How China is designing flood-resistant cities
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- Опубликовано: 25 окт 2023
- These "sponge city" designs resist floods and increase biodiversity to help us adapt to a changing climate.
This episode is presented by Delta. Delta doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this possible. For more information, visit www.delta.com/sustainability.
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From rising sea levels in Mumbai to unbearable heat in Houston, cities around the world are feeling the effects of climate change. Unfortunately, they don’t always have the right infrastructure to handle its impacts - which is one reason why cities are beginning to reimagine urban design. One of these designs is a “sponge city.”
Although one city design certainly won’t save us from the effects of climate change, “sponge cities” can help with how we live with it.
Here are some studies and articles we used to inform our reporting:
Biodiversity - our strongest natural defense against climate change: www.un.org/en/climatechange/s...
Sponge City, Shenzhen Explores the Benefits of Designing with Nature: www.lincolninst.edu/publicati...
Sponge City Practices in China: From Pilot Exploration to Systemic Demonstration: www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/10/...
The ocean is rising - and so is Miami’s skyline: www.vox.com/climate/23872640/...
Sponge Cities: Integrating Green and Gray Infrastructure to Build Climate Change Resilience in the People’s Republic of China: www.adb.org/sites/default/fil...
How Is Climate Change Affecting Floods?: www.nytimes.com/article/flood...
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The materials necessary to build sponge cities and replenish underground aquifers obviously exist, as does the technology. We just need more political willpower and money to get these projects going everywhere.
Good luck getting that done in capitalist countries without a robust network of Soviets
@@TheDragonRelic Yeah, China is definitely not a capitalist country, right? Wrong
Biggest difference is China has functional government, unlike most of the West
@@Andrew-bl8eqthe majority of chinese economy is held by state owned enterprises, so yes of course it is not a capitalist country
@@khein2204but the netherlands is and we have the worlds best water management systems
Delta airlines: yeah don't try to stop the climate crisis, just have to learn to adapt to it!
yes, but you still want your low-cost direct convenient flights, don't you?!🤣
Well I hate to be THAT guy but these days I take the train, so ha! Would be nice if it was as cheap and convenient as flying though, I appreciate not everyone can afford to be as self-righteous as I am
The thing is that we cannot stop it anymore.
@@scorpioninpinkwhy not?
Seriously, humanity can if we try, we can do anything.
@@TheWebstaff Stopping Climate Change is not possible anymore because that period of time has passed. What we can do is to lessen its effect and adapt to the changes it will bring. If by 2050, We can't even lessen its effect then we are doomed as a species and we are just waiting for our inevitable death.
This video is weirdly informative while being a masterclass on whataboutism by Delta Airlines ...
literally. hard to feel like your learning about a contentious subject when the information being presented is funded by such a pollutive company.... and the video isn't even about anything to do with the aviation industry.
@@noahwsa I don't think there's necessarily something wrong with the information nor the way they present it, it is just hard to take it seriously or accept it as facts when the sponsor of the video likely uses VOX's platform as a way to deter the negative focus away from themselves and their industry.
Also, I think VOX are actually trying their best to convey the information with as little influence from Delta Airlines as possible, but to deny their influence, or potential influence on future videos, is just wrong and unserious - of course they influence the topics and discourse around said topic no matter how much, and how successfully, VOX tries to deny it.
Well it shouldn't matter too much in this case if the content is factually sound and the sources (linked in the description) seem to be so.
If "whataboutism" is more proposed solutuons which can be quite positively impactful (not just to disincentivise flooding but also in this case act as a beautification project) then sign me up for it.
I don't think polluters funding videos about climate mitigation is a good thing but I feel like 'whataboutism' is just a term for facts people don't like.
@@christianspanggaard It says in the description "This episode is presented by Delta. Delta doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this possible."
I trust Vox's reporting, and think this is more an attempt by delta to have their name tied to some climate change reporting to act like they care. Delta is like "we do care about the environment, we fund climate journalism!"
To be fair, what happened in Zhengzhou was not something any sponge city could have coped with, a 'once in 1000 year' event as a year's worth of rain fell in 3 days. Also a fallacy to think that because it didn't work in that one (extraordinary) event, means none of it works.
true, sponge city is just a part of the solution, it need to be complement with other methods, even the Chinese experts admitted that.
