Sponge Cities – a fascinating example of ‘slowing the flow’ and accommodating water in urban environments
A couple of weeks ago, I was sent a link to a very interesting story (thanks Brianna!), that provides the perfect prompt for us to revisit the all-important concept of urban wetland restoration.
The fascinating topic of discussion this time around is the idea of “Sponge Cities”, as promoted by an award-winning Chinese architect, Kongjian Yu, where urban environments are deliberately designed (or retrofitted) to better cope with, accommodate and benefit from catchment flows, including those associated with increasingly volatile rainfall events.
Last year (in 2023), Mr. Yu was awarded the Oberlander Prize, an International Award for landscape architecture, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation produced a really nice 12 minute video story (shared below) that explains how and why he decided to dedicate his professional life to working with water and nature in urban environments. What an inspiring story, and – while there is no ‘silver bullet’ when an urban environment has been superimposed on former wetlands and floodplains – this is a philosophy that we can definitely adapt and learn from in Australia!
A great initial place to start in Australia, as we’ve previously discussed through the NGT newsletter, would be to make sure that any existing natural wetlands (including those that have been artificially drained), situated in places that are still earmarked for urban development around our cities, are retained and/or restored (rather than infilled, reclaimed and covered with built infrastructure). In turn, these features can then be integrated as community assets that serve key roles (ecological, hydrological, cooling, aesthetic, etc.) in the future urban environment.
To review the full range of previous NGT stories on the theme of urban wetland restoration, please follow this link.
Finally, to learn more about the Sponge Cities concept, this recent article from The New York Times, which is also available in the pdf viewer below, is also well worth a read.
