A landscape architect in China has a surprising strategy to help manage surges of water from storms supercharged by climate change. Cities around the

He’s Got a Plan for Cities That Flood: Stop Fighting the Water

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2024-03-30 23:30:02

A landscape architect in China has a surprising strategy to help manage surges of water from storms supercharged by climate change.

Cities around the world face a daunting challenge in the era of climate change: Supercharged rainstorms are turning streets into rivers, flooding subway systems and inundating residential neighborhoods, often with deadly consequences.

Kongjian Yu, a landscape architect and professor at Peking University, is developing what might seem like a counterintuitive response: Let the water in.

Instead of putting in more drainage pipes, building flood walls and channeling rivers between concrete embankments, which is the usual approach to managing water, Mr. Yu wants to dissipate the destructive force of floodwaters by slowing them and giving them room to spread out.

Mr. Yu calls the concept “sponge city” and says it’s like “doing tai chi with water,” a reference to the Chinese martial art in which an opponent’s energy and moves are redirected, not resisted.