Innovative Adaptation to Climate Change: Chinese Sponge Cities Program (SCP)

Abstract

According to the IPCC (2021), the vulnerability of the cities to flooding and water scarcity will increase. At the same time, the population of the cities is constantly increasing. That's why it is very important to strengthen the city resilience through nature based solutions. At present, the Sponge City Concept (SCC) is gaining ground, Sponge Cities technologies are becoming more and more accepted by Chinese city governments, and the first best practices are shared. However, there are still many challenges ahead, which hamper effective implementation and upscaling. This paper presents some opportunities and constraints based on the assessment of the Sponge Cities Program (SCP) of China (2013-2030). The Chinese Sponge City Program, initiated in 2013 and adopted by 30 pilot cities, is developing solutions to manage urban flood risk, purify storm water, and provide water storage opportunities for future usage. The methodology is based on an extensive literature review, combining aspects of the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines”, and the Recursive Content Abstraction (RCA) analytical approach. Analyzing the Chinese experience will be very illustrative for developing countries that have similar vulnerabilities and could be interested in applying the SPI. Key challenges will be to align the sponge city program projects with infrastructure and urban renovation portfolios to affront the substantial investment need and a lack of reliable financing schemes. On this basis, the paper puts forward practical suggestions for the financing of the Sponge Cities.