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Low Impact Thinking of the Spongy City Construction in Built-Up Areas from the Perspective of Sustainable Urban Design

Han, Xili ; Zhao, Wenqiang ; Zhang, Linus LU orcid and Siostrom, Peter (2016) p.328-338
Abstract
Sponge city construction can improve cities’ ability to adapt to the environment change and the ability to cope with floods, and it can also prompt cities’ development to be more healthy and sustainable. However, the process itself of sponge city construction may also has impact on the environment especially in built-up areas, to reduce the impact, the rainwater landscape design needs to integrate sustainable thoughts as follows: (1) balancing earthwork on site. Borrowing the traditional Chinese concept of "dig lake and pile mountain", providing earthwork balance on site by adjusting the micro-topography. (2) Protecting trees and bushes on site. When introducing bio-retention ponds to the built-up area with new plants which will be... (More)
Sponge city construction can improve cities’ ability to adapt to the environment change and the ability to cope with floods, and it can also prompt cities’ development to be more healthy and sustainable. However, the process itself of sponge city construction may also has impact on the environment especially in built-up areas, to reduce the impact, the rainwater landscape design needs to integrate sustainable thoughts as follows: (1) balancing earthwork on site. Borrowing the traditional Chinese concept of "dig lake and pile mountain", providing earthwork balance on site by adjusting the micro-topography. (2) Protecting trees and bushes on site. When introducing bio-retention ponds to the built-up area with new plants which will be drought-resistant and wet-resistant, perennial, and with low maintenance, the designers need to think about how to protect and rearrange the existing plants especially trees and bushes at the same time which are relatively stable and mature in green spaces of old town. (3) Recycling the existing paving materials. Impermeable paving material on sidewalk, square, pedestrian area, parking area, etc. will be replaced by permeable concrete, permeable bricks, gravel, other permeable materials, and waterway kerbs. These abandoned materials could be recycled on site, such as use of the old concrete slabs, bricks building short stone walls to divide space or seats for people to rest, and it will reduce a lot of construction waste and avoid the pollution of new material consummations to the environment. (4) Taking the opportunity of spongy city construction to improve urban non-motor vehicle traffic environment, raising bike lanes along roads outside blocks and small roads inside blocks with permeable asphalt to improve walking and biking environment in cities. (5) Making public open spaces such as squares and green spaces support more staying activities with the opportunity of introducing rain garden to these areas. This is a kind of sustainable urban design point of view. Following the principle of minimum energy and material consumption and reducing the impact of sponge city construction itself on the environment will avoid a new round of environmental problems and resource waste. It has important significance to the construction of ecological city. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
International Low Impact Development Conference China 2016 : LID Applications in Sponge City Projects - LID Applications in Sponge City Projects
editor
Jia, Haifeng ; Yu, Shaw L. ; Traver, Robert ; Qin, Huapeng ; Li, Junqi and Clar, Mike
pages
328 - 338
publisher
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
external identifiers
  • scopus:85136793459
ISBN
9780784481042
DOI
10.1061/9780784481042.035
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6d17c791-48b8-41fa-a10b-d575994a6817
alternative location
https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784481042.035
date added to LUP
2019-02-01 15:44:34
date last changed
2022-10-03 04:03:33
@inproceedings{6d17c791-48b8-41fa-a10b-d575994a6817,
  abstract     = {{Sponge city construction can improve cities’ ability to adapt to the environment change and the ability to cope with floods, and it can also prompt cities’ development to be more healthy and sustainable. However, the process itself of sponge city construction may also has impact on the environment especially in built-up areas, to reduce the impact, the rainwater landscape design needs to integrate sustainable thoughts as follows: (1) balancing earthwork on site. Borrowing the traditional Chinese concept of "dig lake and pile mountain", providing earthwork balance on site by adjusting the micro-topography. (2) Protecting trees and bushes on site. When introducing bio-retention ponds to the built-up area with new plants which will be drought-resistant and wet-resistant, perennial, and with low maintenance, the designers need to think about how to protect and rearrange the existing plants especially trees and bushes at the same time which are relatively stable and mature in green spaces of old town. (3) Recycling the existing paving materials. Impermeable paving material on sidewalk, square, pedestrian area, parking area, etc. will be replaced by permeable concrete, permeable bricks, gravel, other permeable materials, and waterway kerbs. These abandoned materials could be recycled on site, such as use of the old concrete slabs, bricks building short stone walls to divide space or seats for people to rest, and it will reduce a lot of construction waste and avoid the pollution of new material consummations to the environment. (4) Taking the opportunity of spongy city construction to improve urban non-motor vehicle traffic environment, raising bike lanes along roads outside blocks and small roads inside blocks with permeable asphalt to improve walking and biking environment in cities. (5) Making public open spaces such as squares and green spaces support more staying activities with the opportunity of introducing rain garden to these areas. This is a kind of sustainable urban design point of view. Following the principle of minimum energy and material consumption and reducing the impact of sponge city construction itself on the environment will avoid a new round of environmental problems and resource waste. It has important significance to the construction of ecological city.}},
  author       = {{Han, Xili and Zhao, Wenqiang and Zhang, Linus and Siostrom, Peter}},
  booktitle    = {{International Low Impact Development Conference China 2016 : LID Applications in Sponge City Projects}},
  editor       = {{Jia, Haifeng and Yu, Shaw L. and Traver, Robert and Qin, Huapeng and Li, Junqi and Clar, Mike}},
  isbn         = {{9780784481042}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  pages        = {{328--338}},
  publisher    = {{American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)}},
  title        = {{Low Impact Thinking of the Spongy City Construction in Built-Up Areas from the Perspective of Sustainable Urban Design}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/9780784481042.035}},
  doi          = {{10.1061/9780784481042.035}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}