By 2030, 80% of Chuzhou Urban Area to Be Built into a Sponge City
2016-11-04
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When it rains heavily, rainwater is channeled into the city's underground spaces or water systems for storage; during droughts, the stored water is “squeezed” out. The city acts like a sponge, effectively controlling rainwater runoff and reducing urban waterlogging. Such a city is drawing ever closer to Chuzhou.
The reporter recently learned from the Municipal Planning and Construction Commission that the city has formulated the Special Plan for Sponge City Construction in Chuzhou. According to the plan, sponge city construction will be implemented in two phases. The first phase, from now to 2020, will complete sponge city construction tasks over 24.6 square kilometers. The second phase, through 2030, will see 80% of the 120-square-kilometer built-up area of the central urban district meet sponge city construction requirements, with an overall target of 70.1% for the annual runoff total control rate—meaning 70% of rainfall is absorbed and utilized on site, truly ensuring that no matter how heavy the rain, the city will not need to “go sea-watching.”
Frequent Droughts and Floods Make Sponge City Construction Urgent
A sponge city refers to a city that, like a sponge, has good “resilience” in adapting to environmental changes and responding to natural disasters. When it rains, the underlying surfaces can effectively absorb, retain, infiltrate, and purify water; when needed, the stored water can be appropriately “released” and utilized.
The reason for building sponge cities is directly related to the frequent flood and drought disasters in recent years, compounded by earlier urban construction that focused on “hard” surfaces and lacked “breathing” underground urban functions. As a result, “going sea-watching” during the rainy season has become a high-frequency phrase among netizens.
It is understood that with the completion of the Longpan River and the flood diversion ditch in Chuzhou, the renovation of the Fengshou Canal, and the supporting construction of pumping and drainage stations such as Huxin Station 1 and 2 and the Flour Mill Station, urban drainage conditions have improved significantly. However, due to problems such as the unreasonable layout of drainage networks in the old urban area and the failure to effectively intercept mountain floods, there are still gaps in the urban drainage and waterlogging prevention works. Meanwhile, although Chuzhou has a developed water system with numerous rivers and water conservancy projects, its per capita water resources are only half the national average, and water scarcity remains severe. In addition, surface water is polluted to varying degrees, and urban water environment problems remain serious. Therefore, sponge city construction brooks no delay.
Pilot Projects Listed; Preliminary Work Began a Year Ago
Sponge city construction in Chuzhou began in 2015. In 2015, 16 cities nationwide were selected as national sponge city pilots, with Chizhou being the only pilot city in Anhui Province. On this basis, Anhui Province proposed that by 2017, the advance construction of sponge cities in nine prefecture-level cities including Chuzhou, Hefei, and Bozhou should achieve results, and urban waterlogging points should be basically resolved.
Starting in the second half of 2015, the city carried out preliminary work for sponge city pilots. The city has completed special plans related to sponge city construction for urban greenways, green spaces, water systems, and water supply and drainage, and proposed a pilot implementation plan for sponge city construction, mainly targeting specific projects such as urban water environment treatment, landscaping and green space systems, new construction and renovation of urban drainage works, and reconstruction and expansion of urban drainage pumping stations, placing it at the forefront of sponge city construction in Anhui Province. At the same time, the city selected five specific pilot projects—the Inner City River renovation, sluice station construction, Beihu Park, Zunyang Street, and Ziwei North Road—and submitted them to the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, where they were included in the provincial sponge city pilot project database.
Recently, the Provincial Department of Finance and the Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued a document confirming the allocation of 10 million yuan in subsidy funds to our city as a sponge city pilot city. Among them, the comprehensive treatment project of the Guxiang River in Quanjiao County was listed as a pilot project.
Plan-Guided, All-Round Development of a Sponge-Type City
Sponge city construction is a systematic project distributed throughout every part and every point of the city. Therefore, to build a sponge city, our city has clarified its approach and explicitly incorporated the sponge city concept into every plan, using planning as the guide to ensure that sponge city construction can be implemented steadily and effectively.
