Sponge City Program (SCP) and Urban Flood Management (UFM)—The Case of Guiyang, SW China

Yunfei Qi,James Griffiths,Dimple R Thadani,Mengqi Shao,Faith Ka Shun Chan,Chunguang Zhang,Xinan Li,Sitong Liu,Emily O’Donnell,Michael Hutchins,Gang Li,Linjun Xie,Meili Feng,Yanfang Sang,Lingyun Liu,Ming Zhong

doi:10.3390/w13192784

Abstract

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.

Highlights

The process of worldwide urbanization has accelerated rapidly [1], and global climate change has become more apparent in the past century [2]
While we found that all bureaus have set public-participation pages, the websites provided the facility for the only online complaint rather than public participation of flood management
Traditional flood management should integrate natural and social factors to help people live with floods

Summary

Introduction

The process of worldwide urbanization has accelerated rapidly [1], and global climate change has become more apparent in the past century [2]. Flooding events have increased in Chinese cities as a result of climate change and urbanization [4]. In 2013, the initiation of the Sponge City Program (SCP) provided an opportunity for planners and engineers in China to develop a sustainable approach to urban flood management (UFM) by greater use of SCP measures (e.g., wetland parks, ponds, and rain-gardens) [6]. Development of Urban Flood Management (UFM) in China. China has established a “grey” flood management system by integrating reservoirs, dykes, river channels, and water gates in the last few decades. By 2018, China had built over 98,822 reservoirs, 312,000 km of dykes, and 104,403 water gates. China has reached the third stage of UFM (i.e., integrated stormwater management) against the background of the SCP (Figure 1)

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