Abstract: After land subsidence by exploiting ground water being controlled, the subsidence induced by city construction became more and more obvious. It is found that the engineering-related subsidence increased with the construction scale and speed. Bigger building density and bigger volumetric fraction caused bigger subsidence. The paper involved analyzing the macro effect of loads distributed with certain space, proposing the concept of equivalent effecting load, discussing the relationship between city building and large-scale equivalent effecting load, and interpreting the construction-induced land subsidence in shanghai. It is thought to be helpful for urban planning in cities with soft subsoil.