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Surface water flooding is currently viewed as the most serious water-related issue in many of the China’s large cities due to rapid urbanization, land-use change and the process of rapid socio-economic development. In 2014, the People’s Republic of China established the concept of the ‘Sponge City’, which will be used to tackle urban surface-water flooding and related urban water management issues, such as purification of urban runoff, attenuation of peak run-off and water conservation. The concept is being developed to make use of ‘blue’ and ‘green’ spaces in the urban environment for stormwater management and control. It is envisaged that related practices will enhance natural ecosystems and provide more aesthetically pleasing space for the people that live and work in urban environments, in addition enabling nature-based solutions to improve urban habitats for birds and other organisms. Until recently, grey infrastructure and hard engineering-based management approaches have been adopted in the rapidly developing Chinese urban environment as urban flood and drainage issues are predominantly managed by municipal water engineers. The Sponge City concept and related guidelines and practices will provide multiple opportunities to integrate ideas from eco-hydrology, climate change impact assessment and planning, and consideration of long-term social and environmental well-being, within the urban land-use planning process. This paper aims to explicate the Sponge city concept and its development, and consider the implications of the transformation of urban land-use planning and urban-water management practice in China. To achieve the dual goals of sustainable water-use and better flood control (as targeted by the Sponge City concept), more effective development and implementation of land-use guidance and assessment tools (with explicit integration of urban flood-risk assessment, land-drainage guidance, climate projection methods, and assessment of long-term sustainability) are recommended.

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... For example, spatial distribution and consumption habits in the Barcelona region led to water consumption about ten times higher in peripheral areas (typically houses with lawns) compared to the urban core area with multifamily buildings [21]. Another challenge has to do with how these drivers call land planning for new solutions that integrate not only the necessary resilience to extreme drought and flood phenomena but also contribute to positive externalities at the level, for example, of blue and green infrastructures, enabling a better urban environment and improving the quality of life of populations [22][23][24][25]. Adapting cities to the effects of climate change on the water cycle is, therefore, a pressing issue. ...
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... At the technological vector, the main trends concerning the challenges in the urban water sector for the 21st century are related to (i) the increased use of alternative sources of water, namely the reuse of rainwater [33,62,73,78], the reuse of water (direct or indirect), and desalination and the new technologies related to it that arise (Larsen et al., 2016); (ii) the "buffering" of extreme phenomena (usually related to floods) [8,42,62,79] in the search for more sustainable solutions with positive environmental externalities [35,68,[80][81][82], such as Sponge Cities in China, greenfield expansions in Australia or redevelopment in the Netherlands [8,22,53,83]; and (iii) the application of information technologies to the planning of the urban cycle of water and cities [79,84,85]. Considering the various drivers referred to above, which influence the relationship between the sustainability of the management of urban water resources in the face of the challenges of climate change, population growth, and increasing urbanisation, growing literature is addressing the use of artificial intelligence to integrate the diversity of inputs. ...
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... China's urbanization leads to a rapid land-use change and inadequate water infiltration capacities. With increased runoff produced by heavy rains, many urban drainage systems, especially in eastern monsoon China, operate in exceedance of conditions for which they were initially designed (Chan et al. 2018). Metropolises such as Beijing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou, are flooded more than once (Wang et al. 2018). ...
... The central government thus proposed the concept of Sponge City in 2013. It issued The Guideline of Sponge City Construction in 2014, aiming to increase the area of urban land able to absorb surface water discharges by approximately 20%, to retain or reuse approximately 70% of urban stormwater by 2020; and furtherly reuse up to 80% of stormwater by 2030s (Chan et al. 2018). In April 2015, 16 cities were identified for conducting pilot sponge city projects, and later in 2016, the list was expanded to another 14 (Chan et al. 2018). ...
... It issued The Guideline of Sponge City Construction in 2014, aiming to increase the area of urban land able to absorb surface water discharges by approximately 20%, to retain or reuse approximately 70% of urban stormwater by 2020; and furtherly reuse up to 80% of stormwater by 2030s (Chan et al. 2018). In April 2015, 16 cities were identified for conducting pilot sponge city projects, and later in 2016, the list was expanded to another 14 (Chan et al. 2018). Various green infrastructures, such as bio-swales, rain gardens, pervious pavements, and green roofs, were built to increase rainfall infiltration and store urban stormwater. ...
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... Nature-based solutions (NbS) within the urban environment provide a sustainable way to mitigate the increasing urban climate risks. For example, urban greening (UG), the widest and most versatile option classified as NbS, has been recognized as a multifunctional measure worldwide in previous studies (Zölch et al 2017, Chan et al 2018, Majidi et al 2019, Teo et al 2021. UG can help restore the natural water cycle in an urban environment, which can reduce flood risk in the city because of increased water infiltration and enhanced evapotranspiration (Chan et al 2018, Gotsch et al 2018, Haghighatafshar et al 2018, Majidi et al 2019. ...
... For example, urban greening (UG), the widest and most versatile option classified as NbS, has been recognized as a multifunctional measure worldwide in previous studies (Zölch et al 2017, Chan et al 2018, Majidi et al 2019, Teo et al 2021. UG can help restore the natural water cycle in an urban environment, which can reduce flood risk in the city because of increased water infiltration and enhanced evapotranspiration (Chan et al 2018, Gotsch et al 2018, Haghighatafshar et al 2018, Majidi et al 2019. Plants in UG also reduce the carbon footprint of a city because they act as carbon sinks through photosynthesis (Berry et al 2010, Kuehler et al 2017. ...
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Globally, urban areas face multiple challenges owing to climate change. Urban greening (UG) is an excellent option for mitigating flood risk and excess urban heat. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems can cope with plant irrigation needs and urban water management. In this study, we investigated how UG and RWH work together to mitigate environmental risks. By incorporating a new RWH module into the urban ecohydrological model Urban Tethys-Chloris (UT&C), we tested different uses of intervention approaches for 28 cities in the USA, spanning a variety of climates, population densities, and urban landscapes. UT&C was forced by the latest generation convection-permitting climate model simulations of the current (2001-2011) and end-of-century (RCP8.5) climate. Our results showed that neither UG nor RWH ,through the irrigation of vegetation, could significantly contribute to mitigating the expected strong increase in 2m urban canyon temperatures under a high-emission scenario. RWH alone can sufficiently offset the intensifying surface flood risk, effectively enhance water saving, and support UG to sustain a strong urban carbon sink, especially in dry regions. However, in these regions, RWH cannot fully fulfil plant water needs, and additional measures to meet irrigation demand are required to maximize carbon sequestration by urban vegetation.
... However, the expansion of monofunctional grey infrastructure is cost-intensive and is not sustainable (Pitman, Daniels, & Ely, 2015;U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2014;Zhou, 2014). Many studies on sustainable stormwater management have suggested that nature-based solutions can supplement the grey infrastructure to take up the additional stormwater load (Chan et al., 2018;Suppakittpaisarn, Larsen, & Sullivan, 2019;The World Bank, 2019). ...
... Dependence upon natural channels for stormwater management also follows the premise of naturebased solutions (Chan et al., 2018;Du et al., 2019;World Health Organization, 2017). The natural channels play a crucial role in ood abatement (Ray, Pandey, Pandey, Dimri, & Kishore, 2019;Tingsanchali, 2012). ...
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Ephemeral natural channels in cities are reclaimed to provide land for housings and other functions. This is because of limited knowledge about the crucial role played by natural channels in stormwater management. For long, the cities have been dependent upon grey infrastructure to drain out stormwater away from the city. Therefore, it requires a paradigm shift to see the natural channels as a tool for stormwater management. There is a pressing need for the preservation of natural channels because incidences of pluvial flooding are increasing. The inability of existing grey infrastructure to take up the additional stormwater load has forced the planners to think of sustainable alternatives. In this study, the case of accidental preservation of an ephemeral natural channel in Chandigarh city is discussed and analyzed. The symbiotic relationship between Leisure valley (a green belt) and N-choe (a natural channel) offers many learnings in the preservation of natural channels. From careful observations and brainstorming, contributory factors that paved the way for the preservation of the natural channel, the concept of greenswales is evolved. A framework is developed for the sustainable planning of greenswales. It will guide the city planners and managers to have an alternative approach to preserve the natural channels sustainably and use them as a tool for pluvial flood management. This study's significant finding is that ephemeral natural channels in a city can be safeguarded through the judicious superimposition of green spaces over them.
... SPC is seen as a challenge and an opportunity, but obstacles in its implementation must not be ignored. Chan, et al. [33] argued it will have a revolutionary impact on land use, water resources management, urban flood hazards and climate/environmental risks, ecology, and social welfare in China. Wang, et al. [34] argued it also has implications for developing countries undergoing urbanization. ...
... Wang, et al. [34] argued it also has implications for developing countries undergoing urbanization. Challenges and practical problems, such as technical complexity, management awareness, knowledge and learning capacity, participatory and integrated governance, investment and financing, implementation pathways, planning and organization, project evaluation systems, and public perception and support, have been identified [33,35]. Investment and financing, insufficient funding, and uncertainty in SCP planning are severe issues that could lead to failure [36]. ...
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With climate change, urban resilience is becoming a critical concept for helping cities withstand disasters and accidents. However, current research often focuses on concept identification, leaving a gap between concept and implementation. This study aims to investigate the lack of urban resilience in the face of sudden weather disasters, with a focus on the inadequate capacity of urban systems to effectively govern such events. The Zhengzhou subway flooding accident on 20 July 2021, serves as a case study for this research, and the accident causation theories, such as the Swiss cheese model, Surry’s accident model, and trajectory intersection theory are used to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the accident’s causes. Through this analysis, the paper identifies vulnerabilities in the natural, technical, and man-made systems of the urban system, and reveals deficiencies in four aspects of urban resilience: natural, technological, institutional, and organizational. Based on this analysis, the study proposes a resilient city governance framework that integrates the “Natural-Technical-Man-made” systems, offers relevant recommendations for urban resilience governance, and discusses potential challenges to urban resilience implementation.
