Cities are sinking — and experts say we're not doing enough to save them

The ever-expanding, online archive of natural disaster footage has produced some surreal and disturbing images.

The threat to cities from rising sea levels is increasing,
 so how prepared are urban centres for impending flooding?

Video of last month's floods in Venice, however, seemed to reach a new level of dark absurdity.

Waiters in gumboots waded through knee-high water, serving sodden diners pizza, while elsewhere people in wetsuits swam laps through Piazza San Marco — the city and the surrounding sea, indistinguishable.

Of course the presence of water, floods and high tides in Venice is a historical reality, a fact woven into the fabric of the city itself.

That today Venice is only one of many sinking cities, the speed at which those cities are sinking and the threat to urban populations, is altogether new.

Read the ABC News story by Mira Adler-Gillies - “Cities are sinking — and experts say we're not doing enough to save them.”