Sponge city strategy and application of pavement materials in sponge city

Abstract

To solve the frequent urban flood problems, China has put forward a novel city strategy-Sponge City. It is a kind of water resource management strategy and method, which can adapt to the changes of rainwater like a sponge, so as to reduce the occurrence of flood problems. This paper reviewed the initiative and development of sponge city. It analyzed the problems faced by sponge city construction and possible solutions. In addition, pavement material was an important part of sponge city construction. This paper also reviewed the application and development of pavement materials in sponge city. Firstly, the commonly used permeable pavement materials were introduced including permeable asphalt concrete, permeable cement concrete, permeable brick, and novel pavement materials. To meet the requirements of “infiltration, retention, purification, evaporation, and drainage”, the pavement materials were designed to be porous. The pore characteristics were studied, including but not limited to porosity and pore size, etc. In addition, environmental assessment and economic analysis were conducted. It was found that the permeable pavements were not necessarily more environmentally friendly than traditional pavement, but they did have some obvious benefits such as water purification, traffic noise reduction, Urban Heat Island (UHI) mitigation, and waste materials recycling. There was a controversy about whether permeable pavements were more economical than traditional pavements. Finally, this paper looked forward to the future development of pavement materials in sponge city, which called for better hydrological performance and wider application range.