Regenerating Sponge City to Sponge Watershed through an Innovative Framework for Urban Water Resilience

Jian Wang,Qiaohui Lu,Xiang Sun,Ruiying Jing,Wenbo Zhu,Yilong Huang,Fei Xue

doi:10.3390/su13105358

Jian Wang, Qiaohui Lu + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105358

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Abstract

In recent years, cities universal are advocating ‘resilience’ in terms of water-related challenges. Accompanied by the development of sponge city construction, several emerging stormwater management practices are prevailing worldwide. This paper proposes a regenerative argument for sponge city construction from the urban scale towards the watershed scale by strengthening the urban water resilience and sustainability. An innovative framework is established to address urban water issues and human livability via 20 conventional and advanced indicators and the interrelations between the modules of water resilience, water resource, water treatment, water ecology, waterscape, and water management. Six representative cities from the sponge city construction pilot in South China have been selected, and the compatibility and divergence between their guidelines and the sponge watershed framework are revealed through pair analyses and parameter calculation. The diverse perspectives behind the scores have been discussed carefully, and the successful experiences of excellent cities are systematically summarized and promoted. The analyses and findings in this research have significant methodological implications for shifting the sponge city practice towards linking urban development with watershed ecological conservation. The proposed framework and strategies provide a reference for an integrated solution of watershed health and wellbeing in the next generation sponge city practice.

Highlights

Since 1978, up to 60% of the Chinese population packed into cities due to urban development and socio-economic growth, which generated a high urban growth rate associated with the rapid urbanization trends [1,2]
The significant programs refer to sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) [39,56], low impact development (LID) [52,57,58], best management practices (BMP) [55,59], water sensitive urban design (WSUD) [60,61], and green infrastructure (GI) [62,63]
Wuhan has leapt to a higher place with its advantages in river network connection, blue-green space, ecological base flow, and comprehensive sponge facilities, reflecting the effect on water resilience, water resource, and water management modules [203]

Summary

Introduction

Since 1978, up to 60% of the Chinese population packed into cities due to urban development and socio-economic growth, which generated a high urban growth rate associated with the rapid urbanization trends [1,2]. According to the spatial module of urban-rural construction land in natural ecological regionalization in china, urban, and rural development mainly concentrated in the valleys and plain basins of large river basins at low elevations [3]. The urban aggregate along the waterfront with the advantage of waterways in irrigation, transport, sanitation, production, and recreation, etc., which has profound influences on regional economic development and national strategic guidelines [4,5,6]. The central cities, urban agglomerations, and rural settlements are connected by the mainstream and tributaries, upstream and downstream, left and right banks, which composed the watershed ecosystem with the natural elements of mountain, forest, lake, river, and field [7]. According to UNEP [9], ecosystem services from the water domain significantly related ecological status to social benefits and human wellbeing [10]. The holistic watershed ecosystem structure and function model involves the abiotic variables and biologic variables, which correlated with the water resources

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