Can only do so much, has to be WITH other solutions... It's like when sewers overflow.... And today a 1 in 1000 year event is gonna start happening every 100 years
The fallacy of all or nothing
For the past few years China has been facing multiple "100 year event", and "1000 year event". Some cities even came out with "5000 year event"
Almost every year you can see them repeating this narrative. Not just Zhengzhou, but Guangzhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan.
It shouldn't happen so frequently if it's a 100 year or 1000 year event, yet we see it happen annually
@@edmundtaipingwelcome to the future of climate change..lol
Can we have a video discussing greenwashing by big polluters? Like Delta? Also, any chance of a piece about the conflict in Yemen sponsored by Aramco?
An AIRLINE putting their name on a video about combating climate change is so funny. Bffr
I mean, they should be forced to spend their profits combatting climate change. No one’s going to watch this and fly Delta
@@lilyludwig4323can you explain to me why everyone is hating on an airline for sponsoring a video? You realize that you need fuel to fly planes right? And that millions of people around the world need to “travel”, and that commercial airplanes are by far the least environmentally damaging method of fuel transport in a society lacking high speed rail infrastructure?
If you’re gonna hate delta, hate literally every single company that manufactures products because guess what! Those also produce carbon emissions.
@@lilyludwig4323 i had a bit of a chuckle after seeing the delta sponsorship
@@Jwellsuhhuh You're totally right! I've changed my whole perspective. Greenwashing isn't a thing, Delta are great, but BP and Shell are my favourites now, thanks to your insight.
Not DELTA being the sponsor of this video 😂
My thoughts exactly
example of green washing😂
Beat me to it 😂
Yeah, after seeing that I pau"sed the video a bit and thought, was that a joke?"
so weird
Thanks for this video Delta Airlines, now i know we can just survive the symptoms of the climate crisis and not worry about emissions ☺️
Hoping you never use planes or anything else which pollutes or increases carbon emissions?
@@MrPlannery excuse me this is humor
Lol the fact an airline sponsored this should be a huge sign we are being lied to
@@MrPlannery You don't need to use planes for medium to long distance travel if we had high speed rail. Planes only make sense for over the ocean and cross-continent journeys.
@@thastayapongsak4422 that's all very true. But nothing to do with my reply to the person exhibiting cognitive dissonance.
The reason why Mumbai is struggling with floods is because the BMC cut down most of the mangroves out of greed and corruption for more buildings and projects. That has backfired in worst possible way one can imagine.
And the people suffer most from that. So corporations won't make a change until it affects them too. In which case, they just pack up and leave to find and ruin another place.
Also, imagine if HOAs started mandating that people's yards be composed of indigenous / local plants instead of monocultured grass!
Sounds like a good idea. I doubt HOA's will ever allow it to happen though.
But fReEdOMMS
xeriscaping
@@IgnashI want to grow what I want !!!
Not even mandating. What if they just allowed it
Singapore is a great example.. highly densed population but shady city with lots of trees and greenery. Very comfortable to walk outside despite the country being located near the equator. 🌲 🌲 🌴🌴..
Tokyo could learn a thing or two from Singapore. Forward-thinking when it comes to zoning and housing, backwards views on public green space. Nothing but concrete as far as the eye can see. Taipei has a similar problem.
I'm rooting for singapore to do taiwan and democratise and liberalise voluntarily. then it would be a great country.
@@Ass_of_Amalekit already is a great country/city
They are a very capitalist and democratic country.
@@cocaineminor4420 moderately capitalist - if it was very capitalist, the median standard of living would be lower. and not democratic at all.
@@TheSuperiorQuickscoper Tokyo's problem is the pre-bubble real estate market means that land was incredibly expensive (At one point the Imperial Palace grounds were valued at more than all the real estate in California) and earthquake standards made it cost prohibitive to build upwards, like you see in Seoul and the Chinese cities. The result is endless low and mid-rise sprawl connected by countless commuter train lines, whereas in SK/China they can build high rises, and some surrounding land can be used for greenery and other urban beautification, so as to make it a more premium real estate development for the developer.
Is there going to be a video on greenwashing from the airline industry? Or would certain sponsors not like that?
