China’s ‘Sponge Cities’ Are Not Built for Extreme Flood Events
Urban planners are struggling to keep pace with the wild changes in precipitation being driven by climate change.
A partially submerged building in a flooded area in Beijing’s Fangshan district on July 31.
Source: CNS/AFP/Getty Images
Flooding has affected at least 30 million people in China so far this year, including at least 20 deaths in the past few days, raising questions about the country’s preparation for catastrophic weather fueled by climate change.
China has invested billions of dollars in recent years to protect against extreme rainfall after a 2012 flood in Beijing killed 79 people and prompted President Xi Jinping to call for building “cities like sponges.” The idea is simple: Using rooftop gardens, permeable pavements, underground storage tanks and other sponge-like features to soak up heavy precipitation and then slowly release it into rivers or reservoirs. Since then, dozens of Chinese cities from Beijing in the north to Chongqing in the south have pledged to make the transformation.