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Urban waterlogs control in China: more effective strategies and actions are needed

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Abstract

Urban flooding and waterlogging is becoming one of the foremost challenges in the process of rapid urbanization expansion in China. With a huge investment, the Chinese government presently is conducting a large project for the construction of “Sponge City,” aiming at the urban water disaster mitigation and efficient water management. However, the effects of present practices and actions are far beyond the expected, and a large number of troublesome and perplexing problems are waiting to be solved. It should be realized that the control of urban floods and waterlogs is a long-term and complexly systemic project, rather than a simple urban construction project. More meticulous and rational actions and policies should be taken by keeping patient, and both structural and non-structural measures are needed for the construction of Sponge City, by which the huge investment could achieve the desired targets and benefits for the mitigation of urban water disasters in China.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledged the helpful comments and suggestions given by the editors and anonymous reviewers. The authors also thanked Ms. Feifei Liu for her assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. This project was financially supported by the “Bingwei” Excellent Talents from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Mountain Flood Disaster Investigation Project (SHZH-IWHR-57).

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Correspondence to Yan-Fang Sang.

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Sang, YF., Yang, M. Urban waterlogs control in China: more effective strategies and actions are needed. Nat Hazards 85, 1291–1294 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2614-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2614-4

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