changzhi city recently joined a list of 20 national demonstration cities for the construction of so-called sponge cities becoming the only one shortlisted in North China's Shanxi province. 

A sponge city is a new generation urban rainwater management concept. It means that a city can function like a sponge and have consummate flexibility in adapting to environmental changes and responding to natural disasters caused by torrential rain. 

The selected 20 cities are typical demonstration models with excellent basic conditions, high levels of enthusiasm and outstanding characteristics in terms of the construction of sponge cities, with Changzhi ranking first in the review.

Since it was identified as a pilot city for the construction of a sponge city in Shanxi in 2016, Changzhi has established a management and implementation agency to systematically improve its top-level design and integrate the sponge city concept into urban renewal, old community reconstruction, environmental function restoration, residential community construction and the development of underground spaces.

A total of 4.65 billion yuan ($717.80 million) has already been invested to implement sponge city-related construction projects. 

To date, black and smelly water bodies in built-up areas of the city have been cleaned up and 92 percent of waterlogged sites have been eliminated. The total area reaching the standard of a sponge city has increased to 153,000 square kilometers, accounting for about 21.5 percent of the total urban built-up area of Changzhi.

Under the requirements of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Ministry of Water Resources, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), all the selected demonstration cities will in three years significantly improve their flood control and drainage capacity, underground space construction and the ecological environment – fully implementing the sponge city concept.

Changzhi will receive 1 billion yuan in subsidies from the central government during the period and some 180 million yuan in subsidies for urban pipe networks and sewage treatment this year were already in place on Aug 11. 

Using the funding, the city will initiate restoration and treatment of the entire mountain-city-lake system, expand management of subsidence areas caused by coal mining and expand high-quality regional transformation and development to push the construction of a sponge city forward.