... The design of 'sponge cities' is based on an innovative way of imitating and supporting the natural circulation of water in the urban environment, consisting of rainwater retention and purification thanks to the techniques used to install blue-green infrastructure which allow for rational water management in extreme conditions, i.e., drought and flooding. Under standard conditions, this system stabilizes the natural environment of the city and its biodiversity [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The innovative idea of the so-called 'sponge city' was presented for the first time at the 2012 Shenzhen International Forum on Low-Carbon Urban Development and Technology. ...
... The innovative idea of the so-called 'sponge city' was presented for the first time at the 2012 Shenzhen International Forum on Low-Carbon Urban Development and Technology. This idea was so interesting that plans to build this type of city were formally announced at the Central Urbanization Working Conference and approved by Jinping Xi in 2013, and then introduced into city planning in China [10,19]. In 2015, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development released the first comprehensive guide dedicated to the construction of sponge cities. ...
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The article presented methods of urban development in terms of the application of the ‘sponge city’ concept, as well as the possibility of introducing different hydro-engineering solutions into the urban fabric that allow infiltration and retention at various scales of spatial planning. The aim of the paper was to indicate which specific solutions can be used in the city in multi-dimensional and multi-functional systems. As a result of the research, the concept of a ‘5-scales’ diffusion of blue– green infrastructure elements was presented. Elements of this system are based on multi-scale blue–green infrastructure, creating a patchwork of ‘blue connections’ that fit into the city ‘green’ natural system and have a connection with urban rainwater drainage. These five elements together allow for the infiltration and retention of rainwater, and can be used in the design of ecologically sustainable water-oriented cities in the future.
... Declining urban biodiversity, urban heat islands, urban flooding, and the frequency of climate extremes can all adversely affect residents. However, the quantity and quality of UBGS could provide multifunctional benefits to residents, and their application in urban planning could mitigate these problems in cities, such as alleviating urban heat islands and flooding [111][112][113]. In China, the construction of "sponge cities" has been proposed to address urban flooding and associated urban flood management problems to utilize UBGS for stormwater management and control in the urban environment [113]. ...
... However, the quantity and quality of UBGS could provide multifunctional benefits to residents, and their application in urban planning could mitigate these problems in cities, such as alleviating urban heat islands and flooding [111][112][113]. In China, the construction of "sponge cities" has been proposed to address urban flooding and associated urban flood management problems to utilize UBGS for stormwater management and control in the urban environment [113]. Therefore, the planned use of UBGS could enhance the internal permeability and circulation of cities and address local climate and environmental issues [114,115]. ...
Article
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Urban blue-green space (UBGS), as an important component of the urban environment, is found to closely relate to human health. An extensive understanding of the effects of UBGS on human health is necessary for urban planning and intervention schemes towards healthy city development. However, a comprehensive review and discussion of relevant studies using bibliometric methods is still lacking. This paper adopted the bibliometric method and knowledge graph visualization technology to analyze the research on the impact of UBGS on residents’ health, including the number of published papers, international influence, and network characteristics of keyword hotspots. The key findings include: (1) The number of articles published between 2001 and 2021 shows an increasing trend. Among the articles collected from WoS and CNKI, 38.74% and 32.65% of the articles focus on physical health, 38.32% and 30.61% on mental health, and 17.06% and 30.61% on public health, respectively. (2) From the analysis of international partnerships, countries with high levels of economic development and urbanization have closer cooperation than other countries. (3) UBGS has proven positive effects on residents’ physical, mental, and public health. However, the mediating effects of UBGS on health and the differences in the health effects of UBGS on different ages and social classes are less studied. Therefore, this study proposes several future research directions. First, the mediating effect of UBGS on health impacts should be further examined. Furthermore, the interactive effects of residents’ behaviors and the UBGS environment should be emphasized. Moreover, multidisciplinary integration should be strengthened. The coupling mechanism between human behavior and the environment should also be studied in depth with the help of social perception big data, wearable devices, and human–computer interactive simulation. Finally, this study calls for developing health risk monitoring and early warning systems, and integrating health impact assessment into urban planning, so as to improve residents’ health and urban sustainability.
... The use of climate-proofing strategies in urban planning today could significantly lower expenses in the future. For example, Low Impact Developments (LID) in the USA, Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDs) in the UK, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in Australia, Low Impact Developments Urban Design (LIDUD) in New Zealand, and Sponge City in China were introduced to address challenges linked to urban water management and surface-water flooding that occur yearly [185]. However, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions are more efficient in urban development when used in the planning stages. ...
Article
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Urban flooding is a frequent disaster in cities. With the increasing imperviousness caused by rapid urbanization and the rising frequency and severity of extreme events caused by climate change, the hydrological status of the urban area has changed, resulting in urban floods. This study aims to identify trends and gaps and highlight potential research prospects in the field of urban flooding in South Asia. Based on an extensive literature review, this paper reviewed urban flood hazard assessment methods using hydraulic/hydrological models and urban flood management practices in South Asia. With the advancement of technology and high-resolution topographic data, hydrologic/hydraulic models such as HEC-RAS/HMS, MIKE, SWMM, etc., are increasingly used for urban flood hazard assessment. Urban flood management practices vary among countries based on existing technologies and infrastructures. In order to control urban flooding, both conventional physical structures, including drainage and embankments, as well as new innovative techniques, such as low-impact development, are implemented. Non-structural flood mitigation measures, such as improved flood warning systems, have been developed and implemented in a few cities. The major challenge in using process-based hydraulic models was the lack of high-resolution DEM and short-duration rainfall data in the region, significantly affecting the model’s simulation results and the implementation of flood management measures. Risk-informed management must be implemented immediately to reduce the adverse effects of climate change and unplanned urbanization on urban flooding. Therefore, it is crucial to encourage emergency managers and local planning authorities to consider a nature-based solution in an integrated urban planning approach to enhances urban flood resilience.
... Western Germany experienced a flood with a 500-year return period, while Henan experienced a flood with a 1000-year return period; however, in terms of economic losses, Germany accounted for USD 40 billion (EUR 33 billion), while Henan accounted for USD 18.9 billion (CNY 120 billion). In Germany, more than 65,000 people were affected in the RLP and 42,000 in the Ahr valley, with 205 people losing their lives, whereas in Henan, 14.786 million people were affected, and 398 people died (as shown in Table 12). While 37,662 buildings were destroyed in Germany, 35,325 houses collapsed in Henan. ...
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In July 2021, devastating floods occurred in western Germany and Henan, China, resulting in extreme loss of life and property damage. Despite the differences in context, climate change contributed to these events. Flood resilience generally means the system’s ability to recover from floods. A post-flood resilience assessment seeks to determine the impact of the flood on the area, the duration it took to recover, the effectiveness of the measures taken to reduce the risk of flooding, and ways to enhance flood resilience. The post-flood review capacity method was used to assess the event and calculate the flood resilience index. Western Germany experienced a 500-year return period flood in connection with the low-pressure system, Bernd, while Zhengzhou in Henan experienced a 1000-year return period flood with the influence of Typhoon In-Fa and the Western Pacific subtropical high. More than 107,000 people were affected in Germany, with 205 deaths that account for USD 40 billion in economic losses, whereas in Henan, 14.786 million people were affected, and 398 people died, which accounts for USD 18.9 billion in losses. Germany was more impacted and took longer to restore essential services than Henan, China. The flood resilience index shows that the resilience level of both countries is low. The severe rainstorms in Zhengzhou and the Ahr River Valley exposed weaknesses in urban disaster management, particularly in urban areas, such as subway flooding and risk communication with the public. The events highlighted the need to better understand risks and their consequences, early warning systems, preparedness, and emergency response.
... Urbanization dramatically changes natural hydrologic regime by the spread of impervious surface, which increasing surface runoff volumes and discharging significant pollutant loads to receiving water bodies (Editor of Science Magazine, 2016; Lian et al., 2019;Müller et al., 2020;Taebi and Droste, 2004;Walesh, 1989). In order to tackle hydrologic and environmental issues caused by the spread of impervious surface, China has initiated sponge city construction strategy since 2014 (Chan et al., 2018;Xia et al., 2017). Assessment Standard for Sponge City Construction Effect (GB/T53345/2018) for the first time provides quantitative requirements on urban runoff pollution control in China, namely that annual runoff pollutant load reduction ratio (PLR), which is calculated by using suspended solids (SS) as a surrogate for the other water quality indexes. ...
Article
In order to find the optimal design of first flush diverter, this study shifts the focus of first flush research from the existence of first flush phenomenon to utilization effect of the phenomenon. The proposed method consists of four parts: (1) key design parameters, which describing key structure of first flush diverter rather than first flush phenomenon; (2) continuous simulation, which replicating the uncertainty by using the full scope of runoff events that might occur over the years analyzed; (3) design optimization, through an overlapped contour graph of key design parameters and key performance indicators that are relevant to but different from conventional indicators describing first flush phenomena; (4) event frequency spectra, which presenting the diverter's behavior at daily temporal resolution. As an illustration, the proposed method was used to determine design parameters of first flush diverters for roof runoff pollution control in the northeast of Shanghai. The results show that annual runoff pollution reduction ratio (PLR) was insensitive to buildup model. This greatly reduced the difficulty of buildup modeling. The contour graph was useful in finding the optimal design, i.e., the optimal combination of design parameters that could meet PLR design goal with most concentrated first flush on average (quantified by MFF). For instances, the diverter could achieve PLR = 40% with MFF >1.95, and PLR = 70% with MFF = 1.7 at most. Pollutant load frequency spectra were generated for the first time. They showed that a better design reduced pollutant load more stably while diverting less volume of first flush within almost each runoff day.
... Later, it was accepted and extended in Australia, the United Kingdom, and some European countries, forming the concept of water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) [2], sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDSs) [3], and green infrastructure (GI). China recently presented the "sponge city" concept for managing rainwater [4][5][6], which is based on idea of low impact development (LID) in the U.S. It implies that cities can be resilient like sponges, easily adjusting to environmental changes and coping with flooding caused by rain and water pollution [7,8]. Urban water problems can be solved by combining the facilities of source, midway, and end, significantly improving the efficiency of rainwater control and utilization. ...