It is understood that sponge city construction mainly includes buildings and communities, roads and plazas, parks and green spaces, urban drainage and waterlogging prevention works, water ecosystems, and more. Specific renovation methods include permeable paving, construction of sunken green spaces, creation of green roofs, installation of bioretention facilities, and improvement of rainwater collection systems. Sunken green spaces are important “sponges” in sponge city construction, able to collect rainfall runoff generated from surrounding hardened surfaces and, through the action of vegetation, soil, and microorganisms, intercept and purify small-flow rainwater runoff.
Among these, sponge-type buildings and communities mainly implement green roofs or roof gardens, supporting rainwater collection and utilization facilities, with permeable paving for outdoor walkways and parking lots. Sponge-type roads and plazas mainly involve building sunken green spaces and grass swales in road green median strips and roadside green belts, supporting rainwater collection, purification, and utilization facilities, and using permeable paving, so that the sponge-type road system can absorb at least 10 millimeters of rainfall. Sponge bodies in parks and green spaces focus on ecological green space and structural rationality, setting up rainwater storage facilities according to local conditions, and implementing permeable ecological paving, sunken green spaces, and grass swales. Urban drainage and flood prevention works consider, on the one hand, smooth urban water collection and drainage and renovation of waterlogging points, and on the other hand, integrate river and lake regulation and external discharge.
Step-by-Step Implementation: 80% of the Area to Become a Sponge City
According to the plan, the sponge city construction area in Chuzhou covers 120 square kilometers of the central urban district and will be implemented in two phases. The first phase is the near term, from 2016 to 2020, focusing on 24.60 square kilometers, comprehensively adopting measures such as “infiltration, detention, retention, purification, utilization, and drainage” to minimize the impact of urban development and construction on the ecological environment. The second phase is the long term, from 2020 to 2030, when 80% of the area will meet sponge city construction requirements, with an overall target of 70.1% for the annual runoff total control rate—meaning 70% of rainfall is absorbed and utilized on site, corresponding to a design rainfall of 22.3 millimeters—and water ecology, water environment, water resources, and water safety issues in the built-up area will be properly resolved.
Sponge city construction will coordinate the target requirements of water ecology, water resources, water safety, and water environment, achieve the technical requirements of sponge city construction at the source, gradually improve water safety, enhance the water environment, conserve water resources, and restore water ecology, forming a vibrant and lively urban natural ecological environment, building a garden-style ecological city of “clear waters, blue skies, green mountains, and a famous city,” and creating a Chuzhou-style sponge city featuring “coexistence of mountains and waters, combined storage of rivers and ponds, and balanced purification and utilization.”
Projects Finalized: Building Sponges to Make the City “Breathe”
If planning is the guide, then ultimately building a sponge city must be carried out through one tangible project after another. In our city's sponge city plan, some projects to be implemented soon have also been specified.
According to the plan, 36 projects are listed under sponge-type parks and green spaces, with 13 park projects planned for near-term construction, including Phase II of the Inner City River, Beihu renovation, Phase IV (Phase II) of Nanhu, Chengnan Wetland Park, and Phases III and IV of the Qingliu River landscape. For sponge-type road projects, 9 road and ancillary greening projects are planned for near-term construction, including 5 new projects and 4 renovation projects, among them Xijian North Road, the East and West Street renovation and supporting works, Nanqiao North Road renovation, and the Chuzhou-Nanjing expressway renovation. With urban development, the planning and construction of new roads in the long term will all incorporate the sponge city construction concept. There are 13 sponge-type building and community projects, 2 of which are planned for near-term construction. There are 32 water system treatment and ecological restoration projects, with 3 water system treatment projects planned for near-term construction, including the comprehensive treatment of the Shengtian River, the renovation of the Huifeng Road Canal, and the renovation of the Chengxi Main Canal. There are 8 sewage projects, mainly including the Third Wastewater Treatment Plant and supporting pipeline network, and supporting sewage pipeline networks in the old urban area. There are 22 drainage and waterlogging prevention projects, mainly including treatment of urban waterlogging points, the Inner City River sluice station, and the Lingxi Road station. At the same time, a sponge digital management platform will be built to establish a digital information control platform, improve emergency mechanisms and skills reserves, and enable the city to have sufficient “resilience and recovery capacity” against disasters such as waterlogging.
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