Exploring the Development of the Sponge City Program (SCP): The Case of Gui'an New District, Southwest China

Chapter 18 - Nature-based solutions and sponge city for urban water management

Catchment floods are more challenging due to intensive urbanization and climate change. Enlightened by the Low Impact Development (LID), China initiated the Sponge City Program (SCP) to transform Urban Flood Management (UFM) to be more environmentally friendly in 2013. The China National Government (CNG) has subsidized municipal SCP facilities to enhance urban flood resilience while delivering multiple co‐benefits for urban ecosystems and social well‐being. Recent floods at Schleiden (Germany), Arizona State (USA), and Zhengzhou (China) in 2021 reflected the necessity of Catchment Flood Management (CFM) to cover the whole catchment scale. The SCP, designed to handle small‐scale urban pluvial floods, has brought concerns when facing larger‐scale fluvial floods after the Zhengzhou 2021 flood. Indeed, catchment‐scale Natural Flood Management (NFM) can manage fluvial floods while improving flood adaptations sustainably from upstream to downstream reaches. This research develops a new framework named the Sponge Catchment Management Plan (SCMP), including structural and Nonstructural elements. On the structural side, the SCMP framework integrates NFM with the SCP and Grey Engineering (GE) for reducing the fluvial flood discharge peaks in the whole‐catchment scale. On the nonstructural side, the SCMP encourages collaborative governance, revising technical standards, and improving “bottom‐up” participation. This research used Semi‐Structured Interviews (SSIs) and a Focus Group Approach (FGA) to explore 62 professional and Nonprofessional stakeholders’ perspectives on the SCMP framework. Some professional respondents did not know much about the NFM and were worried about the effectiveness of this practice. But most interviewees supported the SCMP pilot work and shared the co‐benefits from the NFM. This case study at the SW China, Guiyang, could be a lesson to encourage other Chinese cities further implement SCP to improve catchment‐scale flood resilience.

<p>‘<em>Sponge City Program</em>’ (SCP) is the term used to describe the Chinese government’s approach to urban surface water management. The concept was conceived in 2014 in response to an increasing incidence of urban surface flooding in many Chinese cities. While ambitious and far-reaching in its aim (of reducing national flood risk, increasing water supply and improving water quality), the initiative must be implemented by individual sub-provincial or municipal-level government entities. The concept is similar to <em>Blue-Green Cities</em> (BGCs); <em>sustainable drainage systems</em> (SuDS) in the UK, it is developing with different regional climatic and hydrological characteristics, considering rapid urbanization. Indeed, the increasing use of national rather than international examples of best practice reflects a growing body of knowledge that has evolved since the start of the Sponge City initiative. The SCP so far now has run through 6 years and experience a transition on urban stormwater management and planning practices. In this paper, the implementation of the latest SCP guidelines will be presented that using the case of Ningbo and other Chinese cities to illustrate the transformation of the current SCP practices that undertaking the consideration of climate, environmental and socio-economic factors, and how the practice tackle challenges on governance, project financing, integration and assessment by the authorities and stakeholders. These valuable experiences will be vitally important influencing future urban stormwater management and planning practices in Chinese cities.</p>

Meeting financial challenge facing China's Sponge City Program (SCP) – Hong Kong as a gateway to green finance

Urban flooding has become a serious issue in most Chinese cities due to rapid urbanization and extreme weather, as evidenced by severe events in Beijing (2012), Ningbo (2013), Guangzhou (2015), Wuhan (2016), Shenzhen (2019), and Chongqing (2020). The Chinese “Sponge City Program” (SCP), initiated in 2013 and adopted by 30 pilot cities, is developing solutions to manage urban flood risk, purify stormwater, and provide water storage opportunities for future usage. Emerging challenges to the continued implementation of Sponge Cities include (1) uncertainty regarding future hydrological conditions related to climate change projections, which complicates urban planning and designing infrastructure that will be fit for purpose over its intended operating life, and (2) the competing priorities of stakeholders and their reluctance to make trade-offs, which obstruct future investment in the SCP. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) is an umbrella concept that emerged from Europe, which encourages the holistic idea of considering wider options that combine “Blue–Green” practices with traditional engineering to deliver “integrated systems of Blue–Green–Grey infrastructure”. NBS includes interventions making use of natural processes and ecosystem services for functional purposes, and this could help to improve current pilot SCP practices. This manuscript reviews the development of the SCP, focusing on its construction and design aspects, and discusses how approaches using NBS could be included in the SCP to tackle not only urban water challenges but also a wide range of social and environmental challenges, including human health, pollution (via nutrients, metals, sediments, plastics, etc.), flood risk, and biodiversity.