Article
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Rainwater source control facilities are essential to sponge city construction in China. Their size is determined based on historical rainfall data. However, with global warming and rapid urban development, rainfall characteristics have also changed, potentially leading to the failure of rainwater source- control facilities to manage surface water in the future. In this study, the design rainfall’s change and spatial distribution are analyzed using historical (1961–2014) observation rainfall data and future (2020–2100) projection data of three CMIP6 climate models. The results show that EC-Earth3 and GFDL-ESM4 project that future design rainfall will increase. EC-Earth3 projects a significant increase, while MPI-ESM1-2 projects that the design rainfall will decrease significantly. From the perspective of space, the design rainfall isoline in Beijing has always increased from northwest to southeast. In the historical period, the difference in design rainfall in different regions has reached 19 mm, and this regional heterogeneity shows an increasing trend in the future projection of EC-Earth3 and GFDL-ESM4. The difference in design rainfall in different regions is 26.2 mm and 21.7 mm, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to consider future rainfall changes in the design of rainwater source control facilities. The relationship curve between the volume capture ratio (VCR) of annual rainfall and design rainfall based on the rainfall data of the project site or region should be analyzed to determine the design rainfall of the rainwater source control facilities.
... In this case, traditional urban construction followed a problematic order of development and involved completely independent design boundaries and management systems for parks and green areas compared to those for the surrounding roads and other municipal construction. By cutting across boundaries and professional barriers, green space design should not only address the local sponge city planning indicators but also examine the surrounding area and its rainwater levels and redefine the site catchment boundary via surveys and calculations [27]. Thus, in the design of Huzhou Olympic Park, the surface runoff from surrounding existing municipal roads is channeled into the green spaces of the park, which then overflows into a retention pond through a sedimentation pond before finally merging with the main water body. ...
Article
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Owing to widespread urbanization, previously elastic and permeable ecological foundations are being continuously hardened, sealed, and channelized, leading to problems such as intensified urban convergence, water pollution, seasonal rain, and flood disasters. Urban parks and large green spaces, as rare large, cavernous bodies in cities, can effectively address the abovementioned urbanization problems. This study holistically analyzed and discussed the current developments in the sponge city concept using several case studies of recent ecologically sustainable designs for urban parks in the Yangtze River Delta region of China. Under basic conditions of the same hydrological characteristics and considering the differences in other external conditions and the environment, sponge city construction aims to address the actual characteristics and needs of specific projects, develop applicable goal-oriented sponge city constructions, and ensure design practices around a goal-oriented method. Practical problems associated with identifying specific design features, priorities, and measures were then identified according to the project location, goals, and characteristics. Thus, this study details various goal-oriented sponge city designs and their application methods to inform future design efforts.
... In recent years, with the increase in the area of impermeable surfaces due to rapid urbanization, the volume of storm surface runoff has dramatically increased, and the peak runoff value appears earlier than before urbanization. This, combined with more frequent extreme weather incidents has led to global water problems, such as waterlogging and flooding in cities, the wasting of rainwater re-sources, and water pollution [1][2][3]. China proposed a sponge city development strategy to address these issues in 2013 [4][5][6][7]. ...
Article
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Sponge city construction strategies (SCCSs) have gradually attracted increased attention because of the strong shocks to society and economies caused by extreme weather and global climate change. The development of sponge cities is consistent with the national goal, and China must support environmental sustainability. Rainwater trading (RWT) plays a key role in promoting the efficient allocation and use of rainwater resources in sponge cities. In this study, we built an evolutionary game model on the basis of 13 parameters influencing the strategy selection of game players of environmental protection enterprises (EPEs) and municipal enterprises (MEs)’ in promoting sponge city construction. Next, we discussed the interaction effect of the two players’ behaviors in the 16 cases. Finally, we used the first RWT project in an empirical simulation to analyze the critical parameters influencing the game; we provide regulation policy suggestions to achieve the final goal. The results show that sufficient financial subsidies, the reduction in additional sales, the increase in taxes, and the participation of more EPEs can accelerate the realization of the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) between EPEs and MEs. Incentive measures should focus not only on economic measures but also on reputation incentives and industry regulations. The proposed model can be used as a tool to promote the development and application of sponge cities, thus enriching the literature on promoting the communication of SCCSs. Moreover, our findings are valuable for the promotion of the use of rainwater resources, the marketization of the ecological value of rainwater resources, and the further construction of sponge cities.
... Among the designer options to build greener cities are nature-based solutions like blue-green infrastructures that have tremendous potential to help achieve urban sustainability (Brears, 2018;Gottwald et al., 2021). These infrastructures can support water quantity and quality management, provide recreational opportunities and reduce heat load (Žuvela-Aloise et al., 2016;Carter et al., 2018;Chan, Griffiths, et al., 2018). In lower-income communities, they are essential to cover basic needs such as food, water, and sanitation services (Vollmer & Grêt-Regamey, 2013). ...
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Urban landscapes face significant challenges, as they must transform towards sustainability while remaining resilient. Urban landscape transformation is a complex task for landscape designers. They must not only create new solutions for landscapes but also ensure that their proposals are capable to deliver and maintain key ecosystems services over time and especially after shocks. In practice, designers must increase their dialogue with scientists and engineers to include expertise on ecosystems functions and services. Through science-design feedback loops, designers can be challenged by scientists' models and simulations and thus create informed designs. Lastly, stakeholders also catalyse key steps of such a process, in particular by providing local expertise as well as co-constructing and validating the informed designs. In this paper, we introduce a roadmap, centred on an intensive interdisciplinary dialogue-a science-design loop. We illustrate the relevance of this roadmap with the analysis of five case studies about flood management and blue-green infrastructures. We analyse them according to the main steps of our roadmap and with the support of key interviews with experienced practitioners. First, this analysis provides an overview of best practices and challenges in the current urban landscape design world. But above all, we show the relevance of the proposed roadmap to muster science and design in a balanced manner in urban transformations.
... For example, the socioeconomic plan issued by the National Development and Reform Commission is about socioeconomic-related elds. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a sponge city plan in response to the impact of oods, focusing only on the impact of water on the city (Chan et al., 2018). Environmental management has demonstrated ecological function zoning , and the environmental protection administration has enforced this policy with single elements, including ecological conservation, the aquatic environment, and the atmosphere. ...
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Spatial pattern and process studies are of global interest and typically focus on one certain environmental or ecological process, and the methods employed mostly rely upon spatial process models. Meanwhile, spatial planning is an important administrative management in regional development, especially in China. However, traditional urban planners focused more on social economy and less on eco-environment. How to conduct scientific planning is the key to solving and preventing eco-environmental problems. In this study, we proposed a synthetic spatial analysis and planning method that involves atmospheric, edaphic, hydrographic and ecological processes to zoning management and control strategies for regional sustainable goals. The method can identify key eco-environmental processes and regions effectively, divide scientific spatial control unit, and set precise management polices to prevent environmental pollution and ecological damage events. The synthetic method was conducted using advanced multi-process models and spatial statistical methods, including CMAQ and SWAT models. The case study in Anshan city indicated that the models we proposed can effectively reflect the link between pollutants and land use pattern. According to the process simulation results of pollutant distribution, we combined the administrative districts and land use, divided 67 types of eco-environmental management units based on atmospheric pollution discharge, hydrographic pollution discharge, edaphic heavy metal pollution, and ecological space. For each unit, we proposed feasible management policies and control measures. This synthetic method can provide scientific analysis and guidance support spatial planning and ecological construction for multi-purpose ecological environmental protection.
... Proposed by Chinese scholars in the early 2010s, sponge city guidelines were integrated into urban development policies by the Chinese government since 2014. Similar ecological models include the low-impact developments in the United States, the sustainable urban drainage systems in the United Kingdom, the water sensitive urban design in Australia and the low impact urban design and development in New Zealand (Chan et al. 2018). The unique aspect of the Chinese concept of the sponge city is to manage stormwater in a sponge-like manner by absorbing, storing and purifying water in soils, lakes and vegetation (Fig. 2). ...
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About one tenth of humans are impacted by water shortages around the globe. Water resilience is worsening under climate change because intensifying weather extremes induce more severe and increasingly frequent droughts and floods. In particular, China, as the world’s most populous nation, has battled with persisting water shortages and devastating floods for decades. As a consequence, Chinese scholars have designed the sponge city concept in the early 2010s to relieve cities from the growing pressure of water shortages and floods. This is done by integrating a more natural, green infrastructure into existing urban drainage pipeline systems for absorbing, storing, and purifying rainwater in a sponge-like manner during rainfall events. Here we review the principles, design guidelines, construction items and assessment requirements of sponge cities and other similar strategies for urban stormwater management. We present four case studies of sponge cities in China in both newly constructed and renovated urban districts. Overall, China's sponge cities appear promising for green urbanization, to relieve cities from water scarcity, devastating floods and urban heat island effects, while restoring the ecological functions and aesthetics of urban natural environments.
... Due to the increased frequency of extreme precipitation events and the increased risk of urban flooding in the future, urban construction in Shenzhen faces additional requirements to cope with extreme weather. In view of this, the implementation of the sponge concept and resilience strategy and the construction of a sponge city that integrates water system management and flood control functions will greatly improve the current waterlogging prone situation of urban flooding and the urban ecological environment [69]. Sponge cities is a new generation of urban rainwater management concept, and refers to constructing cities to act like a sponge. ...
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The Chinese government attaches great importance to climate change adaptation and has issued relevant strategies and policies. Overall, China’s action to adapt to climate change remains in its infancy, and relevant research needs to be further deepened. In this paper, we study the future adaptive countermeasures of Shenzhen city in the Pearl River Delta in terms of climate change, especially urban flood risk resilience. Based on the background investigation of urban flood risk in Shenzhen, this paper calculates the annual precipitation frequency of Shenzhen from 1953 to 2020, and uses the extreme precipitation index as a quantitative indicator to analyze the changes in historical precipitation and the impact of major flood disasters in Shenzhen city in previous decades. Based on the six kinds of model data of the scenario Model Inter-comparison Project (MIP) in the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP6), uses the Taylor diagram and MR comprehensive evaluation method to evaluate the ability of different climate models to simulate extreme precipitation in Shenzhen, and the selected models are aggregated and averaged to predict the climate change trend of Shenzhen from 2020 to 2100. The prediction results show that Shenzhen will face more severe threats from rainstorms and floods in the future. Therefore, this paper proposes a resilience strategy for the city to cope with the threat of flood in the future, including constructing a smart water management system and promoting the development of a sponge city. Moreover, to a certain extent, it is necessary to realize risk transfer by promoting a flood insurance system.