Their previous video was sponsored by Delta airlines and it was blaming cows for releasing greenhouse gases. I doubt they will make a video about greenwashing anytime soon
@@pacificdream5152 This video is also sponsored by Delta, you’re right they’re not gonna do that any time soon at all 😭
why not blaming boeing or airbus or oil companies or flyers, why airlines?
@@Kass686 in the description it says delta has no say in vox's editorial decisions
@@SurBlox I don’t personally think that a platform like Vox is wrong to take a sponsorship from something like Delta, but it should be a given that no matter what they say in the description, there are unspoken rules about what you “should” or “should not” talk about if you’re going to continue working with said sponsor. Even if that statement is in the description, everyone should be weary of what information has been excluded in order to make one party look better
Green infrastructure may not be THE way to solve flooding, but it certainly does help. Multiple solutions is better than just one.
How China is designing flood-resistant cities 0328am 27.10.23 Well trees which take in hefty amounts of water via their root systems can't do any harm... and as we all know trees are required to cleanse the air.... i mean.... common sense prevails somewhere, i feel..
The way to resolve flooding is by protecting nature in flood zones
At least when it actually exists.
@@PsyckoSama Comments on ‘How China is designing flood-resistant cities’ 0220am 31.10.23 yerv lost me now, sunshine... are you suggesting these wonderful eco friendly city scapes are not yet in existence...?
@@JJONNYREPP More they're basically just a false venier. You need to understand how utterly fantastically and woefully corrupt the Chinese construction industry is. Chinese projects like this have a tendency to be badly rushed, not constructed to code, and often skip over steps that cannot be easily seen on the end product. It's called 'Tofu Dreg Construction'. Google the term. In the case of things like drains it'll often come in with this like not using the right gauge of piping, not properly preparing the ground, to ridiculous stuff like decorative drains with no pipe.
One of the big reasons for this is Chinese construction projects have ultra-tight bidding and a side result is that all too often skimping and cheating is the only way to turn a profit.
I love These videos they give me a national geographic vibe and I love it
I would've loved it if it wasn't sponsored by a company in the business of emitting as much carbon as possible.
One important theme here is land use. China prioritizes transit-oriented development and sustainable urbanism, while the US builds sprawling suburbs with highways and parking lots. The North American suburb is a land use anti-pattern.
Lol sustainable. Good one 😂 Those tofu building are not sustainable.
@@heyitsme9258the average Chinese citizen on average produces less emissions than the average American and . Also the tofu buildings aren’t being built anymore as it was a product of china rapid growth but now that growth has slowed they have regulated the market heavily and to focus on sustainability and traditional architecture.
@@MickJonesHogSmacksSlava billion aid 😊
you really think sponge cities in chyna are working? 🤣
@@shaddythewiz3836 the next thing is rotten tail buildings, these people only keep building, they know nothing about sustainability.
POV: you want to build moderately affordable housing
other countries: build row houses and housing blocks in mixed residential-commercial zones with bicycle paths, sidewalks, pedestrian crossings and tram lines
america: 0:53
For real when I saw the clip of Houston it felt so dystopian
China isn’t a great example
@@ni9274 well, other than all the real estate investment shenanigans, china does do city planning better than much of the US has been built - notably at different times, china's cities have been in large part built after the decline of the car and the superiority of other transport methods had become much more apparent. and before then, china generally built with other transport options in mind because most chinese people could not afford to own cars.
@@Ass_of_Amalek "after the decline of the car"?
@@rncmv yes
hilarious that Delta is the one sponsoring these
My local council replaced these sort of permeable pavements with concrete slabs :(
The loss of biodiversity in the UK is staggering. I remember a council put up these horrid nets over bushes and shrubs to prevent birds from nesting.
Did they say why?
Sounds like a promising solution but the Delta sponsorship makes me skeptic 😂
For all that the 'sponge cities' are being touted as a solution to flooding, spotty implementation and lack of legislation are preventing these from working well - as seen by the devastating floods that took place just a while ago.
I think this is a very important point - coming up with solutions is important, but so is implementing them.
I have my doubts on this. Didn't the recent floods in Beijing show some serious weaknesses in the sponge concept, at least as it's currently deployed?
@@LD-xt1vo To be honest, I think it's a combination of genuinely massive floods (in large part due to poor management of the rivers and dams) and corruption leading to substandard implementations.
