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Transformation towards resilient sponge cities in China

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 3, pages 99–101 (2022)Cite this article

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China’s national Sponge City Program promotes the integration of green–grey–blue infrastructure for sustainable urban-water governance. However, recent record-breaking flood events have called the efficacy of the programme into question, illustrating the need for a holistic social–natural–engineering strategy to manage future climate uncertainties.

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Fig. 1: A resilient sponge city.

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Acknowledgements

F.K.S.C. is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (no. 2019YFA0606903, 2019YFC1510400), National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 41971040, 41850410497), Ningbo Science and Technology Bureau (grant no. 201401C 5008005). W.Y.C. is supported by the General Research Fund from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (17302821). Y.P. is supported by the Urban Emergency Management Research Innovation Team of Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics. We thank D. Y. Chen, J. Li, M. Guan, L. Li, Y. Qi, X. Lu, Y. He and D. R. Thadani for their support, discussions and ideas.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Faith Ka Shun Chan, Wendy Y. Chen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

    Faith Ka Shun Chan

  2. Water@Leeds Research Institute, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Faith Ka Shun Chan

  3. Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Wendy Y. Chen

  4. School of Public Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou, China

    Xinbing Gu & Yi Peng

  5. Nottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

    Xinbing Gu

  6. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Yanfang Sang

  7. Key Laboratory of Compound and Chained Natural Hazards Dynamics, Ministry of Emergency Management of China, Beijing, China

    Yanfang Sang

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  1. Faith Ka Shun Chan
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  4. Yi Peng
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Correspondence to Faith Ka Shun Chan or Wendy Y. Chen.

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Chan, F.K.S., Chen, W.Y., Gu, X. et al. Transformation towards resilient sponge cities in China. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 99–101 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-021-00251-y

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