DESIGN WITH NATURE TO CREATE A SPONGE CITY: “On a regional, larger scale, we need a massive plan, to see where it’s possible to give water more space. It certainly has holistic benefits,” stated Kongjian Yu, landscape architect
Note to Reader:
Since 2013, China has embarked on a national policy to turn its growing metropolises into sponge cities, which capture stormwater instead of disposing of it all. “Sponge cities aim to bank water for a rainy day, or more accurately, a parched one,” wrote Matt Simon in an article published on WIRED.
The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge
“Whenever rain falls, we retain as much as possible,” says Kongjian Yu, champion of the concept and founder of the Beijing design firm Turenscape. “We slow down the flow and let the earth take in the water. A sponge city will become an adaptive city, a resilient water system, a porous landscape.”
“The sponge city is the urgent, immediate solution that can adapt cities to climate change, to heat, to floods, to drought.”
“The sponge city is basically using free nature. It’s simple. The problem is that it’s free. No one wants to invest in it, because no one can make money. That’s why I say that we need to change the business model. We need changes of policy, and we need changes of philosophy.”
To Learn More:
To read the complete story, download a PDF copy of The Designer Who’s Trying to Transform Your City Into a Sponge.
The Landscape Architecture of Kongjian Yu
As an outcome of reintroducing ancient Chinese water systems to modern design, Kongjian Yu has transformed some of China’s most industrialized cities into standard bearers of green architecture. Yu’s designs aim to build resilience in cities faced with rising sea levels, droughts, floods and so-called “once in a lifetime” storms.
“In order to increase the resilience of a natural system, it is important to find solutions beyond the level of the city and even nation. I’m talking about a whole global system, in which we think globally but must act locally,” states Kongjian Yu.
“And at this local scale we have design, which is a meeting point between technology and art where Western systematic thinking is grafted together with traditional Chinese wisdom.”
“The mottos of the sponge city are: Retain, adapt, slow down and reuse.”
“Based on thousands of years of Chinese wisdom, the first strategy is to contain water at the origin, when the rain falls from the sky on the ground. We have to keep the water. The water captured by the sponge can be used for irrigation, for recharging the aquifer, for cleansing the soil and for productive use.”
“It’s important to make friends with water. We can make a water protection system a living system,” concludes Kongjian Yu.
Rethinking our relationship with nature is necessary because…
“The warming of the planet’s atmosphere is causing water to move more quickly and disruptively through the global water cycle. Flood, drought, fire, wind and cold – extreme events are becoming the norm. Instabilities in the water cycle are increasingly apparent,” states Kim Stephens, Executive Director, Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia.
All one need do is reflect on what British Columbia has experienced in 2015, 2016, 2017 and counting. Impacts are magnified by human interventions. We have arrived at a fork in the road. The situation calls for a whole-systems approach to managing the water balance distribution where people live.”
“The risks are too high, and the margins for error too small, to view water and watersheds only through narrow technical lenses. Adapting to changes in the water cycle and restoring the water balance starts with rethinking our relationship with nature.”
Whole-System, Water Balance Approach
“The need to protect headwater streams and groundwater resources in British Columbia requires that communities expand their view – from one that looks at a site in isolation – to one that considers HOW all sites, the watershed landscape, streams and foreshores, groundwater aquifers, and PEOPLE function as a whole system” continues Kim Stephens.
“Inter-governmental collaboration and funding enable the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia to develop approaches, tools and resources; as well as provide teaching, training and mentoring.”
“Our educational goal is to build practitioner capacity within the local government setting to implement a whole-system, water balance approach branded as Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management.”
And be sure to apply tools and resources!
“The ‘sponge city’ metaphor is powerful and inspirational,” observes Kim Stephens. “As such, China, Berlin and Philadelphia are demonstrating that when there is a will, there is a way. Still, we urge the reader to take a moment to reflect upon their drivers for action – floods and droughts! They have learned the hard way that what happens on the land matters. And now, the ‘new normal’ of frequently recurring extremes has forced them to tackle the consequences of not respecting the water cycle.”
The Challenge
“Opportunities for land use and infrastructure servicing practitioners to make a difference are at the time of (re)development. To those folks we say: share and learn from those who are leading change; design with nature; ‘get it right’ at the front-end of the project; build-in ‘water resilience’; create a lasting legacy.”
“Many land and infrastructure professionals in this province do know in principle what they ought to do. However, there is still a gap between UNDERSTANDING and IMPLEMENTATION.”
“This results in a capacity-building challenge: It is one thing to provide practitioners with tools and resources, It is another matter for them to apply the tools, and use them correctly.”
Mission Possible
“Yes, British Columbia is progressing,” concludes Kim Stephens. “Yet communities could do so much more if they would capitalize on rather than miss opportunities. Apply the tools. Do what is right. Learn from experience. Adapt. Pass the baton.”
“The Partnership spotlight is on how to ‘bridge the gap’ between talk and action. As champions for the Whole-System, Water Balance Approach, we are developing tools and resources for use by local governments.”