Yes
🤦♀️ THEY'RE WETLANDS! cities are finally listening to biologists and building Wetlands instead of draining them. Wetlands are designed to absorb water. They do have limits but nothing rivals them in water level regulation. This is a HUGE step in the right direction. Wetlands are also some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet.
Beijing has historical record of rainfall, do you expect the Americans could do better?@@LD-xt1vo
Western media tends to stick to the narrative of 'China as the threat' so it's really enjoyable to see this piece highlighting their clever solutions. If there's one thing I've noticed is that when they put their minds to something, the Chinese get it done.
PS: the LA solution looks sad and car-centric IMO.
its because its how its built to be. Now they had to make something or adapt to climate change even if it appears that it's far too late, for example, trying to make the Los Angeles River another Cheonggyecheon (a 10.9km/6.8mi long river stream and a public space in Seoul)
Dude, China's solutions are all paper solutions. These sponge cities don't actually exist.
笑死了，外宣白左右强强联手了属于是😂
Fell into the trap
I was really hoping you were going to suggest we stop building suburbs, which tend to eat up natural area, which tends to be spongy. We need to build up where we are already developed and stop building out. It's easier for the greater region to soak up water if it isn't all paved because we had to have a bunch of soulless suburbs.
That's very much a North America problem
But how else are we going to have our own swimming pools and 3 garage driveways?
Imagine having a beautiful piece of land... and wasting it on a suburban hellhole.
I have been to Nanchang. It surprised me how green it was
The curvy red bridge looks really cool
Florida should start taking notes
Florida is going to become a massive underwater reef if sea levels rise as much as some of the predictions indicate.
Florida will be under water in a few decades, there's nothing they cn do.
@@Urbanhandyman 1 meter sea level rising is bad but not the end of the world, not even for Florida. And that's pessimistically, we're probably looking at some 30cm by 2100.
Jakarta definitely needs this. Thanks Vox! ❤❤❤
Hey, really interesting video! This reminded me of probaply the biggest infrastructure project in my city, Vienna: the 22 km long Danube Island. Only because of the regulation of the Danube, Vienna cannot be flooded. The Danube Island gave Vienna a second Danube river, a lake, which can be "opened" on both sides in case of heavy rainfall. When closed, it is a very clean swimming lake, which can be used by anybody for free and makes Vienna one of the most liveable cities in the world!
This is important for those who haven't understood our current pollution calamity.
These types of solutions could be unprepared for some of the crazed winds, but local initiatives may find other paths.
Pollution in China is so bad most of the rivers are good for nothing, not even agriculture. It smells like sewage.
When I was a child, my family lived by the Yangtze River. Every year floods would inundate the town. Every year it was a matter of life and death. It was just a matter of how many people died. When the roads were flooded, you could only go to school by boat, which cost about US$0.01. In order to save this money, I would give my schoolbag to my friends to take to school, swim there myself, and then dry my skin. After I left my hometown, concrete dams were built there instead of earth dams. Then there were countless engineering machines to fight disasters, and then there was the Three Gorges Dam... I haven't heard of raging floods for many years.
I hope you are doing well now
@@darth_27 Thank you very much for your concern. I'm doing well now. The floods and famine are a thing of many years ago. I'm currently dedicating myself to helping African children, just like helping my own self from decades ago.
You are a kind person, and I hope everything is going well for you!
The three gorges dam was not created ethically and it is gradually falling apart much earlier than it's supposed to.
@@jammaschan Yes, most likely. I know that, like me, you are a poor farmer living in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. At the same time, you are still very Schrödinger, a science and engineering expert who knows the Yangtze River in China very well. Is not it? If you are nothing, you certainly can’t even do calculus, so you can just instruct us Chinese people on how to build dams. No way. You know calculus, I think.
@@rongwu-sj9ws I don't understand what you want to say. Perhaps just type in Chinese and translate it using google, baidu or other translation softwares?
wow... delta airlines? sponsoring an eco-friendly theme video?
that's new
NY needs this so bad
why are there so many comments about how "this totally didn't work, don't you know about the flood that killed a ton of people" when they literally mentioned that in the video
The absolute irony of delta sponsoring this
You should do a video on thirsty concrete and how if we used I in are cities it can help reduce flooding.
Use it I roads sidewalks parking lots to reduce flooding and sand mining as well as noise pollution from car tires.
