Gustavo Bernal Torres
To Prevent Floods, China Is Building “Sponge Cities”
After decades of ill-planned growth, urban areas are being retrofitted to prevent disasters
The flooding in Zhengzhou shocked the country. It left many Chinese wondering whether sponge cities were all they were cracked up to be. After all, a lot of money has been flowing into spongification. Experts reckon that implementing the government’s sponge-city guidelines will cost at least $1trn nationwide.
Officials insisted that the downpour was a “once in a millennium” event that even the best-built sponge city could not have coped with perfectly.
Source: https://www.economist.com/china/2021/11/18/to-prevent-floods-china-is-building-sponge-cities