Sponge City Practices for Sustainable Water Solutions in China: Reflections from Two Cases

Sponge City practices are gaining importance in China for sustainable water solutions. Two cases from Guangzhou City and Xining City were selected and compared to demonstrate various climate zones and different approaches. In Guangzhou, we chose Haizhu Wetland as a representative of the megacity's central wetland. This example highlights the effectiveness of local green infrastructure construction by building large-scale wetlands in the core areas of metropolitan areas. In Xining, through ecological restoration and Sponge City Construction, the problem of soil erosion and geological disasters in the ecologically sensitive areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has been addressed. We applied an identical framework covering macro-, meso- and microscale strategies to both cases through detailed methods resulting in various solutions. When reflecting on both examples, three critical issues arise as challenges for future promotion of Sponge City development in China: universal versus local solutions, green versus gray infrastructure and urban versus regional areas.