A review of the progress in Chinese Sponge City programme: challenges and opportunities for urban stormwater management

Abstract Urbanization has been the main driving force for China's economic growth in recent years; however, the highly concentrated urbanized lifestyle has brought many environmental problems to residents, the most urgent of which is urban stormwater management. Some countries have proposed plans for urban stormwater management, such as Low Impact Development (LID), Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). As a country with relatively underdeveloped urban stormwater management, China's government proposed an ambitious urban stormwater management plan in 2014, called the Sponge City Programme, which means that a city is designed to act like a sponge, with good ‘resilience’ in adapting to environmental changes and coping with natural disasters. As of 2021, this programme has led to SCP projects in 30 pilot districts all over China, the Sponge City Programme construction impacts both urban development and residents' lives. However, there are risks and challenges associated with these projects. Using government research documents as a framework, this paper carefully reviews the progress of the Sponge City Programme in recent years and shows the main challenges faced by the Sponge City Programme in terms of connotation, investment, and technology. On this basis, the paper puts forward practical suggestions for the development of the Sponge City Programme and details potential opportunities of new technology, ideology, planning, and flexible investment.