Transformation of the Sponge City Program (SCP) in Chinese cities: influence from social media and public

The SCP has established for five years and been adopted in 30 pilot Chinese cities. However, the overall understanding of SCP was rather poor and varied among each case. It is mainly blamed on socio-institutional and cognitive barriers (include cultural shift and perceptions change) from policymakers, practitioners, developers and public. A better social acceptance could help to formulate pro-SCP/BGI policies easier, which will facilitate updating engineering standards to incorporate BGI and foster markets by bring BGI stewardship as a business to promote green economy. 

There are some scientific papers about findings of SCP, but it is difficult for public to digest and understand. Whilst, social media becomes popular, because the public can access information straightforwardly and share their opinions. It is a good outlet for relevant stakeholders to understand the public concern (via sharing and commenting on reports, newspapers, blogs, etc.) and then in turns help to improve and transform SCP better.

During our research, we found that those mindsets and perceptions (e.g. unawareness, misunderstanding, resistance and fear to innovative BGI and SCP facilities) are intangible factors that influencing policy makers, landowners, developers, water resource managers and public to understand, accept and support the implementation of SCP/BGI. Our interviews revealed it is especially difficult to bring developers into the SCP/BGI projects. They resist investing due to the long-term profits return of such projects compared to traditional engineering projects. In addition, public participation is still at a weak stage and public opinions lack the power of discourse. 

According to Professor Yu Kongjian, who is a famous landscape architect for Sponge City Concept in China and once expressed that "We are missing one generation of landscape architects in China because of the Cultural Revolution”, that said we could not solely rely on traditional engineering practice to solve urban water issues. Current Chinese education system still lacking sufficient SCP/BGI knowledge for students. Sam Kahamba Kutesa, UN General Assembly President also noted that "We should bear in mind that profound changes in attitudes, behaviours and policies will be required to create a world in which human beings live in harmony with nature”, during the Dialogue on Harmony with Nature (UN News, 2015). 

The target of SCP, which is quite ambitious according to national guidelines. By 2020, it is required about 20% of urban areas that covers the SCP infrastructure and by 2030, we expect there will be 80% of urban area should absorb and re-use at least 70% of rainfall (Chinese Central Council, 2015). Doubts and uncertainties were raised regarding the effectiveness of SCP. For example, ‘Pilots of 30 sponge cities nationwide, 19 cities experienced flooding this year’ (Wang, 2016), ‘The SCP must tolerate the doubt to water’ (Beijing Youth Daily, 2016), ‘Sponge City is still waterlogged, related issues remain to be clarified’ (Hu, 2017). Public starts to doubt large investment devoted to SCP, but seems unable achieved according targets. Some media sources turned to critic the SCP whether should carry on. 

Traditional engineered approaches on urban flood management have limitations on achieving ecosystem services. In contrast, SCP & BGI approaches are not designed to solve severe floods (e.g. large river and coastal floods). Perhaps the way forward that combing the SCP with traditional engineered infrastructures, namely "Green + Grey” approaches that can be more effectively addressing the intensive rainstorms (e.g. generated by typhoons) or future uncertainty of climatic extremes (Chan et al., 2018). The key benefits of SCP that is the deliverable, which provides multiple benefits rather than only managing urban flood. Lately, the social media started to pay attention on focusing other co-benefits of SCP such as better living environment and quality (e.g. deliver aesthetic and recreational values), social wellbeing and climate adaptations (e.g. addressing urban heat island).  

Chinese has vital experience and knowledge to handle urban water issues since thousands of years ago—the wisdom of living with water (Yu, 2018). China has also learned some lessons from the trail pilot projects of SCP, also reflected from global practices and examples in North America, UK, Australia, Singapore, etc. The country is finding the best way to deliver sustainable ways that suits its own necessities.

During the last few years, we witnessed that some successful SCP projects established in Shenzhen, Wuhan, Beijing, Ningbo and other cities. It is possible to tailor our approach to the area’s characteristics and overcome technical and management challenges. In fact, the governance system in China helps to improve the efficiency and effectiveness on SCP implementation, and we do see an increasing policy change is starting being driven by public and media. 

Obvious indication of the influence of SCP reflected by media reported from overseas. For example,  "Berlin is becoming a Sponge City”, "Sponge city making Berlin cooler” (Bloomberg, 2017), "Sponge City: Berlin plans for a hotter climate” (Deutsche Welle, 2016), "Berlin & China Creating ‘Sponge Cities’ — Landscape Architects Help Cities Absorb Water, Cool Down” (CleanTechnica, 2017), "Kochi may be State’s first ‘sponge city’” (The Hindu, 2020), "India cities must become ‘sponge cities’ to tackle urban flooding’ (Hindustan Times, 2017) etc. 

More cities worldwide now are investing BGI & SCP, we expect they could be a new way of thinking about the city of a green future to mitigate heat waves and flood risks. That will be interesting to see how the SCP may cause more influence on global cities especially for cities that have similar urban pressures on population and urbanisation.  

Lei Li (Postgraduate Researcher on Nature-based Solutions, Blue-Green Infrastructure and Sponge Cities, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Ningbo China); Faith Chan (Associate Professor, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Ningbo China; Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Water@Leeds Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK); Dimple R. Thadani (Assistant Professor, Nottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China) 

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