf courses.
12 The daily water use in Rancho Mirage is more
than 200 gallons per person, which is giving
rise to a man-made drought. A 25% cut in
water consumption has been implemented but
this is unlikely to stabilize the resort, which is
surrounded by sand and dust. The long-term
answer in California’s desert is likely to be the
abandonment of some cities while consolidating
the populations of others.
13 Human flight is the final proof of a city’s
disintegration. Once we stop maintaining a city,
nature takes over very quickly. Japan’s Hashima
Island was turned into a concrete city in 1887 to
exploit undersea coal reserves – but, in 1974,
with coal supplies nearing depletion, the mine
was closed and Hashima was abandoned. Now,
the sea spray is causing its concrete walls
to collapse.
14 Fire is a growing threat to urban settlements in
America – in fact, forest fires cause the most
damage after severe storms, with 800 major fire
disasters having been declared there between
1953 and 2014. A newly released report by
4 Comprehension check
Choose the best answer according to the text.
1. Why is Miami in such a bad position?
a. because its politicians refuse to admit it has a problem
b. because it is low-lying, exposed to tropical storms and built on porous rock
c. because its fresh water is polluted by sewage
2 Why is Detroit also in a bad position?
a. because an entire summer’s worth of rain fell in one morning
b. because its sewerage system cannot cope with heavy rain
c. because its drinking water is full of pathogens
3. What has caused the problems in Rancho Mirage?
a. human over-expansion in the face of limited resources
b. 32 million vehicles
c. global warming
4. What happens when we stop maintaining a city?
a. Concrete walls collapse.
b. Forest fires quickly destroy it.
c. Nature takes over.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2015
NEWS LESSONS / What is the world’s most vulnerable city? / Advanced
the USDA Forest Service maps the increasing
number of urban locations that are particularly
vulnerable to wildfire.
15 Similarly, in Australia, some of Victoria’s resorts
and several Melbourne suburbs have been
placed on a list of the state’s 52 most vulnerable
bushfire spots because long-term droughts are
making trees highly combustible. It’s unlikely that
a forest fire will ever destroy an entire city but a
succession of fires could render it uninhabitable
– and abandonment remains one of the most
powerful causes of urban collapse.
16 Many cities are fighting a losing battle against
the ravages of nature but is it possible to identify
the world’s most vulnerable metropolis? Natural
events are notoriously hard to predict but the
prospects for Malé do look particularly grim for,
even if its new sea wall continues to be effective,
the islands around the Maldives capital are
going to disappear before too long. And, if they
disappear, so does Malé’s raison d’être.
© Guardian News and Media 2015
First published in The Guardian, 01/10/15
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 What is the world’s most vulnerable city?
Level 3 l Advanced
5 Find the word
Find the following words and phrases in the text.
1. a noun meaning the process of being gradually destroyed by being broken into lots of small pieces (para 1)
2. a verb meaning destroy something completely (para 2)
3. a noun meaning the process of layers of soil or rock being squeezed together (para 4)
4. a verb meaning exist in such great amounts that something cannot deal with them (para 9)
5. an adjective meaning able to burn easily (para 15)
6. a plural noun meaning the damage or destruction caused by something such as war, disease or weather
(para 16)
7. an adjective meaning unpleasant and making you feel upset and worried (para 16)
8. a three-word expression meaning the reason why something exists or is considered to be important (para 16)

6 Phrasal verbs
Match the words in the left-hand column with their definitions in the right-hand column.

1. pump out a. to take control

2. bubble up b. to change or develop into something different
3. pile up c. to make liquid move out of a place
4. dry out d. to increase a lot
5. take over e. to lose all water content
6. turn into f. to rise gradually in small quantities

7 Word-building
Complete the sentences using the correct form of the word in brackets at the end of each sentence.
1. Rainfall is _____________________ cities across the world. [DANGER]
2. In Venice, subsoil compaction is the result of industrial _____________________ of the surrounding area.
[EXPLOIT]
3. Only a long-term _____________________ of rising sea levels will save cities like Malé. [STABLE]
4. In Africa, _____________________ is causing the Sahara to spread south. [DESERT]
5. In California, daily water use is giving rise to man-made _____________________. [DRY]
6. Fire is a growing threat to human _____________________ in America. [SETTLE]

8 Discussion
Discuss the following statements.
• We don’t need to worry about global warming. It will be really great to grow grapes and oranges in New York
and London.
• It would be better to abandon cities like Malé rather than spend millions trying to save them.
• We should all start trying to save water right now.
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NEWS LESSONS / What is the world’s most vulnerable city? / Advanced

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What is the world’s most vulnerable city?
Level 3 l Advanced
KEY

2 Key words 6 Phrasal verbs

1. vulnerable 1. c
2. anomaly 2. f
3. inundated 3. d
4. porous 4. e
5. sewage 5. a
6. uninhabitable 6. b
7. impoverished
8. pathogen
9. depletion 7 Word-building
10. wildfire
1. endangering
2. exploitation
3 What do you know? 3. stabilization / stabilizing
4. desertification
1. T 5. drought
2. F 6. settlements
3. T
4. T
5. F
6. T

4 Comprehension check

1. b
2. b
3. a
4. c

5 Find the word

1. disintegration
2. obliterate
3. compaction
4. overwhelm
5. combustible
6. ravages
7. grim
8. raison d’être
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NEWS LESSONS / What is the world’s most vulnerable city? / Advanced

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