Kongjian Yu was only 10 years old when he witnessed the power of nature firsthand. Heavy rain caused the creek near his village in China’s Zhejiang province to swell and spill over to the rice terraces. When he ran to the river’s edge in excitement, he slipped into the surging floodwaters. Fortunately, he was able to save himself by grabbing onto the willow and reed vegetation that grew all along the banks.

Almost all of China's medium and large cities are now susceptible to floods. And [Kongjian] Yu says 60% of them experience flooding every year. Extreme weather from climate change is exacerbating the problem.

In this fascinating article, first published in Liberation School, environmentalist and author Tina Landis explains the concept of sponge cities: what they are, why they are needed, and China’s leading role in developing them.

Nature-based approaches to enhancing the absorbency of urban environments are being used to address the linked issues of climate change, flooding, sanitation and health. Fid Thompson reports.

The Impact of Transforming China's Urban Centers Into Sponge Cities

BEIJING (AP) — To cushion the impact of extreme weather due to climate change, a Chinese landscape architect has been making the case for China and other countries to create so-called “sponge cities.

Our relationship with water has been thrown fatally off balance in many parts of the world this year.

Sponge cities utilise natural wetlands to passively absorb, clean and use rainfall in an ecologically friendly way that reduces dangerous and polluted runoff into urban streets.

China is re-engineering old cities and designing new ones to accept, rather than fight, natural water flows in a vast project spearheaded by ‘water detectives’