The unintended consequences of what seemed, at many times in the last 300 years, to be completely reasonable city planning and engineering decisions - to litera

The unintended consequences of what seemed, at many times in the last 300 years, to be completely reasonable city planning and engineering decisions - to literally "drain the swamp" and pump out groundwater - that led to soil compaction as layers of peat and other organic material became dry, and thus able to decay and compress, leaving land that once was above sea level to now be below it - even without the effects of climate change and hurricanes.