Thursday, August 3, 2023

Can sponge cities withstand extreme storms?

Also today: NYC considers city parks among sites to house migrants, and why K-pop fans are fighting big coal.

Since 2012, China has invested billions of dollars into protecting people from flooding, including by building cities like sponges. The idea is to use a mix of green and gray infrastructure to soak up heavy rainfall, and then slowly release it into rivers and reservoirs.

But recent high-profile weather events have called into question the effectiveness of the strategy against the wild changes in precipitation fueled by climate change. At least 20 people have been killed since Saturday as torrential rain brings catastrophic flooding to parts of northern China, with the death toll expected to keep climbing. Today on CityLab: China's 'Sponge Cities' Are Not Built for Extreme Flood Events

-Linda Poon

More on CityLab

NYC Considers Central Park Among Sites to House Migrants as Crisis Mounts
Officials are considering housing migrants in city parks as part of a plan to find new sites for the 95,000-plus asylum seekers who have arrived since last year.

Five Bold Ideas for Adapting a Historic D.C. Landscape to Sea Level Rise
Washington, D.C.'s 140-year-old Tidal Basin is sinking. Five architects offer radical redesigns for preservation in a new climate reality. 

K-pop Fans Are Fighting Big Coal to Protect Beach Made Famous by BTS
South Korea's stubborn coal use is being felt on the country's east coast, where a new power plant is threatening a K-pop landmark.

Historic heat

31
The record-shattering number of consecutive days when Phoenix's temperature peaked above 110F, as a prolonged atmospheric heat dome broiled the US South and Southwest. The city's sprawling urban footprint is making things even hotter — and harder to keep people safe.

What we're reading

  • We need cooler cities. Here's how to build them (Governing)
  • $30: The entrance fee to America's museums keeps rising (New York Times)
  • As Arizona builds to solve a housing crisis, will its homes withstand future heat extremes? (Arizona Republic)
  • San Antonio's road map to becoming a smart city (San Antonio Report)
  • Broken roads and broken necks: life in pothole Britain (Guardian)

Have something to share? Email us. And if you haven't yet signed up for this newsletter, please do so here.

More from Bloomberg CityLab

  • CityLab MapLab for a monthly newsletter about maps that reveal and shape urban spaces
  • CityLab Most Popular for the week's most popular stories published by Bloomberg CityLab

And sign up for more Bloomberg newsletters at Bloomberg.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Here’s your free cheatsheets—just pay shipping

Hey do you still want your Candlestick Pattern Cheatsheets? To view this email as a web page, go  here. To view this email as a web page, go...