Delta Airlines, explainer of how we should fix the damage they've done:)
Thank you, Vox, for highlighting what other countries are doing to solve climate change without geopolitical stereotyping of the prevalent narratives about China. Let's hear what is working and initiatives out there to combat climate change.
Isn't China the biggest Polluter 🙄
and the U.S
EU casually "outsourcing" their carbon footprint to China and blaming them for the entirety of climate change
China pollutes nearly 3x as much co2 than America, has poisoned 90% of their groundwater, and us building a new coal burning power plant every two weeks. They're not doing anything good for the environment.
So we shouldn’t talk about the fact that China doesn’t do a lot to reduce their emission while being one of the country that release the most CO2 ?
Most of the western world is taking huge step to reduce emissions, they need to do it too.
@@ni9274 China has a population 4x that of the U.S., so the fact that China and the U.S. emit similar CO2 shows a lot more of the U.S.'s emissions issues than China. It's ridiculous to expect a nation with 4x the population to emit less CO2- if the Chinese lived like Americans the amount of CO2 emitted by them would be astronomical. China is actually investing a lot into renewable energy, but because it is such a large and populous country even having the highest amount of renewable energy production in the world may still also make it the largest CO2 emitter in the world.
This also leads into discussion of how the Western world in general has exploited the rest of the world for centuries, and that there may be an expectation for them to pay back that defecit through needing to be more stringent on their CO2 emissions. For example, wouldn't it be hypocritical to expect China and India, nations who together make up of over a quarter of the entire world's population and have the burden of lifting billions of people to a higher living standard, to care about CO2 emissions to the same extent as Europe and the U.S., who have freely and unrestrictedly emitted disproportiantely huge amounts of CO2 for over two hundred years?
How can I grab attention to politicians and overall public of Brazil here? Like, we suffer because our country fail to improve our infrastructure since ever, we suffer of lack of government, we suffer of being Brazilian
This was a good video vox but the background music was loud compared to the main audio
It's just great that ancient technologies are being used for the benefit of mankind, cause Chinese traditional cities are just marvels of hydraulics and landscaping. It seems incredible to me that Imperial China had such knowledge of its hydrology to be taken as an example today to design our modern infrastructure!!
really? water is not that complicated. yes, people have known for millennia how water works.
They just lost a brand new, never used, largest rail station in Asia to flooding
It's Xi's legacy city and it was under water last month
Traditional Chinese architecture is all about incorporating nature. I am surprised to see no trees in Tokyo street, just concrete, but I guess that comes with one advantage much less insects there
@@user-qwertyuiopasdfghj traditional Chinese architecture was shunned during Mao's reign. They tore most of it down during the cultural revolution 🥴
Now Chinese architecture is about cutting corners with tofu dreg 👍
@@seldoon_nemarthese sponge city projects are internationally renowned by scientists. But they still have limits on how much water can be contained
As far as I'm concerned, with what some of us saw in Zhuozhou and the cities surrounding Beijing during last summer, I'm not so optimistic.
To be fair that city saw a 'once in a 1000 year' flood -a year's worth of rain in 3 days
@@zupermaus9276 While true, the CCP's response was way worse, footage of them literally faking or exaggerating rescue operations. While I can give credit to the idea of sponge cities, I think the CCP has poorly executed just about everything relating to that flood.
Salah satu solusi untuk wilayah perkotaan yang padat penduduknya adalah dengan menerapkan sistem sumur resapan air hujan dimana air hujan tidak langsung masuk kedalam saluran air melainkan terlebih dahulu masuk kedalam sumur resapan air hujan apabila sumur tersebut penuh baru mengalir kedalam saluran air
1:31 biodiversity is the variety of species not the concentration of plants and animals. For example a 2m square urban garden box is probably more biodiverse than a 2acre corn field
Imagine Zhengzhou did not have those vegetation, the result could be even worse.
BUILD TREES NOT WALLS
Biodiversity is also about variation in plant and animal life not just total number
Bit ironic having an airline sponsor a video about climate change
Netherlands, New York City, I mean… Basically the rest of the world should starts taking notes
The Netherlands already know what they're doing.
Netherland's problem is its cities are next to the sea.
Instead of bulldozing the land into submission, we need to work in homeostasis with nature. I can’t believe that it’s taken us this long to figure that out.🙄
Something tells me that capitalism and its best friend, big oil are behind much of the problem.