... China's urban development is in the process of a green transition driven by a policy initiative named sponge city development (SCD) (see MHURD, 2014a, Chan et al. 2018, Jiang et al., 2018. The policy attempts to tackle increasingly frequent urban waterlogging or pluvial flooding and other water related problems such as water scarcity and pollution, practical challenges encountered by China as well as many other countries during their urbanization combined with a changing climate (Grimm et al., 2008;Jiang, 2008;Jiang, 2015;Larsen et al., 2016;UN, 2016). ...
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China introduced sponge city development (SCD) as a policy initiative to address the complex, interlinked water challenges, such as urban pluvial flooding and water pollution, faced by urban development under climatic change and rapid urbanization. The initiative relies on low‐impact development (LID) techniques to integrate ecosystem conservation and urban development, with the aim to maintain or restore natural landscapes and their water regulating capacity as a way to mitigate urban flooding and associated pollution while augmenting water supply. While the country prepares for SCD demonstration and upscaling after pilot implementation since 2014, the initiative is subject to a design deficit in policy implementation that has received little consideration in both the literature and the policy arena but that negatively affects the effectiveness of SCD and its long run impact as intended by the policy. In this paper, we examine the design deficit by mapping and analyzing the policy implementation for SCD in the framework of theory of change (TOC). We present key conditions for individual components in SCD implementation to deliver causal pathways from program inputs to long‐term impacts, with identified issues characterizing the design deficit. We provide an overview of the literature on SCD to shed some light on current research while identifying knowledge gaps. The paper proposes and justifies the framework of ecosystem services as an innovative design tool to deliver a systematic approach needed to address the design deficit, paving the pathways for SCD from inputs to impacts fully developing the policy potential for green urban transition with resilience and sustainability.
... Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively recognize the urban ecological relationship and consider landing ecology to obtain the highest economic benefits at a nominal possible ecological cost [21]. Achieving this aim requires integrating urban flood risk assessment, land drainage guidance, climate forecasting methods, and long-term sustainability assessments [22]. The use of stormwater quantity models in simulated urban environments promotes this goal [23], such as SWMM, HEC-HMS, MIKE URBAN. ...
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In the context of global climate change, many countries have taken corresponding measures to cope with the stormwater problems in urbanization. The Chinese government introduced the concept of Sponge City to improve the urban water ecological security, which is a systematic project. Taking the urban community as our research object, we studied the combination application of LID (low-impact development) measures and retention ponds in the community and then discussed the practicability of the systematic application of Sponge City facilities in the construction of community drainage systems. There are four simulation scenarios in SWMM (stormwater management model): traditional drainage scenario, LID scenario, retention pond scenario, and LID-retention pond scenario. By comparing the effects of different facilities on runoff and outflow under the six return periods of 1a, 2a, 5a, 10a, 20a, and 50a, we find that LID measures have evident effects on runoff and outflow reduction. Still, they are greatly affected by the return period. The retention pond has no noticeable impact on runoff, but it reduces the peak value of outflow and is less affected by the return period. The combination of LID and retention pond can combine their advantages, reduce the peak flow rate of the site stably and relieve the pressure of the urban drainage system. This study provides a basis for the graded implementation of Sponge City, especially for community-scale rainwater regulation.
... Unlike the traditional rapid drainage approach, the concept focuses on improving the water absorption capability of a city through green infrastructure based on a natural water circulation system acting like a sponge [6]. It aims to control peak urban runoff and provide temporary storage, recycling, and purification of stormwater [7][8][9]. ...
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This study aims is to verify the effects of sponge city projects focusing on the aspect of water pollutant control and urban flood control, applying the geodesign framework as an integrated planning method that can evaluate alternatives against the impacts of the designs. The study analyzed the effects of sponge city projects in Harbin, Quzhou, and Sanya, China. Three LULC scenarios are proposed based on the geodesign framework, and the spatial distribution and quantitative values are simulated by the InVEST NDR model and urban flood model study. By comparing different scenarios, the study proved the current sponge project could improve the water pollutant control capability by 11–18% and the stormwater control capability by 0.4–6.3%. If the city-wide green infrastructure network is introduced with sponge projects, the water pollutant control capability can increase by 9–15% and the stormwater control capability can increase by 0.8–2.9%. These results show that the current sponge projects can improve the city’s sustainability and be helpful strategies to fight climate change and global warming.
... In recent decades, cities across the globe have been facing increasingly demanding challenges [1]. In addition, the interruption of the natural hydrological cycle resulting from the waterproofing of large urban areas stresses the need for appropriate planning of stormwater management [2]. Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) have established themselves as one of the most useful and widely implemented alternatives [3]. ...
Article
Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) have positioned themselves as one of the most widely applied Green Infrastructure (GI) techniques for sustainable stormwater management. In recent decades, new lines of research have emerged leading to the geothermal use of SuDS. The aim is to optimise available space in cities and minimise dependence on non-renewable energy sources. Previous research has focused on determining the feasibility of combining the two technologies, both in laboratory and field studies. Other aspects such as the influence of the surface geothermal system on the quality of the water present in the SuDS were also studied. This previous research has focused mainly on permeable pavements, positioning them as one of the SuDS techniques of reference in this line of research. This article attempts to give continuity to what has been established by other authors. It studies in depth the thermal properties of a complete section of permeable pavement under different hydraulic operating conditions. To this end, a complete section of a permeable pavement has been simulated in the laboratory using Hot-Box tests as set out in different international standards. With these tests, the values of thermal transmittance and equivalent thermal conductivity were determined. The aim of this research is to establish a test procedure for the thermal properties of permeable floorings, based on standardised equipment. The aim is to better understand the heat transfer procedures inside SuDS. In this way, it will be possible to optimise the design of these in combination with surface geothermal elements.
... It might be installing green and blue infrastructure to make public spaces cooler (Liu et al., 2021), and increasing the proportion of indoor cooling to protect more homes from heat-related illness or death. Preparations for extreme precipitation may be the construction of sponge cities (Chan et al., 2018), which can improve the situation of drainage pipes that have to be heavily relied on due to continuous impervious pavement in traditional urban construction. About 30 cities in China have started pilot programs (Jiang et al., 2018), which can provide a guide to policies, incentives and effects for cities that similar to them. ...
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Climate change is bringing more extreme weather events, which disrupt the normal functioning of cities and threaten people’s lives. The public and city managers need to know the potential change that their cities would experience to better adapt it for sustainable development, which requires better communication of climate information to non-professionals. This study quantified the changes in extreme heat and extreme precipitation in 369 cities in mainland China under 2.0 °C global warming, and a climate-analog mapping was used to visualize the expected climate state in the future of a specific city would be similar to which city’s contemporary state. Our results show that 17 % of cities would reach new extreme heat states, and 65 % of cities are becoming hotter. For extreme precipitation, 64 % of northern cities would move southward by an average of 530 km, and 21 % of southern cities would join the contemporary extreme precipitation zones. Specifically, super-large cities with populations larger than 5 million would experience more intense changes, with an average 10 %-40 % greater increases in extreme heat and extreme precipitation than that of all cities. Under significant challenges, identifying similar contemporary cities and learning from their experiences can help managers and public make better preparations to better adapt to changes in extreme weather states.
... Heavy rains with intense precipitation have become more frequent in the context of global climate changes (Myhre et al., 2019;Ogie et al., 2018) and pose significant threats to urban residents, mainly due to uncoordinated watershed management and undersized infrastructures (Chan et al., 2018;Dewan, 2015;Nahiduzzaman et al., 2015;Song et al., 2019). China is frequently affected by urban flooding, particularly in summer when the Asian monsoon brings heavy rains to inland China. ...
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Disaster-relevant authorities could make uninformed decisions due to the lack of a clear picture of urban resilience to adverse natural events. Previous studies have seldom examined the near-real-time human dynamics, which are critical to disaster emergency response and mitigation, in response to the development and evolution of mild and frequent rainfall events. In this study, we used the aggregated Tencent location request (TLR) data to examine the variations in collective human activities in response to rainfall in 346 cities in China. Then two resilience metrics, rainfall threshold and response sensitivity, were introduced to report a comprehensive study of the urban resilience to rainfall across mainland China. Our results show that, on average, a 1 mm increase in rainfall intensity is associated with a 0.49 % increase in human activity anomalies. In the cities of northwestern and southeastern China, human activity anomalies are affected more by rainfall intensity and rainfall duration, respectively. Our results highlight the unequal urban resilience to rainfall across China, showing current heavy-rain-warning standards underestimate the impacts of heavy rains on residents in the northwestern arid region and the central underdeveloped areas and overestimate impacts on residents in the southeastern coastal area. An overhaul of current heavy-rain-alert standards is therefore needed to better serve the residents in our study area.
... In Europe, the concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) is emphasized in policies to provide a wide range of ecosystem services 6 thus improving urban sustainability and resilience 5,7,8 . In recent years, concepts of NBS for storm-water management have appeared under many terms worldwide, i.e., Sustainable Urban Drainage System, Low Impact Developments in US, Blue-Green Cities in the UK, Water Sensitive Urban Design in Australia 9 , Low Impact Developments Urban Design in New Zealand and Sponge City in China 10 . Despite the differences in the names and objectives, each of the solutions share a common ground, aiming to integrate GI into urban areas to restore natural water cycles. ...
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Large‑scale urban growth has modified the hydrological cycle of our cities, causing greater and faster runoff. Urban forests (UF), i.e. the stock of trees and shrubs, can substantially reduce runoff; still, how climate, tree functional types influence rainfall partitioning into uptake and runoff is mostly unknown. We analyzed 92 published studies to investigate: interception (I), transpiration (T), soil infiltration (IR) and the subsequent reduction in runoff. Trees showed the best runoff protection compared to other land uses. Within functional types, conifers provided better protection on an annual scale through higher I and T but broadleaved species provided better IR. Regarding tree traits, leaf area index (LAI) showed a positive influence for both I and T. For every unit of LAI increment, additional 5% rainfall partition through T (3%) and I (2%) can be predicted. Overall, runoff was significantly lower under mixed species stands. Increase of conifer stock to 30% in climate zones with significant winter precipitation and to 20% in areas of no dry season can reduce runoff to an additional 4%. The study presented an overview of UF potential to partition rainfall, which might help to select species and land uses in different climate zones for better storm‑water management.
