Sponge city

The “sponge city” concept represents a good example of improving urban water supplies on a large scale, largely based on the application of green infrastructure approaches in urban landscapes, primarily to improve water availability. Sponge cities address a problem that urban planners have long struggled with: preventing rainwater from flooding cities while implementing ways to conserve it for eventual reuse, rather than simply sending it down the drain. The application of nature-based solutions, such as green roofs, permeable pavements and bioremediation, together with the restoration of urban and peri-urban wetlands and rivers, seek to mitigate the negative impacts of urbanization on natural ecosystems. In other words, it is an urban planning model capable of dealing with phenomena such as floods, monsoons, swells, inundations or other aquatic manifestations, through drainage systems or flood zones that prevent the accumulation of water on impermeable pavement. Sponge cities were proposed by architect Kongjian Yu in 2000, tested during that decade and exported shortly afterwards to the entire planet, although some cities were pioneers when it came to installing similar systems.