Flood management is a complex issue in Chinese cities that exhibit high populations and have undergone rapid urbanization. Urban flood management (UFM) approaches can be used to mitigate urban flood risk. To address urban issues of poor water quality and urban surface flooding, the Sponge City Program (SCP) was initiated in 2013 in China. The SCP aims to provide an opportunity for Chinese cities to improve their current UFM practices. This study looks at Guiyang (a pilot sponge city located in SW China) as a case study to identify the challenges and opportunities of UFM in China. Guiyang is a valley city surrounded by a hilly landscape. Using interview records and flood data, we illustrate that the primary type of flood in Guiyang is fluvial rather than surface water flooding. In Guiyang, the current function and targets of the SCP have yet to engage with the catchment level flood management, instead mainly focusing on the site-specific context (i.e., community level). Catchment flood management planning (CFMP) and natural flood management (NFM) both address this problem and may be a more suitable approach to manage flood discharge from the upper and middle catchments in Guiyang. In addition, it is suggested that a mixed option combining “hard” infrastructure (e.g., reservoirs and floodwalls) with “soft” flood management measures (e.g., improving people awareness and participation) may improve urban flood resilience in Chinese cities.

Urbanisation and ever-intensified rainstorms exacerbated urban waterlogging in some Chinese cities. In 2013, the Chinese government proposed a nationwide initiative, Sponge City, for managing the flood risk using the nature-based solution (NBS) approach. Pilot projects have been implemented among thirty selected cities, including Wuhan. Because the effectiveness of implementing NBS relies on the participation of the well-informed public, this study aims at identifying the factors affecting the awareness of the public about the Sponge City program. The viewpoint of people in Wuhan on urban floods and the Sponge City initiatives was surveyed among 1600 participants using a face-to-face questionnaire in mostly Wuchang area of Wuhan; more than 900 of them were further interviewed. The majority of participants, though recognising the threats from flooding, were lacking awareness and understanding of the Sponge City initiatives. The Chi-square analyses of association revealed that the level of awareness is affected by education, age and residential time; these demographic factors also affected their interpretation of the direct experiences of the water environment and governmental water management. To optimise communicating the relevant policy to the public, the content and the advertising tools for promoting Sponge City may need to be mindfully customised for targeted demographic groups.

Urban water management involves urban water supply (import, treatment and distribution of water), urban wastewater management (collection, treatment and disposal of urban sewage) and urban storm water management. Declining groundwater tables, polluted and declining sources of water, water scarcity in urban areas, unsatisfactory urban water supply and sanitation situation, pollution of receiving water bodies (including the ground water), and urban floods have become the concerns and issues of sustainable urban water management. This paper proposes a model for urban stormwater and sewage management which addresses these concerns and issues of sustainable urban water management. This model proposes segregation of the sewage into black water and greywater, and urban sub-watershed level stormwater-greywater management systems. During dry weather this system will be handling only the greywater and making the latter available as reclaimed water for reuse in place of the fresh water supply. During wet weather, the system will be taking care of (collection and treatment) both the storm water and the greywater, and the excess of the treated water will be disposed off through groundwater recharging. Application of this model in the Patiala city, Punjab, INDIA for selected urban sub-watersheds has been tried. Information and background data required for the conceptualization and design of the sub-watershed level urban stormwater-greywater management system was collected and the system has been designed for one of the sub-watersheds in the Patiala city. In this paper, the model for sustainable urban water management and the design of the Sub-watershed level Urban Stormwater-Greywater Management System are described.

Sustainable urban water management is an increasingly important socio-political objective, however implementation remains ad hoc. While numerous tools and technologies have been developed to achieve sustainable urban water management, significant socio-institutional barriers remain. These impediments include, among others, institutional fragmentation, poor political leadership and technological lock-in. Exacerbated by a lack of theory and conceptual frameworks to link sustainable urban water management principles with on-ground execution, these barriers contribute to low levels of system-wide implementation capacity. Institutional capacity building is advocated in the sustainable urban water literature as a strategy to facilitate implementation; however, institutional capacity building has limited ability to provide an overview of regime operation, considered critical for enabling system-wide change. Focusing on processes, actor agency and institutions, the field of governance studies provides a useful perspective for understanding holistic regime operation and change. Yet the environmental governance literature remains contested; many scholars support a network or market governance approach while others advocate for hybrid approaches. Moreover, the governance systems needed for enabling sustainable urban water management have been given limited attention. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to develop a guiding framework for sustainable urban water governance. Through an emergent research design, systematically drawing on the perspectives of scholars and leading Australian urban water sustainability practitioners, likely attributes of a sustainable urban water management regime were identified. The attributes were focused through the lens of individual, organisational, inter-organisational relationships, and administrative and regulatory regime components. A comparison of the scholarly and practitioner perspectives, together with governance, regime and institutional literatures, explored which governance modes are most likely to enable sustainable urban water management. Overall, this investigation revealed a suite of likely sustainable urban water management regime attributes that are substantially different from traditional and contemporary practice highlighting the considerable regime change required to enable sustainable urban water management. The scholars supported a network governance approach, similar to current adaptive governance and conceptual scholarly urban water management projections, with interdependent actor relations and largely informal administrative arrangements. In comparison, the practitioners advocated hybrid governance arrangements comprising hierarchical and network modes, including a formal administrative framework, with mutually dependent and interconnected actor relationships to facilitate implementation of site specific sustainable urban water management solutions. Both scholars and practitioners supported using a variety of policy instruments, including market governance instruments. The outcomes of this investigation suggest the hybrid governance approach supported by practitioners extends current scholarship by providing detailed information on regime attributes and operation, which can provide insight for practical implementation of network governance approaches which are supported in current urban water management and adaptive governance literature. Additionally, the hybrid approach offers suggestions for successfully integrating the three ideal governance modes and reducing potential tension among the modes. In practice, the proposed framework could be used to design capacity building programs and policy initiatives drawing on mixed governance approaches. To extend this research and improve insight into regime operation and governance dynamics, future research testing the tentative sustainable urban water governance framework in other locations is required.