... Increases in impervious surface area have led to the doubling of surface runoff, the complexity of urban pollution sources has led to the exacerbation of nonpoint source pollution (Nargis et al. 2022), and issues related to urban water security and the water environment are becoming increasingly serious, posing a threat to urban infrastructure construction and social development (Li and Davis 2016). In recent years, many cities in China (such as Guangzhou, Beijing, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou) were unable to cope with the flood disasters brought by the heavy rainfall events, and about 60 − 80% of the water bodies in Shenzhen and many other towns in the Pearl River Delta were seriously polluted (Chan et al. 2018). More importantly, the polluted wastewater discharge will be used as a transmission medium in COVID-19 to further pollute the water environment and soil environment (Paital and Das 2022). ...
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A series of complex physical and chemical processes, such as interception, migration, accumulation, and transformation, can occur when pollutants in stormwater runoff enter the growing media layer of bioretention facilities, affecting the purification of stormwater runoff by bioretention facilities. The migration and accumulation of pollutants in the growing media layer need long-term monitoring in traditional experimental studies. In this study, we established the Hydrus-1D model of water and solution transport for the bioretention facilities. By analyzing the variation of cumulative fluxes of NO3⁻-N and Pb with time and depth, we investigated pollutant migration and accumulation trends in the growing media layer of bioretention facilities. It can provide support for reducing runoff pollutants in bioretention facilities. The Hydrus-1D model was calibrated and verified with experimental data, and the input data (runoff pollutant concentration) for the pollutant concentration boundary was obtained from the SWMM model. The results demonstrated that the cumulative fluxes of NO3⁻-N and Pb increased with the passage of simulation time and depth of the growing media layer overall. From the top to the bottom of the growing media layer, the change rates of the peak cumulative fluxes of NO3⁻-N and Pb were strongly linked with their levels in the runoff. An increase in rainfall decreased the content of NO3⁻-N and Pb in the growing media layer, and this phenomenon was more obvious in the lower part of the layer. Graphical Abstract
... In 2012, the Chinese government launched an integrated action plan between traditional and innovative drainage technologies, with the aim of developing so-called sponge cities, flexible to climate change, urban environment altering and population growth. The sponge cities plan is conceptually linked to resilient, adaptable, and sustainable cities equipped with drainage systems capable of absorbing, storing, purifying and reusing rainwater [6][7][8][9]. ...
Article
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The use of permeable concrete pavements can mitigate flooding in densely populated areas by serving as a functional and sustainable mechanism for surface water absorption and drainage. However, it is found that the performance of the pavement is often limited to low and moderate flows and that the absorption capacity of the concrete matrix decreases as the flow rate increases. Therefore, the present study was developed aiming to evaluate the potential to reduce runoff in permeable concrete pavements subjected to simulations of successive events of heavy rainfall. For this purpose, 2 binary combinations of coarse aggregates were used, varying the cement consumption and the water/cement (w/c) ratio. The samples were submitted to simulations of heavy and sequential rainfall, with evaluation of the volume of water absorbed and the runoff. The mechanical and hydraulical properties of the permeable pavements were evaluated, as well as the characteristics of the area and volume of the internal and superficial pores. Among the results, specific weight stands out as the parameter that showed the highest linear correlation with the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of the specimens. It was also found that the runoff coefficient had a moderate negative linear correlation with the average pore size of the surface of the pavement. Finally, the permeable concrete pavements investigated were found to have the potential to reduce surface runoff in densely populated areas that are prone to frequent flooding, thus playing a critical role in mitigating the problems associated with stormwater runoff. Keywords Permeable concrete; Heavy rainfall simulations; Permeability coefficient; Porosity; Runoff coefficient
... Especially in the cities of the Yangtze Basin and based on science-oriented approaches, blue and green infrastructures should be promoted to replace the traditional grey infrastructures. The national program of Sponge City allows developing Nature-based Solutions for disaster risk reduction, such as mitigating flood by taking advantage of conserving floodplains (Chan et al. 2018). Finally, these local management systems should be integrated into the integrated river basin management scheme. ...
Chapter
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This book gives positive examples how humans and rivers have been, and are still in some places, living in harmony. It analyses how this knowledge can be transferred into modern river management schemes and thereby it attempts to mitigate the deplorable trend of the decline of biological and cultural heritages and diversities in and along rivers. A harmonious way to live with the river includes i.a. respecting its natural features and ecosystem services. This means that human land use forms and cultures, including fishing, agriculture, navigation and river works respect the natural hydrological patterns (Flood Pulse, Environmental Flows). It also includes the physical-psychological-spiritual linkage of the people to the river (e.g. worshipping, well-being, detention, and in-spiration), and how these linkages serve as a motivation to take action in favor of the river’s nature. Twenty-nine case studies from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, and 7 papers on overarching themes of sustainable river management are presented. Without claiming its completeness, we understand this book as a first attempt to highlight the interactions between the biological-evolutive populations of non-human biota and the biological-evolutive-cultural populations of human beings, using the dynamic riverscape as the physical background. The target audience of this book includes interdisciplinary scientists from the fields of ecology, geosciences, social and political sciences, as well as urban planners and managers of river ecosystems and riverine heritage sites worldwide.
... This relieves the rainwater sewage system to some extent and allows rainwater to soak in (Kadaverugu et al., 2021). Suitable substrates that absorb water can be planned in the city, as well as mini retention reservoirs that will collect rainwater (Chan et al., 2018;Ghaleh and Ghaleh, 2020). Water management is also positively influenced by green roofs, which can absorb large amounts of rainwater (Kimote, 2020). ...
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"Climate change effects are becoming increasingly noticeable especially in the dynamic and overcrowded city areas. The frequency of occurrence and ways of appearance of natural risks along with the negative effects of intensive economic activities, energy conventional production, unsustainable transportation and energy consumption determine increases in dysfunctions that must be managed by the local authorities in the long term. This study addresses climate change in relation to policy and regulatory framework for urban planning. The article portrays several climate change-related threats that usually occur in urban areas, which are emphasized in the scientific literature, but also exemplifies practical solutions formulated by planners in their strategy for sustainable urban development as counteracting the current specific threats. The selected case studies are the cities of Kraków in Poland and of Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Results of the literature review show that the main risks related to sustainability of the urban areas, as effects of the climate change and man-made actions, are correspondingly visible and addressed in the main strategic plans at the local level, adopted by the city authorities as practical measures and actions to be implemented by 2030 aiming to limit the effects of the climate changes that arise, as well as to limit the causes that generate these changes. By implementing the proposed measures and by achieving the objectives described in the presented action plans, both of the selected cities prove their engagement in the European mission of climate change adaptation and mitigation. "
... The main design concept of a sponge city is to realize the natural accumulation, penetration and purification of rain in an urban region to the maximum under the premise of ensuring the city's flood control and drainage safety and to promote the utilization of rainwater resources and the protection and restoration of the ecological environment. Meanwhile, lower maintenance and landscape sustainability should be employed to avoid high future operating costs and to realize better social and ecological benefits [7]. The sponge city design and construction includes four principles, which are penetration, detention and storage regulation, purification and utilization, and discharge. ...
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Urban waterlogging and urban water environment problems in Changde city caused by extreme weather have seriously hindered the sustainable development of cities. A sponge city not only involves the inheritance and development of foreign technology but also a new method for its use. The background of sponge city construction based on green infrastructures in China was introduced in this study. As one of the first pilot construction cities based on the sponge concept, Changde city possesses natural geographical advantages. The current urban situation, rainfall type and water environment in the sponge construction area were analyzed and the causes of urban waterlogging and deterioration of urban inland river water quality are presented. Based on the urban water environment and ecological status, the specific strategic objectives of the sponge city transformation are given. Meanwhile, the overall technical route and the concrete realization path of each index, such as the water environmental system, water ecological system and security system, are also presented. The annual net flow total control rate and the runoff pollution reduction reached 77.56% and 45.18%, respectively. The total runoff and peak flow were also reduced by 35.08% and 26.82%, respectively. Meanwhile, the peak flow of runoff pollution concentration was reduced by 31.99%. The pollutant load reduction rate of non-point source pollution in the area reached more than 45%. The project not only alleviated the problems of urban waterlogging and black and odorous water bodies but also ensured the sustainable development of the urban water environment.
... Potential solutions to these issues have been proposed and studied in several contexts and countries. For example, the "Sponge City Program" in China suggests implementing nature-based solutions rather than relying solely on traditional engineering approaches related to 'grey' infrastructure (Chan et al., 2018). In Australia, "Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems" have become popular (Roy et al., 2008), which, similarly to the "Sponge City" concept, refer to more ecological and sustainable solutions to collect and retain stormwater in a catchment area. ...
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Data-driven and integrated urban water management have been proposed to reduce surface water pollution in light of climate change and urbanization impacts. Besides technological innovation, data-driven and integrated management require information exchange among many actors, e.g., operators, engineers, or authorities. With the aim of achieving a more profound understanding of socio-technical infrastructures, such as urban water systems, I draw on the approach of socio-technical networks to study actors and infrastructure elements as well as multiple relations in-between. In this article, I investigate whether underlying socio-technical dependencies influence social interactions such as information exchange. More specifically related to data-driven and integrated management, I analyze potential challenges, such as organizational fragmentation, data access, and diverging perceptions. Based on empirical data from three case studies in Switzerland, I provide inferential results obtained from fitting exponential random graph models. Findings showed that actors’ relatedness to infrastructure elements affects their information exchange. Among the cases, the presence of the three challenges varied and is potentially contingent upon system size, organizational form, or progress in terms of data-driven and integrated management. Thus, incorporating a socio-technical perspective on social actors and infrastructure elements could help to improve policy design and implementation aiming to achieve more sustainable cities.