"work in homeostasis with nature"
no one's stopping you from living in the forest, naked
2021 Zhengzhou and 2023 Beijing floods show that either there still aren't enough sponge cities, or that something's wrong with existing ones! Could get a national agency+fund going to help these projects, not just force provinces and cities to do them alone. Gotta contend with increasingly intense emergency dam discharges, and stop diverting floods into villages *and outlying towns without adequate warning and compensation*
Apparently they intentionally flood cities around Xiongan to protect it, the "future city" ordained by Xi
Who said those cities are entirely “sponge cities”? You think all of China compose of 1 single park in Nanchong? You are referring to a flood mitigation concept which have been implemented to various levels depending on the city.
i think these sponge cities can only prevent regular flood and not the really big ones caused by record-breaking rainfalls like in Zhengzhou and Beijing. fixing the climate is still the most important task to do.
or maybe just accept that cities have always and will always flood sometimes. Just accept it and move on
We wouldn't have nearly as bad a problem if we stopped designing cities around the car. In the US, cities could become far more flood proof if we were to replace most of the asphalt and other infrastructure required for cars with green space. We have plenty of room to work with in most of the cities in this country, but people are just unwilling to give up their polluting metal death traps.
Next video idea : how companies like delta airlines use Vox for grrenwashing
Just shows how great the modern big economies are at making awesome looking cities. It appears to be a trend. A good one at that.
Chinna playing it's own version of real time City building game.
Curitiba in Brazil has been doing this since the 70s, but of course, I couldn't expect a video sponsored by a major polluter company to go to that depth of research and reference
The irony of having Delta airlines been mentioned at the beginning 😅
Nature has something like this. They're called marshes. Until bad urban planning and building practices literally erode any of the natural ways natural modulates excess water (or drought). but anyways.
China thinking outside of the box..quite literally.
Nice in theory but prioritizing sponge cities can also come at a cost to more rural areas, which was what happened with the recent floods in Hebei when flood controls meant to protect Beijing and Xi's pet project Xiong'an diverted that water instead to flood Zhuozhou
Yeah they just flooded the rural areas 💀
I mean, if somewhere has to flood it should be the rural areas, no? Of course if they didn't warn the flooded regions they obviously should, but don't understand how flooding a city would be better
@@Paulo44.01 What he is saying is that this concept, and other look good pet projects come at the cost of protectionism of those projects.
Maybe you should look at NYC every year. Natural disasters is the problem everywhere. You can only minimize the impact of it but cannot diminish all the way. Rather have some solution than nothing
@@whodarboilebamnames3990 No that's the whole point of flood diversion - You purposely send the water to flood rural areas that has the lowest human and economic impact. This strategy is common across the world, from Egypt to India to Europe and America. Some agricultural land, like the farms around the Nile, greatly benefit from the seasonal floods, and same for the monsoon in India.
Rural areas are always easier to rebuild, even if the farmers get the short end of it. This strategy has been used for centuries.
Seoul is 20 miles (~30km) from the nearest ocean. It is definitely not a coastal city. Also, Seoul has an extensive drainage system... yes it can be overwhelmed but it is still extensive. Seoul also have riverside parks that double as flood control zones.
Great programs. Beautiful footage and clear presentation of futuristic ideas.
These are not futuristic, they have been implemented
They'll be great for boating and kayaking too
delta airline ...good partner 4 this topic 😆
Carpark could also made a good temporary water retaining feature when the cars been moved due to foreseeable incoming storm or flooding
The video is great as always. Just wanted to point out that, although Northern Italy did suffer a very severe drought in 2022, that clip from Milan showing a dried out canal is out of place, as the waterway was temporarily closed for cleaning :)
So will they stop releasing the excess dam water at night and flooding the cities then blaming it on heavy rain?
Excellent initiative. Hope to see more of this.
Trees are awesome
Someone show that to the FL government who keeps approving the draining of the everglades and wondering why floods are so bad.
World: We need to solve climate crisis
Delta Airlines: Hold my water garden.
I have such a weird urge to never fly Delta airlines. No clue why.
