Urban planning and landscape architect Professor Kongjian Yu has put forward an innovative and eco-friendly option for flood mitigation. It involves transforming our cities into ‘sponges’ to absorb overflowing waterways and prevent threats presented by extreme flooding.

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’

Professor Kongjian Yu is the founder and principal designer of Turenscape, which Fast Company named one of the 10 Most Innovative Architecture Companies of 2021 for its work in “balancing China’s hyperspeed urbanisation with green sponge cities”. An often-outspoken voice in the world of landscape architecture and urbanism, Professor Yu has been heralded by Michael Sorkin as “a hero of effective advocacy within a system fraught with perils.”

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-...

In the coming decade, China is expanding its plans for sponge cities. They can help prevent flooding, promote biodiversity and cut emissions. But what exactly are these cities and how do they work?

Officials around the world are implementing techniques to absorb or divert water and protect urban areas from the effects of climate change.

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