... However, nature-based solutions can effectively supplement or replace conventional infrastructure and offer a greater range of co-benefits (Browder et al. 2019). To enable the incorporation of nature-based solutions, such practices will need to be recognized as legitimate infrastructure assets (Chan et al. 2018). Further, cities will need to move beyond pilot projects at single locations and pursue nature-based solutions at site, neighborhood, and city scale (such as blue-green streets and green roofs) to accumulate significant benefits. ...
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This paper discusses impacts of urbanization on natural infrastructure in India’s 10 most populated. Urbanization today is disconnected from the natural environment causing negative outcomes, such as water scarcity, increased groundwater stress, and urban flooding. Using scientific evidence to accurately identify the correlations between urbanization, loss of natural infrastructure, and increasing climate shocks and stresses can enable the state and municipal authorities to strengthen urban planning and development in the future.
... Flooding is a key concern as extreme weather events increase globally (Carrick et al., 2019;Chan et al., 2018;Priestley, 2017). Natural flood management (NFM), as a form of nature-based flood risk solutions, has been adopted in the European Union (WG POM, 2014) and UK (Defra & Coffey, 2017;National Audit Office, 2020), and is recommended as both a sustainable and affordable approach that can be used alongside traditional flood management methods. ...
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As the frequency and magnitude of storm events increase with climate change, understanding how season and management influence flood peaks is essential. The influence of season and management of grasslands on flood peak timing and magnitude was modelled for Swindale and Calderdale, two catchments in northern England. Spatially-Distributed TOPMODEL was used to investigate two scenarios across four storm events using empirically-based soil and vegetation data. The first scenario applied seasonal changes in vegetative roughness, quantifying the effect on flood peaks at catchment scale. The second scenario modelled the influence of grassland management from historical high-intensity grazing to a series of natural succession stages between grassland and woodland, and a conservation-based management. Model outputs were analysed by flow type, measuring total, overland and base flow peaks at the catchment outlet. Seasonal changes to vegetation were found to increase overland flow peaks by up to +2.2% in winter and reduce them by −5.5% in summer compared to the annual average. Percentage changes in flood peak due to hillslope grassland management scenarios were more substantial; overland flow peaks were reduced by up to 41% in Calderdale where extensive woodland development was the most effective mitigation strategy, and up to 35% in Swindale, where a rank grassland dominated catchment was the most effective. Conservation-based farming practices were also useful, reducing overland flow peak by up to 42% compared to the high intensity grazing scenario. Neither management nor seasonality changed the timing of runoff peaks by >45 min. Where overland flow dominates, especially in catchments with shallow soils, surface roughness was found to be more influential than soil permeability for flood mitigation. We recommend that seasonal changes to roughness are considered alongside the spatial distribution of Natural Flood Management in mosaiced upland catchments.
... The provision of urban environmental infrastructure is an effective means to moderate the innovation-induced effect positively. For example, the "Sponge City" agenda and the "Zero-Waste City" program in China were initiated to underpin green development for embedded energy-saving and recyclable technology in urban environmental infrastructures [64,65]. ...
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Can environmental regulation promote green innovation and the productivity of cities? The "Compliance Cost" (CC) perspective and the "Porter Hypothesis" (PH) offer contrasting views, whereas the existing empirical results are inconclusive. This paper aims to highlight the roles of multifaceted government interventions, including government-to-firm subsidies, tax levies on firms, and environmental infrastructure provisions, in moderating environmental regulation for realizing PH. Based on the fixed-effects models for Chinese prefecture cities from 2005-2013, we found that environmental regulation positively impacted green innovation but negatively affected productivity. The results of moderating effects suggest that environmental regulation can better promote green innovation if it is compounded with more government-to-firm subsidies, lower firm tax burdens, and increased environmental infrastructure provisions. We further decomposed the impacts of these interventions across seven fields of green innovation and found that subsidy and tax burden relief were especially effective in facilitating more GI in the sector of transportation and alternative energy production. This paper amplifies the theoretical framework of PH by accentuating the analytical lens of multifaceted government interventions but also provides insights into how local governments can effectively design "carrot-and-stick" policies to realize PH at the city level.
Chapter
Unplanned rapid urbanization is considered to be one of the major drivers of change in cities across the world. It leads to an inadequate transformation of urban environments, affecting strategic energy and water management infrastructure, resulting as well in an escalation in energy demand and a greater pressure on stormwater facilities. It is estimated that one third of the total energy demand in the European Union (EU) is associated to air-conditioning in buildings, whilst conventional drainage systems have become unsustainable under the current scenario of climate change. In this context of uncontrolled challenges, the EU is encouraging the incorporation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in order to promote resilient infrastructure and to reduce instability. Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) have been selected as key Stormwater Control Measures (SCM), contributing to a paradigm shift in urban water management. As the need for multifunctional spaces evolves due to the lack of urban land, SuDS are increasingly becoming a potential asset to house renewable energy structures, helping to develop the water–energy nexus. Thus, this chapter deals with the opportunities arising in this new research line combining surface geothermal energy systems and SuDS. Both laboratory and field experiences have been analyzed, compiling the lessons learned, identifying the present knowledge gaps, and proposing the future prospects for development. Therefore, paving the way for the effective combination of both technologies.KeywordsSustainable drainage systemsWater–energy NexusGround source heat pumpsAir conditioning
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In recent years, many cities around the world have experienced severe urban waterlogging disasters due to decreasing rainfall infiltration caused by land cover changes with rapid urbanization, and increased frequency of heavy rainfall events, including localized torrential rain. Traditional drainage systems and internal control concepts have failed to meet the requirements of urban safety. To address the challenging problem of urban waterlogging, China proposed the Sponge City in 2014. From the perspective of natural climate and urban construction planning, this paper makes an analysis of the causes of urban waterlogging, points out the limitations of traditional drainage facilities, and discusses the many hazards associated with urban waterlogging. This paper explains the meaning of Sponge City and the basic ideas of Sponge City construction. Based on the discussion of Sponge City development, this paper analyzes the Sponge City construction in Xixian New Area, and explains the significance of Sponge City to solve the problem of urban waterlogging. Through this idea, I would like to explore the common issues in countries suffering from heavy rainfall disasters such as Japan and Malaysia. The study hopes to provide a deeper thinking on ways to use nature to solve the waterlogging.
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The largest recorded flood loss occurred in the study area in 2013. This study aims to examine resampling methods (i.e. cross-validation (CV), bootstrap, and random subsampling) to improve the performance of seven basic machine learning algorithms: Generalized Linear Model, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest (RF), Boosted Regression Tree, Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines, Mixture Discriminate Analysis, and Flexible Discriminant Analysis, found the factors causing flooding and the strongest correlation between variables. The model is evaluated using Area Under the Curve, Correlation, True Skill Statistics, and Deviance. This methodology was applied in Kendari City an urban area that faced destructive floods. The evaluation results show that CV-RF has a good performance in predicting flood susceptibility in this area with values, AUC = 0.99, COR = 0.97, TSS = 0.90, and Deviance = 0.05. A total of 89.44 km2 or equivalent to 32.54% of the total area is a flood-prone area with a dominant area of lowland morphology. Among the 17 parameters that cause flooding, this area is strongly influenced by the vegetation density index and the Terrain Roughness Index (TRI) in the 28 models. The strongest correlation occurs between the TRI and the Sediment Transport Index (STI) = 0.77, which means that flooding in this area is strongly influenced by elements of violence.
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Chinese coastal megacities face an increasing challenge on urban floods in light of climate change and rapid urbanisation. Severe urban floods worsen damages of public infrastructures, such as roads and railway networks, because the land drainage system is currently insufficient to cope with intensive rainstorms. This condition is particularly severe in most Chinese megacities. As a result, that disrupted the transport system and logistics, which associated the interruption of economic and business opportunities. This paper took Guangzhou, the leading commercial and manufacturing hub in the Greater Bay Area region, as a case study. Unfortunately, the city is currently exposed to a high level of urban flood risk. By analysing the historical data, this research summarised the annual rainfall pattern in Guangzhou, and presented the potential impacts of the urban flood on logistics disruption based on the layout of road surface water flooding. Our findings in this research aim to provide recommendations on logistics disruption and transportation plan for road users in future flood events. Moreover, the results are insightful in tackling future urban floods to improve current policies on achieving resilient city planning on logistics.
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The consequences of climate change are exacerbated by land-use changes, which influence the rainfall-runoff relations and consequently the flood risk. Effectively, urbanization is steadily contributing to the increase of impervious areas and reducing the time-to-peak. The effect of Nature Based Solutions (NBSs) on the mitigation of these phenomena is recognized. Nevertheless, these kinds of sustainable infrastructures are still barely known and scarcely adopted in many parts of the European Countries. The LIFE BEWARE project aims to enhance hydraulic safety and spread good practices in rainwater management by promoting and facilitating the adoption of NBSs in the Altovicentino area (Northern Vicenza Province, Veneto Region, Italy). To support the dissemination activities, some full-scale NBSs have been created within the municipality areas involved in the project. The hydrological impact of the structures is continuously monitored thanks to the installation of devices measuring inlet and outlet runoff, and rainfall pattern. This study aims to analyse the monitoring data of the first two years of the built NBSs. Results show that the structures managed almost all the water runoff through processes of infiltration and retention, providing additional insights into understanding the real behaviour of NBSs exposed to the specific environmental conditions of a very rainy foothills area. In particular, mean rain intensity and rainfall duration are the variables that mostly affected the structure performance, especially for events prolonged over time (2-3 days) with mean rainfall intensity in the range of 2-3 mm/h. Therefore, the overall outcomes from this analysis resulted as being useful to improve the design of NBSs and further promote their installation in urban areas.
