| Sumario: | "A Sponge City is a city that has the capacity to mainstream urban water management into the urban planning policies and designs. It should have the appropriate planning and legal frameworks and tools in place to implement, maintain and adapt the infrastructure systems to collect, store and treat (excess) rainwater. In addition, a 'sponge city' will not only be able to deal with 'too much water, ' but also reuse rain water to help to mitigate the impacts of 'too little' and 'too dirty' water. Primarily as a response to the increasing flood impacts, the Chinese Central Government called for widespread uptake of the Sponge City approach across China in 2013 and provided financial support to foster implementation of this approach in a selection of pilot cities. At present, the Sponge City approach is gaining ground and becoming more and more accepted by city governments. The first 'best practices' of Chinese cities are being shared and international exchange activities between research institutions and cities are providing guidance to the design and implementation of new concepts and technologies. However, there are still many challenges ahead which hamper uptake by the selected pilot cities and up-scaling to the remainder 600plus cities in China. City governments at all institutional levels have to support the implementation of the Sponge City approach in new built-up areas of city districts, industrial parks and development zones. In existing urban areas retrofitting of neighborhoods, refurbishment of existing buildings and infrastructure and rebuilding activities of old city areas should comply with the Sponge City approach"-- From preface.
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