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.
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