Home-buying decisions influenced by the implementation of nature-based solutions: The case of Sponge City, Guiyang SW China

Rapid urbanization and climate change have intensified challenges related to urban water management. Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) represents an innovative approach for managing urban water resources, integrating sustainable water management practices within urban planning. This systematic review focuses on the state of WSUD research in India both at a house-hold scale to a catchment or community scale. Despite being in the early stages of WSUD implementation, India’s research highlights key themes, methodologies, and outcomes in this domain. Majority of the literatures reviewed the WSUD measures that is being practised in India from the early 19th century, which include rainwater harvesting methods, stormwater diversions, designing of permeable pavements, sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) etc. A considerable amount of work discusses about the improvements found in various quality and quantity-based parameters before and after WSUD implementation. The findings provide a detailed understanding of WSUD implementation and its applications, aiming to inform policymakers, practitioners, and researchers engaged in sustainable urban water management. Keywords: Water Sensitive Urban Design, Sustainable Water Management, Low Impact Development, Sustainable Integrated Rural Water Management, Smart Water Management, Sponge City.

Comments and recommendations on Sponge City — China's solutions to prevent flooding risks

Exploring community perceptions and engagement of nature-based solutions: The case of Ningbo, a Chinese coastal sponge city

‘Sponge City’ is the term used to describe the Chinese government’s approach to urban surface water management. The concept was conceived in 2014 in response to an increasing incidence of urban surface flooding in many Chinese cities. While ambitious and far-reaching in its aim (of reducing national flood risk, increasing water supply and improving water quality), the initiative must be implemented by individual municipal-level government entities. In this seminar, Faith will provide the latest updates on the urban flood conditions of Chinese cities. The latest response and recovery processes will be introduced such as using the case from the Ningbo and the success of improving flood resilience. Through climate, environmental and socio-economic factors such as media analytics and socio-technological approaches such as NBS and Urban Agriculture rather than only relying on conventional engineering solutions. These practices can all influence how the National guidelines are implemented (governance), and better integration and assessment are found to contribute a better urban future in China and elsewhere. 

Ningbo is a coastal megacity located at the East Coast of China and developing rapidly with proactive trading and export economic activities. The city owns a ranked top ten international port and it is the major strategic spot of 21st century maritime Silk Road from the “Belt and Road” policy established for promoting further international trades and developments. In future, populations and economy in Ningbo are expected continuously growing in the next few decades. The demand of quality freshwater resources thus is enormously increasing. Ningbo municipal government has established the “Five water management” (五水共治) policy in 2013 that aims to manage (i) sewage discharge; (ii) flooding; (iii) surface water; (iv) water conservation and (v) freshwater supply. Indeed, the municipal government also liaised and initiated the “Sponge City Program” after 2015 that Ningbo was selected as one of the pilot city; these policies and practices are successful up to now. This article adopts the case study of Ningbo to investigate the reasons of municipal government to promote the policy, to understand the public perception of this water management policy in Ningbo through conducted semi-structured interviews. During the 2017 and 2019, we conducted a questionnaire (N = 110) and interviews (N = 10) that follow up for justification of the public perception with the local communities. Our findings indicated that the communities had not been engaged closely with these practices, but generally supporting these two urban water management practices; and agreed that the urban water conditions (urban floods and pollution) had been improved. Also, the article discusses whether these (5 Water and SCP) practices can be extensively applied in other Chinese cities. We will provide recommendations at the end of the article.