Spatial Planning for Climate Adaptation and Flood Risk: Development of the Sponge City Program in Guangzhou

Many Chinese cities are increasingly exposed to the impacts of climate change, particularly to flooding. The National Sponge City Program was set up to address this challenge. This chapter examines how municipal interventions in spatial planning have been formulated in response to this national program. The case of Guangzhou is examined, a mega-city in the Pearl River Delta that is particularly vulnerable to flood risk. Here, the city government is seeking to improve local resilience to flooding by linking spatial planning and water management. To date, the implementation of the plan faces cognitive, financial, institutional, and technical challenges, which limits the potential to make Guangzhou more resilient to flood risk in the wake of the changing climate.