There are some common problems in the promotion of sponge city construction in different cities, such as the unclear background conditions, the uncertain interrelationship among the upstream and downstream performance, and the absence of the scientific and effective evaluation system. An innovative catchment-level implementation path for reaching the sponge city performance standard is proposed according to the practical experience in No.2 catchment of the national pilot area in Guangming District of Shenzhen City. Firstly, the catchment objectives should be defined on the basis of the upper level planning and the problems need to be clarified from the background condition. Then, the interrelationship among basin-catchment- and project-level sponge city performance should be stated. According to the interrelationship and the construction sequence of the area, the implementation plan could be established in the form of "one map and one list" . Finally, a scientific monitoring and model evaluation system would be used to assess the performance of the catchment. This method provides reference for the planning and construction of sponge city in other areas.