Imagine a sponge. Swipe it over a wet surface and it will draw up water; squeeze it and the water will trickle out. Now imagine a city made of sponges, or spongelike surfaces, able to soak up rainwater, overflowing rivers or ocean storm surges and release stored water during droughts. Engineers, architects, urban planners and officials around the world are seeking ways to retrofit or reconstruct cities to better deal with water — basically, to act more like sponges. While water management has always been an essential service in cities,…
Tag: Floods
China Urges Families to Stock up on Food for Winter
China has called on families and local governments to stock up on daily necessities as the country enforces stringent restrictions intended to curb a number of Covid outbreaks. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued the guidance in a statement on Monday. The Economic Daily, a Communist Party-backed newspaper, said that the directives were an effort by the government to prepare the public for Covid lockdowns in the prelude to winter. China has enforced a “zero Covid” policy that includes widespread testing and lockdowns to stamp out any small resurgence of…
How Record Rain and Officials’ Mistakes in China Led to Drownings on a Subway
ZHENGZHOU, China — The heaviest hour of rainfall ever reliably recorded in China crashed like a miles-wide waterfall over the city of Zhengzhou on July 20, killing at least 300 people, including 14 who drowned in a subway tunnel. In the aftermath, regional and national officials initially suggested that little could have been done in the face of a storm of such magnitude. But an analysis of how the authorities responded that day, based on government documents, interviews with experts and Chinese news reports, shows that flaws in the subway…