3:43 uhm... all roofs are built with sufficient sloping to prevent water pooling on them. that's not flood management, that's building safety. you don't want extra weight on the roof or water pressure pushing water into the roof. the only kind of precipitation that can cause trouble on remotely well-built roofs is deep snow, as that requires much steeper slopes (which those old chinese examples appear to actually be built for) to make the snow slide off before it can build a thick enough layer to exceed the weight bearing ability of the roof.
In South China, nearly every traditional family house has a big pond in front of their building to store rain waters. I think Vox missed the key point which it wanted to express here.
When it comes to building a city in a sustainable manner, I’d suggest you do a piece about Curitiba in Brazil. It is one of the most sustainable places in the country and the city parks also work as sponges to drain rain water
Rewild EVERYTHING
From those floods in China this year I can see it's not working😂.
They're also redesigning maps!
3:37 the journal Water is an MDPI journal with dubious peer review standard. Many scientist consider it a predatory publisher. Please consider this before citing such papers
Took me my surprise, when an image popped up from my street in Tokyo where I live. 😄
We have that one in Indonesia. IKN City
This episode is presented by Delta airlines.
This video on disarmament is presented by Lockheed Martin
Toronto is starting this with the Don Lands project. A great reaction to the 2013 floods. Cant imagine how much NYC needs this.
In humid climate cities, mosquito breeding also need to be considered in these sponge cities
wait... it this sponsored by Delta? the airline?
As a former practicing urban planner, I enjoyed this topic.
They should start by not building cities below dams.
Wow this is really informative! Thanks. Vox should make a video about the acoustic kitty project
Thanks for really valuable and useful video as always
Seeing it through flood time of china
Sponge cities are a type of natural infrastructure that cities around the world are implementing to combat and survive the effects of climate change. Urbanization has altered habitats and reduced biodiversity, which is critical to defending Earth against climate change. Cities have a big impact on local plant and animal species, and urban expansion can put some species in danger, impacting global biodiversity. Creating environments where nature can flourish is one way to conserve biodiversity in cities, and sponge cities are designed to do just that. In China, a sponge city pilot program was launched in 30 cities in 2015 to improve urban drainage and flood prevention and create a diverse biological environment. Architects supplemented existing grey infrastructure with natural solutions like gardens designed to capture rain and native trees that absorb excess water. These natural solutions have been implemented in major cities across China, such as Qian’an, Shanghai, and Wuhan, and have helped to handle flooding and support urban biodiversity. However, sponge cities have their limitations, and they can only absorb excess water up to a certain point. In 2021, sponge city designs in Zhengzhou failed when historic rainfall drenched the city, resulting in catastrophic flooding.
Where I live in SF, the city can't even manage a basic issue like planting a tree. When I am out walking, I see many empty tree plots.
Buffalo, NY was not included into this feature. That is a Frederick Olmsted city on a garden designed concept.
Why ?
Of course all this natural hydrology stuff goes completely out the window for cities in the "Ice Belt" that have to deal with precipitation that falls as liquid during the day and then freezes at night.
...coastal cities like Seoul? Isn't there like an entire Incheon between Seoul and the coast?
Price is really the big issue that prevents this from happening across the world.
I thought this would have been a video about the recent Hebei flooding that affected millions of people due to diversion of flood water away from the capital to so called 'sponge cities' . That said, I'm all for urban design that leverages nature :)
This video is like a year one Urban Planning student's presentation assignment.
Good to see Nanchang city where i lived 9 years 😢
I mean, look at Beijing and Zhuozhou back in July. Their plans failed miserably
The connection between Biodiversity and Flood-Resistance wasn't made or developed. Sure, if cities take up more and more space in a country, their flood gardens could help biosiversity, but that was only just mentioned. I think the video would have been shorter and better if Biodiversity had been cut out and the video had focused on Flood-Resistance.
That's a good point. It makes me wonder if the "biodiversity" they introduce through these flood gardens are actually well-researched and scientifically supported, rather than just a bunch of species of plants they bring in without seeing if they would mesh well with the current ecological ecosystems
This designed failed in the catastrophic flooding that happened in China this past summer. So it's not a solution for extereme events. Sadly we're looking at more and more extreme events in the future.
Nobody claiming it can single-handedly solve THE ultimate big problem overnight, especially when the project is far from finished.
The Netherlands have been paving roads with bricks and having earth between footpath tiles instead of grouting for a long time for this reason. They were a sponge country before it was cool (out of necessity).