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We discuss the importance and role of urban wetlands using Taiwan as a model to illustrate how water could be managed to support a growing world population while facing the social, economic, and environmental uncertainties that arise as the effects of global change become more prominent. Taiwan was selected because the island is densely populated, rainfall is high, and landslides, earthquakes, and typhoons are common. These parameters, coupled with the impacts of population growth and global change, make Taiwan a good model where innovative strategies can be developed to manage water in an environmentally responsible and sustainable manner. By 2050, the global population is expected to increase by about two billion people and urban areas are expected to expand by about 30%. More people and a lack of space combined with sea-level rise and other aspects of global change are predicted to have substantial impacts on the world’s major coastal cities, such as Taipei. As such, innovative approaches to urban planning, including the development of strategies to recycle and use water sustainably, will be needed to maintain food and water security. Examples of constructed wetlands and the benefits provided are presented.KeywordsConstructed wetlandsFood and water securitySponge cityTaiwanWise use
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Water supply is increasingly under huge pressure largely because of human activities, changing lifestyles, population growth, and development activities in urbanizing city of Kirtipur. The traditional water supply system by harnessing locally available water sources sustainably, which has been existed since the very beginning in this ancient city is now diminishing (environmental marginality) due to rapid urbanization and infrastructure development. The poor people in this city, who can generally be identified by their poor and vulnerable living houses suffer the most from having no access to public water sources. This paper aims at applying sustainable transformation and management of the traditional water conservation system by re-naturalizing natural sources in Kirtipur municipality. Describing the features and the state of the traditional conservation and management of available water sources for water supply, the paper suggests adopting sponge city concept, based on feasibility analysis of its requirements. This would be helpful primarily to poor marginal communities living in the city by improving access poor to public water supply sources.KeywordsTraditional knowledgeWater conservation systemSponge CityWater loggingMarginalized people
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Background /Objective: Flooding risk is a global issue, and various approaches have been established to prevent flooding risk around the world. China is one of the heavily flood-affected countries and has been implementing the Sponge City program since 2015 to defend against flooding. Unfortunately, flooding has been common in China in recent years, causing severe health risks to citizens. This research mainly focuses on (a) evaluating the implementation of China's Sponge City program and the associated impacts on human health and (b) exploring the future improvement of the Sponge City program in China. Methods The Interpretive Document Approach was used to explore an inclusive review of the Sponge City program and its implications on human health. Results /Findings: The Sponge City program in China is still insufficient to prevent flooding risks effectively. In the past eight years, 24/34 provinces have recorded flooding, which caused a total of 4701 deaths and over 525.5 billion RMB (around 72.9 billion US$) in economic loss. Till now, only 64/654 cities have promulgated local legislation to manage sponge city construction, although the Sponge City was implemented in 2015. Besides, the completed Sponge City program constructions cannot fully prevent flooding risks, the flood prevention capacity is limited. The Sponge City program is not granted priority, lacking national legislation hinders Sponge City program implementation in China. Conclusions China needs to make national legislation on the Sponge City program and update the Sponge City program technology guidelines. Local governments should implement Sponge City construction according to local geographic environments.
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Context Many efforts have been made to control the eco-environmental problems caused by urbanization and industrialization. Meanwhile, spatial pattern and process studies are of global interest and typically focus on one certain environmental or ecological process. Objectives Conduct scientific planning to solve and prevent multiple eco-environmental problems. Methods By using multi-process models and spatial statistical methods, including CMAQ and SWAT models, we analyzed the process and spatial distribution of pollutants and identified critical control areas and landscape managements to prevent environmental pollution and ecological damage events. Results The models we proposed can effectively identify the link between pollutants and land use. According to the relationships of eco-environmental process and landscape, we combined the administrative districts and land use, then we divided 67 landscape control units for air pollution discharge, water pollution discharge, soil heavy metal pollution, and ecological space. For each partition, we proposed management and control measures for each region to solve the hydrological atmospheric, edaphic and ecological problems. Conclusion s This integrated method can provide guidance and scientific support for spatial planning or ecological construction, especially in China.
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Cost-benefit analysis is demanded for guiding the plan, design and construction of green infrastructure practices in rapidly urbanized regions. We developed a framework to calculate the costs and benefits of different green infrastructures on stormwater reduction and utilization. A typical community of 54,783 m² in Beijing was selected for case study. For the four designed green infrastructure scenarios (green space depression, porous brick pavement, storage pond, and their combination), the average annual costs of green infrastructure facilities are ranged from 40.54 to 110.31 thousand yuan, and the average of the cost per m³ stormwater reduction and utilization is 4.61 yuan. The total average annual benefits of stormwater reduction and utilization by green infrastructures of the community are ranged from 63.24 to 250.15 thousand yuan, and the benefit per m³ stormwater reduction and utilization is ranged from 5.78 to 11.14 yuan. The average ratio of average annual benefit to cost of four green infrastructure facilities is 1.91. The integrated facilities had the highest economic feasibility with a benefit to cost ratio of 2.27, and followed by the storage pond construction with a benefit to cost ratio of 2.14. The results suggested that while the stormwater reduction and utilization by green infrastructures had higher construction and maintenance costs, their comprehensive benefits including source water replacements benefits, environmental benefits and avoided cost benefits are potentially interesting. The green infrastructure practices should be promoted for sustainable management of urban stormwater.
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China has experienced enormously rapid development since the open door policy introduced in 1979. Population has increased by 30% to 1.3 billion, and the annual GDP growth rate was 9.8 % in the last few years. However, frequent water disasters in recent years have caused significant damages to China's regional growth and societies. There are huge contemporary challenges for Chinese water resource management. In this paper, we examine three major challenges for China's water resource management, which are water scarcity, water pollution and flood management. We discuss some of China's past management strategies and its future water management plans which come with major new investment. China will be further developed during this century and we provide some thoughts on water resource management that could be undertaken in China to increase resilience in face of a capricious future.
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Forum papers are thought-provoking opinion pieces or essays founded in fact, sometimes containing speculation, on a civil engineering topic of general interest and relevance to the readership of the journal. The views expressed in this Forum article do not necessarily reflect the views of ASCE or the Editorial Board of the journal.
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Natural capital (NC) is crucial to human existence and human well-being. Evaluating ecosystem services on a regional scale has presented tremendous theoretical, methodological and policy challenges. This study addresses the challenges by developing an interdisciplinary methodology, based on expert knowledge, and by focusing on the Yangtze River Delta of China. It evaluates the stock of NC, analyzes the characteristics of, and identifies the key drivers for, spatial and temporal change in NC in the deltaic region from 2000 to 2010. A main contribution is the novel incorporation of remote sensing data that explains the dynamics of the spatio-temporal change in land use and a set of ecosystem service indicators derived from it. The study focuses on key indicators for key ecosystem services related to carbon sequestration, grain production and water supply. The indictors reflect the spatial heterogeneity of NC across diverse ecosystems in the region. Each indicator builds on land use configuration and land use composition information derived from 250m 16-day MODIS and Landsat TM remote sensing data for 2000 and 2010, with adjustment parameters being constructed. The regional evaluation shows an overall degradation of ecosystem services, reducing total NC by 10.4% (or 8.44 billion yuan) in 2000-2010. The spatial distribution of NC exhibits a declining pattern from the south to the north of the delta. At the city level, 15 out of 16 major cities in the region have experienced dramatic loss of NC, and this pattern is significantly correlated with rapid urbanization, population growth and industrialization. Land use/land cover change and deteriorating water quality are dominant factors causing NC depletion, while increased grain productivity and environmental policies help offset the NC losses. Outcomes of this research are useful to policy makers to mitigate the declines in NC through balancing the growth between economy and population.
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The scientific literature has documented the growing risks of flooding posed for Asia’s coastal cities by the combination of climate change, as reflected in sea level rise and intensified storms and storm surges, and ongoing urban growth in low-lying coastal zones. These issues were already elaborated in the 2007 IPCC (IPCC, 2007) reports but recent studies indicate that climate change, sea level rise and the sinking of the deltas on which most Asian mega urban regions have arisen, are all occurring at much faster rates than earlier projected and therefore pose even greater risks than previously indicated. Global warming appears to be accelerating and may increase to 4° C or more by the end of this century, twice the earlier IPCC projections. The sea level is now expected to rise by one meter or more by 2100; two or three times the earlier projections. The recent typhoons and rains striking Southeast Asia have been the most intense in decades as would be expected as a result of global warming. At the same time, Asia’s urban population is increasing at the rate of 140,000 per day, with much of this growth occurring in low-lying coastal regions and on deltas characterized by land subsidence that is further contributing to flooding risks. While these risks and vulnerabilities have been increasingly detailed in the scientific literature, recognition and effective responses on the part of the urban planning and policy community have been slow to develop. Barriers to adaptation, policy formation and response are reviewed and possible steps forward are outlined.
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This paper summarizes the urban water management framework that China's central government has adopted to manage the supply of water to the country's urban areas. These laws, policies and institutional arrangements cover water resources management, urban planning and environmental management issues. This paper considers the application of this framework in three urban areas: Beijing, Shanghai and Shaoxing Prefecture in Zhejiang Province. These case studies are used as the basis of a discussion on the ways that the framework could be enhanced, both structurally and in terms of its implementation.
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Non-point sources of pollution are difficult to identify and control, and are one of the main reasons that urban rivers fail to reach the water quality objectives set for them. Whilst sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are available to help combat this diffuse pollution, they are mostly installed in areas of new urban development. However, SuDS must also be installed in existing built areas if diffuse loadings are to be reduced. Advice on where best to locate SuDS within existing built areas is limited, hence a semi-distributed stochastic GIS-model was developed to map small-area basin-wide loadings of 18 key stormwater pollutants. Load maps are combined with information on surface water quality objectives to permit mapping of diffuse pollution hazard to beneficial uses of receiving waters. The model thus aids SuDS planning and strategic management of urban diffuse pollution. The identification of diffuse emission 'hot spots' within a water quality objectives framework is consistent with the 'combined' (risk assessment) approach to pollution control advocated by the EU Water Framework Directive.
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The Pearl River Delta Economic Zone is one of the most developed regions in China. It has been undergoing a rapid urbanization since the reformation and opening of China in 1978. This process plays a significant impact on the urban environment, particularly river water quality. The main goal of this present study is to assess the impact of urban activities especially urbanization on river water quality for the study area. Some Landsat TM images from 2000 were used to map the areas for different pollution levels of urban river sections for the study area. In addition, an improved equalized synthetic pollution index method was utilized to assess the field analytical results. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between the rapidity of urbanization and the pollution levels of urban river water. Compared to the rural river water, urban river water was polluted more seriously. During the urban development process, urbanization and urban activities had a significant negative impact on the river water quality.
