China Innovates With 'Sponge' Cities to Combat Flooding

China Innovates With ‘Sponge’ Cities to Combat Flooding

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 13/12/2023 at 15:56

Updated on 13/12/2023 at 15:57

Foto: Divulgação/China

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Although they are not a definitive solution, they offer a way to live more sustainably with the environment. China is at the forefront of this innovation, showing how the integration of nature into urban infrastructure can make a significant difference in the quality of life in cities.

Amid the challenges posed by climate change, China is adopting an innovative approach to make its cities more resilient to flooding. The concept of “sponge cities” is being implemented in various regions of the country, combining natural infrastructure with advanced engineering techniques.

What Are Sponge Cities?

Sponge cities are designed to absorb and reuse rainwater, reducing the risk of urban flooding. These cities utilize urban parks, such as the one in Nanchang, filled with native trees and volcanic rocks, to create an effective natural drainage system. The goal is to improve urban drainage and flood prevention while also creating a biologically diverse environment.

Biodiversity plays a crucial role in defending the Earth against climate change. Healthy cities, with forests and native plants, are essential for carbon dioxide absorption and supporting crop pollination. However, continuous urban expansion can lead to habitat loss and negatively impact global biodiversity.

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Implementation of Sponge Cities in China

In 2015, China launched a pilot program in 30 cities to promote the construction of sponge cities. Architects and engineers are reintegrating natural solutions, such as rain gardens and native trees, to complement the existing gray infrastructure. These solutions are inspired by ancient drainage systems that had already proven effective in stormwater management.

Despite the benefits, sponge cities face limitations; in 2021, the floods in Zhengzhou revealed that these systems have a limited capacity to absorb water. We can also say that the implementation of sponge infrastructure varies significantly from city to city due to climatic, hydrological, and socioeconomic differences.

Adaptation of Cities in the USA

In the United States, cities like Los Angeles and Boston are adapting the concept of natural infrastructure, using existing green spaces. They are experimenting with planting vegetation on sidewalks and creating green spaces in medians. According to Folha, flooding has increased in the U.S., and some incidents have even led to fatalities; in Brazil, it is no different, and we eagerly await innovations similar to those in China in our country.

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China Innovates With ‘Sponge’ Cities to Combat Flooding

Although they are not a definitive solution, they offer a way to live more sustainably with the environment. China is at the forefront of this innovation, showing how the integration of nature into urban infrastructure can make a significant difference in the quality of life in cities.

What Are Sponge Cities?

Implementation of Sponge Cities in China

Adaptation of Cities in the USA

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China Innovates With ‘Sponge’ Cities to Combat Flooding

Although they are not a definitive solution, they offer a way to live more sustainably with the environment. China is at the forefront of this innovation, showing how the integration of nature into urban infrastructure can make a significant difference in the quality of life in cities.

What Are Sponge Cities?

Implementation of Sponge Cities in China

Adaptation of Cities in the USA

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

China transforms desert-devastated area into the world’s largest artificial forest, planting trees for 60 years, blocking sand that reached Beijing, and creating a “green lung” of 92,000 hectares in a region once considered lost.

Toyota launches “family hybrid van” with 7 or 8 seats, 1.8 hybrid engine, fuel consumption of up to 23.8 km/l, and a price equivalent to about R$ 104,000 without taxes, below the Tiggo 8 Pro Plug-in Hybrid sold in Brazil: meet the Noah Hybrid 2026 in Japan.

Scientists have created a material six times lighter than air, 75 times lighter than styrofoam, and that becomes stronger the more it is compressed: aerographite seems impossible, but it can reinforce structures, batteries, and satellites.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

During the construction of the world’s highest bridge, the Huajiang Bridge in China, engineers discovered a giant aquifer and turned what would have been a serious problem into a 625-meter artificial waterfall, an engineering feat that no one had planned.

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In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

For the first time in history, solar and wind energy generated more electricity than natural gas worldwide in a single month, April 2026, a milestone in the energy transition that shows renewable sources taking the lead in the global electric system.

Brazil is sitting on one of the largest lithium reserves in the world, in the Jequitinhonha Valley, but national mining has almost become an appendage of China: 97% of the metal’s export goes to a single country, which also dominates refining.

Petrobras is expected to complete the drilling of the Morpho well in the Foz do Amazonas in August 2026, the first well in the Equatorial Margin, an oil frontier that the ANP estimates at more than 30 billion barrels and could redraw the map of Brazil.

The Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world, is drying up due to climate change and no one can stop the loss: evaporation could lower the level by up to 21 meters this century and turn ports in Kazakhstan, such as Aktau, into desert.