Comparative Assessment of Sponge City Constructing in Public Awareness, Xi’an, China

Abstract

Climate change and urbanization are causing increasingly frequent urban flooding in countries around the world. Various innovative approaches have emerged to address this challenge. In China, the Sponge City was first proposed in 2012 to achieve an urban hydrological balance through natural storage, natural infiltration and natural purification. This article presents a comparative investigation (using a survey method) of new and old communities in Xixian New District and Xi’an in September 2021 to investigate public awareness of the Sponge City and understand levels of satisfaction and acceptance. Individuals of the same age or education residing in the Sponge City generally know more about the Sponge City and were more willing to accept it than those in traditional cities. Moreover, the residents of Sponge City understand the Sponge City concept well, with a majority of the respondents (71.82%) expressing clear understanding on the conception of Sponge City. However, residents in a traditional city exhibited much less understanding of the concept (44.24%). Furthermore, for those living in the same area, people who are younger or have higher education exhibited a clearer understanding of and acceptance of the Sponge City and local government. In this survey, the average scores (assign values to the different responses, then average and percent it) of respondents in Xixian New District with master’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees and high school degrees or below were evaluated at 76.88, 67.94 and 62.15, respectively, compared to 62.07, 50.18 and 50.78 in Xi’an. Lastly, we found that differences in living environment have a significant influence on residents’ perceptions. Residents living in the Sponge City are generally satisfied with the travel and living conditions and greatly support the local government. Meanwhile, this study will help relevant authorities pay more attention to residents’ opinions and help them to formulate policies to spread the concept of Sponge City and encourage residents’ participation.

Perception of sponge city for achieving circularity goal and hedge against climate change: a study on Weibo

“…In addition, people who live in sponge cities are more likely to post related blogs. As questionnaires in offline communities were done by Luo et al (2022), residents of sponge cities are generally satisfied with the travel and living conditions and have strongly supported the local government. The online public's perceptions are affected by the living environment's differences.…”

“…In sponge city research, scholars have studied the future adaptive countermeasures of different cities regarding climate change, especially urban flooding risk resilience. The analysis included Shanghai (Tong et al, 2022), Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen (Shao et al, 2021), Guangzhou, Chongqing, Zhengzhou (Tong et al, 2022), Jinan (Cheng et al, 2022), Xi'an (Luo et al, 2022), Nanjing (Liu et al, 2021), Wuhan (Dai et al, 2018) and Xiamen (Shao et al, 2018). Ma and Jiang (2022) planning approach, Li and Kim (2022) analysed sponge city projects' impact on Harbin, Quzhou and Sanya, China.…”

“…Because the effectiveness of implementing nature-based solutions depends on the participation of a wellinformed public, researchers conducted a survey in Wuhan to identify factors that influence public perception of sponge city plans (Zheng et al, 2022). Previous surveys showed that the public's attention, satisfaction and acceptance of sponge cities differed depending on living environments (Luo et al, 2022). Sponge city residents are satisfied with the travel and living conditions and strongly support the local government (Luo et al, 2022).…”

“…Previous surveys showed that the public's attention, satisfaction and acceptance of sponge cities differed depending on living environments (Luo et al, 2022). Sponge city residents are satisfied with the travel and living conditions and strongly support the local government (Luo et al, 2022). Fu et al (2022) believed that bottom-up community-based approaches are essential to transform sponge cities into flood-resistant ones.…”

Urban Flood-Related Remote Sensing: Research Trends, Gaps and Opportunities

“…In the long term, floods cause more deaths than other weather-related events [3]. Recently, flood disasters have shown a growing frequency and intensity and account for 47% of extreme natural events [4][5][6]. Flooding is a multifaceted problem that can have a complex network of impacts affecting many sectors of the economy because floods can destroy buildings, roads, and bridges; cause mudslides; tear out trees; devastate agriculture; and threaten human lives [7,8].…”