Integrated assessments of green infrastructure for flood mitigation to support robust decision-making for sponge city construction in an urbanized watershed

Coordinating the “green” and “gray” infrastructure construction and the socioeconomic development is essential to sponge city construction. Most previous research has investigated the structural and non-structural approach for urban water management, such as operational practice, engineered measures, technical solutions, or planning management. However, there is a shortage of strategic management approaches to identify pilot sponge cities, which is essential to cities in developing countries under huge financial pressures. Hence, this paper proposed a coupling coordination evaluation index system to assess the coordination degree between economic development and infrastructure construction in Henan Province in central China. Then, the paper analyzed the differences of the coordination level and its spatial statistical pattern of the coupled and coordinated development of sponge city construction in Henan Province. The results show that: (1) from the perspective of comprehensive level, the problems of inadequate and unbalanced development of infrastructure construction and economic development level are prominent; (2) from the perspective of coordinated development level, the level of coupling and coordination development in Henan Province increased during the sample period, but the level of coupling and coordination development in each region was small; (3) from the perspective of relative development, Zhengzhou City is lagging behind in infrastructure, indicating that economic growth is faster than infrastructure construction, and other regions are lagging economic development, indicating that infrastructure construction is faster than economic growth; and (4) from the spatial statistical analysis, there is spatial positive correlation, that is, the area with high coupling degree of infrastructure construction and economic development level tends to be significantly concentrated in space. Studies have shown that Henan Province should focus on strengthening the construction of “green” infrastructure and increasing the infiltration of the underlying surface to counter the precipitation in urban areas in extreme climates.

Download Full-text

A new interval type-2 trapezoid fuzzy multi-attribute group decision-making method and its application to the evaluation of sponge city construction

Artificial Intelligence Review ◽

10.1007/s10462-021-10022-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Fanyong Meng ◽

Shutian Li ◽

Jie Tang

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Group Decision Making ◽

Group Decision ◽

Sponge City ◽

City Construction ◽

Interval Type

Download Full-text

Assessing the Effectiveness and Cost Efficiency of Green Infrastructure Practices on Surface Runoff Reduction at an Urban Watershed in China

Water ◽

10.3390/w13010024 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 24

Author(s):

Fazhi Li ◽

Jingqiu Chen ◽

Bernard A. Engel ◽

Yaoze Liu ◽

Shizhong Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Cost Efficiency ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Green Roofs ◽

Urban Watershed ◽

Sponge City ◽

Permeable Pavements ◽

Runoff Reduction ◽

Implementation Effect ◽

City Construction

Studies on the assessment of green infrastructure (GI) practice implementation effect and cost efficiency on an urban watershed scale helps the GI practice selection and investment decisions for sponge city construction in China. However, few studies have been conducted for these topics at present. In this study, the Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment—Low Impact Development (L-THIA-LID) 2.1 model was applied to assess the effectiveness and cost efficiency of GI practices on surface runoff volume reduction in an urban watershed—the Hexi watershed, Nanjing City, China. Grassed swales, bioretentions, green roofs, rain cisterns, permeable pavements, wet ponds, dry ponds, and wetlands were chosen as potential GI practices for sponge city construction based on feasibility analysis. Results showed that grassed swales were the most cost-effective practice (0.7 CNY/m3/yr), but the total implementation effect of grassed swales was not obvious due to the small area of suitable locations. Permeable pavements performed best on runoff reduction, but the cost efficiency was much lower. Correspondingly, bioretentions were compromise practices. Green roofs were the least cost-effective practices, with the cost efficiency at 122.3 CNY/m3/yr, but it was much lower for rain cisterns, which were 3.2 CNY/m3/yr. Wet ponds, dry ponds, and wetlands were potential practices implemented in development areas, of which dry ponds were the most cost-effective (2.7 CNY/m3/yr), followed by wet ponds (10.9 CNY/m3/yr). The annual runoff volume of the total area could be reduced by up to 47.01% by implementing GI practices in buildup areas. Rain cisterns (RC) and permeable pavements (PP) were the best combination for this area, and bioretentions (BR) and green roofs (GR) followed. Grassed swales (GS1), dry ponds (DP), wet ponds (WP), and wetlands (WL) were not wise choices due to the small suitable location areas. This study also demonstrated the feasibility of the L-THIA-LID 2.1 model for the evaluation of GI practice implementation effects and cost efficiency on urban runoff in sponge city construction in China.

Download Full-text

Review on sponge city construction for flood management

Sustainability Agri Food and Environmental Research ◽

10.7770/safer-v10n1-art2537 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Femin Maria IX ◽

Elba Helen George

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Flood Control ◽

Global Climate ◽

Water Security ◽

Flood Management ◽

Environment Change ◽

Urban Flood ◽

Sponge City ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

City Construction

Due to the global climate change and the rapid progress of urbanization, the frequent occurrence of flooding disasters and severe pollution seriously threaten the sustainable development of modern cities. To solve these problems, China first started the construction of the ‘Sponge City’. Sponge city can improve city’s ability to adapt to the environment change and to cope with floods; it can also make them more sustainable. It was not only meant for urban flood control, but also rainwater harvest, ecological restoration of urban land and water quality improvement. The rainfall received in 2020 in Hyderabad of India, has been the highest for the month October in a century. The risk is going to increase year after year in the whole nation. So India too needs a mission that mitigates flood risk and provides a pathway to water security. And the most promising solution across the world at this time can be the idea to adopt Sponge city construction. Improper research in this field will lead to huge maintenance difficulties and other related problems. This paper mainly focuses on presenting the concepts of sponge city construction along with its pathway. Not only does it focus on Sponge city’s benefits, but also its challenges are also stated, which leads to better understanding about its scope of continuing for future. Keywords: Flood control, sponge city, green infrastructure, urban floods.

Download Full-text