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This article introduces the concept of sustainable urban drainage as defined by a range of guidelines for Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, Low Impact Development, and Water Sensitive Urban Design. The aims of the approach are discussed with specific reference to flood risk management and water quality management. A description is given for the types of infrastructure that can be used to control runoff production in source areas; transport and utilize water in a sustainable manner; and improve surface water quality before it is allowed to enter the local water course. The design, implementation, and maintenance of such systems are also discussed along with a review of how such guidelines are being implemented around the world.
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Torrential rainfall associated with the 23rd Typhoon Fitow in 2013 hit the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China, resulting from mutual effects of residual low pressure cyclonic circulation of Fitow and the 24th Typhoon Danas, which imposed great challenge to forecasters. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used to simulate the rainstorm under the background of binary typhoons of Fitow and Danas. Three sensitivity experiments of typhoon intensity changes of binary typhoons were carried out. It was found that the Typhoon Danas was the main factor in this torrential rain event, in which its accompanied strong eastward low-level jet was the major moisture conveyor belt through which the warm and moist air was brought into the heavy rainfall zone and the static instability was maintained and enhanced over the YRD. The convergence line formed by periphery easterly flow of Typhoon Danas and southward cold air, together with the local frontogenesis mainly due to convergence, was an important trigger factor of this rainstorm. The large scale forcing was the major uplift mechanism, and the underlying frontal uplift played a secondary role for rainstorm in the north YRD, while uplift mechanism for rainstorm in the southern YRD is mainly local underlying frontal uplift induced large CAPE release resulting in local strong buoyancy uplift that led to strong upward motion. Not only did the convergence of twin typhoons directly provide dynamic conditions for the rainstorm, but also the dynamic lifting was enhanced by binary typhoons through strengthening the coupling of upper-level and low-level jet. The sensitivity tests revealed that the rainstorm in YRD was sensitive to both typhoons' intensity, and the rainfall in the south YRD was more sensitive than that in the north. A conceptual model of YRD rainstorm under binary typhoon situation was proposed based on the above-mentioned factors.
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Low impact development (LID) is generally regarded as a more sustainable solution for urban stormwater management than conventional urban drainage systems. However, its effects on urban flooding at a scale of urban drainage systems have not been fully understood particularly when different rainfall characteristics are considered. In this paper, using an urbanizing catchment in China as a case study, the effects of three LID techniques (swale, permeable pavement and green roof) on urban flooding are analyzed and compared with the conventional drainage system design. A range of storm events with different rainfall amounts, durations and locations of peak intensity are considered for holistic assessment of the LID techniques. The effects are measured by the total flood volume reduction during a storm event compared to the conventional drainage system design. The results obtained indicate that all three LID scenarios are more effective in flood reduction during heavier and shorter storm events. Their performance, however, varies significantly according to the location of peak intensity. That is, swales perform best during a storm event with an early peak, permeable pavements perform best with a middle peak, and green roofs perform best with a late peak, respectively. The trends of flood reduction can be explained using a newly proposed water balance method, i.e., by comparing the effective storage depth of the LID designs with the accumulative rainfall amounts at the beginning and end of flooding in the conventional drainage system. This paper provides an insight into the performance of LID designs under different rainfall characteristics, which is essential for effective urban flood management.
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Shenzhen is one of the special economic zones in China. It has been growing rapidly from rural land to an industrial city since the mid-1980s. With the process of urbanization, flooding has become a threat to the security of the city area. In this study, Buji River basin in Shenzhen Region was selected to investigate the effect of urbanization on surface runoff and peak discharge. Land use data were obtained from LANDSAT images in 1980, 1988, 1994, and 2000, and surface runoff in the same period was simulated by SCS model. Results showed that urbanization played an important factor intensifying the flood process. Increase of urbanized land and decrease of farmland might be the main reasons for increasing runoff. At 10%, 50% and 90% rainfall probability (the rainfall probability of 10% means 10-year return period of moist year, 2-year return period of normal year and 10-year return period of dry year), the increase of runoff coefficient was 12.6%, 20.7% and 33.5% respectively under relatively dry soil moisture condition, however, and the value was 2.5%, 4.3% and 6.9% respectively under relatively wet soil moisture condition. Urbanization led to obvious increase in the maximum flood discharge and decrease in runoff confluence time. At 1%, 2% and 5% rainfall probability, the increase of the maximum flood discharge was 20.2%, 23.0% and 28.9% respectively, under relatively dry soil moisture condition. The corresponding value was 1.3%, 1.6% and 2.6% respectively under relatively wet soil moisture condition. Due to urbanization in the past 20 years, runoff coefficient increased 13.4% and the maximum flood discharge increased 12.9% on average.
Article
This paper presents field monitoring results from a 235 m(2) extensive living roof in Auckland New Zealand (NZ) The extent of stormwater control is quantified by comparing three different substrate types (Pumice Zeolite and Expanded Clay all pumice based but named for their distinguishing components) at two different substrate depths (50 and 70 mm) in a side-by-side comparison No statistically significant differences in runoff response were found between the three substrate types tested or the two different depths The cumulative retention efficiency of the living roof was 66% based on 12 months of continuous monitoring On an event basis the living roof demonstrated reductions in both volume and peak flow rates regardless of the rainfall and climatic characteristics The living roof retained a median of 82% of rainfall received per rainfall event with a median peak flow reduction of 93% compared to rainfall intensity The hydrologic response of a living roof is controlled by multiple parameters such as rain depth rain intensity climatic variables and antecedent dry days Detailed analysis indicates that antecedent dry days have the greatest influence on retention Seasonal differences do not influence runoff response living roofs will effectively moderate runoff hydrology year round in Auckland s sub-tropical climate (C) 2010 Elsevier B V All rights reserved
Article
Preparedness, early warning, and emergency management all contribute to flood risk mitigation and are closely linked to risk perception and communication. Risk perception and communication of decision-makers considerably influence their approach to risk mitigation strategies and therefore have a great impact on institu- tional coping capacity and/or vulnerability. This PhD dissertation investigates flood risk perception and communication amongst key institutional stakeholders involved in flood risk management in the different cultural settings of China and Germany. Using qualitative social research methods, this study aims at: first, understanding the discrepancies of risk per- ceptions between different actors; second, identifying flood risk communication features among flood risk management organizational units and between risk management and the general public; third, comparing the perception and com- munication characteristics in different cultural contexts; and finally, analysing how differences are embedded in culture and exploring the potential of cross cultural transferability of good practices and its implementation with consideration of cultural diversity.
Article
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a recent planning and design philosophy in Australia primarily used to minimise the hydrological impacts of urban development on the surrounding environment. As local governments plan and regulate the bulk of public and private infrastructure and development, they are key participants in the implementation of WSUD. However, according to research conducted involving 38 municipalities in Melbourne, Australia, the implementation of WSUD is inconsistent across the metropolitan area. The mixed methods research comprised a survey of municipal officers, interviews with the officers and mayors, and a review of municipal accountability documents. The results revealed a strong municipal commitment to WSUD in areas bounded by the coast or where the natural vegetation exceeds 50% of the municipal area. Furthermore, these committed municipalities tended to coincide with communities of higher wealth and population. Overall, the analysis revealed three types of municipalities – high, partial, and limited commitment – that are indicated by a variation in environmental values, demographic and socio-economic status, local organised environmentalism, municipal environmental messages, and intergovernmental disposition. This paper argues for policy reform for WSUD, as it is largely sympathetic to the highly committed municipalities, and highlights the need to enable the participation of publics in the municipalities of limited and partial commitment by linking WSUD to greater public concerns and building commitment through diverse policy interventions.
Article
Flooding was recognized as the severest natural hazard in ancient China. Chinese people have accumulated abundant experiences in fighting against flood disasters for millennia. In the past half century, flood control capacity has improved due to the large-scale construction of a flood control engineering system, which plays an important role in ensuring the rapid socio-economic development. However, because of climatic fluctuation and human activities, significant changes to the flood control situation are taking place in China. In the new century, the flood control system has to face a series of challenges, and the flood management strategies must be adjusted accordingly.
Article
This study aims to raise the level of attention paid to surface water management issues in spatial planning and urban development processes. In the case of cities located in alluvial river plains, surface water bodies may occupy large areas but severe ecological and environmental consequences can arise if they are given insufficient weight in the planning and development processes. After discussing in general terms some of the connections between surface water bodies and urban land use we specifically examine the situation in Wuhan, one of the largest cities in China, which has many surface water bodies in its urban region. We measure and analyse land use changes between 1993 and 2004 to lakes and shallow water bodies and their riparian areas using data derived from detailed land use surveys of the city. Our results show that urban expansion has had a significant impact on Wuhan's surface water bodies and their riparian zones. The reduction, disappearance and pollution of surface water may contribute to the undervaluation of water bodies, thereby increasing the likelihood of further impacts taking place. An integrative and proactive land use planning and management system at regional strategic level and local action level is considered to be essential if surface water systems are to be conserved and improved. Increased recognition of their societal and ecological value should be reflected in more detailed attention to the spatial requirements of water bodies and riparian areas in urban planning policies.
Article
Numerous drivers are providing stimulus for increased water cycle localisation within urban neighbourhoods. This paper uses predominantly Australasian case studies to highlight trends, successes and challenges in the transition to neighbourhood centred water-based services using 'Low Impact' and 'Water Sensitive' design and development techniques. Major steps towards urban sustainability are demonstrated, for example, up to 70% reduction in the demand for potable water (Aurora, Melbourne), removal of contaminated stormwater and sewage effluent discharge to natural waterways vulnerable to nutrient or toxin accumulation, and up to 55% of the area of the greenfield site planted in indigenous species (Regis Park, New Zealand). Reduced demand for potable water would enable continued undiluted use of 'pure' water sources from limited bush catchments (Waitakere Ranges, New Zealand), and less dependence on rivers stressed by low flows. Reductions and dispersion of sewage effluent discharges protects receiving waters, such as Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, from eutrophication. Reduced stormwater discharge favours retention of the natural hydrological regime of rivers and minimises bioaccumulation of toxins in aquatic ecosystems.
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