Jinan City Fully Launches “Sponge City” Construction
Release Time:
2016-07-27
Source:
Jinan City Fully Launches “Sponge City” Construction
In July 2016, Jinan issued the “Implementation Opinions on Earnestly Implementing Document No. 5 of the General Office of the Shandong Provincial People’s Government [2016] and Comprehensively Promoting Sponge City Construction,” which mandates that all ongoing and new projects across the city—covering the urban water system, landscape and green space system, road and transportation system, and building and residential community systems—shall be oriented toward the full-scale promotion and application of the sponge city construction model. The aim is to let the sponge city concept guide urban development and enable cities to return to natural ecological cycles. The document underscores the importance of using pilot zones as the focal point and driving force for comprehensive, coordinated development, leveraging their demonstration effect to catalyze wider adoption and fully launch sponge city construction throughout the entire municipal area. The Municipal Sponge City Office is actively disseminating best practices and integrating them with river and waterway systems, landscape and green spaces, road infrastructure projects, as well as key initiatives such as urban renewal, dilapidated housing redevelopment, the development of central business districts, and the protection of high-permeability zones in the central urban area. According to available information, the pilot zone for sponge city construction in Jinan covers 39 square kilometers, comprising 43 major components and 137 sub-components, with a deadline of end-April 2017 for completion. To this end, emphasis will be placed on exploring and implementing the demonstration and catalytic role of the pilot zone while adopting a “leading-role approach” in systematic planning and organizational management.
Recently, the General Office of the Municipal Government issued guidelines on advancing sponge city construction, stipulating that, starting this year, pilot areas will serve as the focal point and driving force for comprehensive, coordinated development, with demonstration zones leading the way in wider replication and promotion, thereby fully launching sponge city initiatives across the entire municipal territory. The city has set forth the goal of initiating citywide sponge city construction by implementing measures such as infiltration, detention, storage, purification, utilization, and drainage, with the aim of achieving on-site absorption and utilization of at least 75% of rainfall. Over time, this will help realize the objectives of “no waterlogging after light rain, no urban flooding after heavy rain, clean and odor-free water bodies, and mitigation of the urban heat island effect.” By the end of 2020, more than 25% of the built-up area is to meet these targets; specifically, by the end of 2017, black and odorous water bodies in the built-up area are to be essentially eliminated; and by the end of 2030, more than 80% of the built-up area is to achieve these same targets.
Since last year, our city has progressively launched sponge-city projects, with landscape departments taking charge of sponge infrastructure such as green spaces on hillsides. On July 13 and 14, our city experienced consecutive bouts of short-duration heavy rainfall, with a cumulative total of 59.2 millimeters. Yet on June 15, at the western slope of Jinjiling Mountain Park, aside from a couple of infiltration ponds that held a small amount of rainwater, there were virtually no visible signs of recent rainfall on the hillside itself.
The sponge-city project is currently under intensive construction. Construction on Masan Mountain Road has already been completed, and the Xinglong area of Daming Lake will be put into use in April next year. Hopefully, by next summer, Jinan will no longer have to “watch the sea.”
