Cities in China are increasingly embracing nature and becoming “sponge cities” to prevent flooding, informs Deutsche Welle. The term sponge city refers to a nature-based solution which uses the landscape to retain water, slow down runoff and improve water quality throughout the process. It moves away from levees and channels to control water, and is akin to similar strategies by different names in all corners of the world, such as green infrastructure, sustainable urban drainage systems and low-...

The survival and development of human society depends on water. In fact, global water demand increased nearly eightfold between 1900–2010 as a result of factors like population growth, economic development and a shift in diet.

China's central government has an ambitious green infrastructure plan. But will the results live up to the rhetoric?

In mid-July, floodwater submerged the city of Zhengzhou, in China's central Henan province. A year's worth of rain poured down on the city streets over just three days. The cloudburst overwhelmed Zhengzhou's flood defenses, washed away cars, swamped ground-floor shops, and inundated the subway transit line. Over 300 people died in the deluge.

Dr. Yu Kongjian and his "sponge city" model have helped change how we think of landscape architecture but also seen him branded a "US spy" by some

The urban collapse, caused by real estate overexploitation and exacerbated by the climate crisis, does not have to be imminent.

近日新加坡知名杂志CUBES，对北京大学教授、土人设计的创始人俞孔坚进行了专题采访，采访过程中俞孔坚结合成功案例介绍了他的海绵城市理念，并提出一些对于新加坡城市建设的建议。

Kongjian Yu, founder of Turenscape, one of China’s first landscape architecture practices, talks with Foreground about how his practice is working to build a more resilient, water-sensitive world.

Threeyearsago,whenfloodinginBeijingkilled79people,theChinesegovernmentwasquicktoblamethesizeofthestorm,notthecity’sfailingdrainagesystem.Buttheexcusedidn’tpersuadethepublic.Newsreportsoffatalfloodscomeasregularlytocitydwellersastheannualmonsoonseason.