Towards sustainable flood risk management in Shenzhen : an analysis of the implementation of sponge city policy in Shenzhen, China

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Towards sustainable flood risk

management in Shenzhen

An analysis of the implementation of sponge city policy in Shenzhen, China

Karen de Geus 10204806 August 20th_{, 2017}

Master Thesis Human Geography Marco Bontje & Chingwen Yang Wordcount: 23.416 words ksdegeus@gmail.com

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Abstract

Cities are key perpetrators of climate change, while they are at the same time very vulnerable for its effects. This thesis focuses on tackling the water-related effects of climate change by analysing the implementation of sponge city in Shenzhen, a delta city in south China. This sponge city project aims to collect and purify runoff water and thus decreasing the risk of floods in Chinese cities. This thesis shows that the local government focuses strongly on sponge city projects that are carried out in Phoenix Town, an official pilot area in Shenzhen of the national sponge city policy. However, there is little regulation and supervision in other city areas. Executing companies are obliged to implement sponge city details in their construction work and are not provided with clear information or requirements how to implement the sponge city details. A lack of (scientific)knowledge, cooperation and supervision on the activities of executing companies cause sponge city to be more of a buzzword than an actual contribution to tackling the water-related effects of climate change in Shenzhen. Furthermore, interests from local residents do not connect to the interest of the local government and other stakeholders. Experts suggest that local residents should be involved in decision-making around their built environment and should participate more in sponge city in order to make it work, as sponge city has the potential to also contribute to their quality of life. Given the result of this thesis, an institution that keeps an overview of sponge-city related knowledge and coordinates all sponge city projects is recommended, in order to truly make Shenzhen a sponge city.

Acknowledgements

Carrying out this research and writing this thesis has been an extremely valuable and instructive period for me. During this research, I have tried to learn from the lessons of the research I carried out in India during my bachelor’s thesis. In carrying out the research, new issues and questions arose on a daily basis. There are several people that helped me in overcoming these barriers, and I want to express my gratitude towards them.

Firstly, I want to express my thanks towards my two supervisors, Marco Bontje and Ching Wen Yan. Even though they had quite a large group to supervise, they always provided me with the feedback I needed on my work. They were also very supportive when my research took a different path then I imagined. Furthermore, I want to thank Dr. Michaela Hordijk for being my second reader.

Secondly, I want to thank all of my contacts in China who made this thesis possible. Liu Lei at the Center of Design, who provided us with a lot of information during the introduction week and supported us throughout the fieldwork period. Jackie Lee, for providing me with useful contacts, and Jason Hilgefort for inviting me to the extremely interesting and informational symposium on Sponge City 2.0. Futhermore, Jason, thank you for the time you spend listening to our ideas, and for introducing us to Chinese students interested in our projects! Also, I want to express my gratitude to the

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employees of the Dutch Consulate in Guangzhou, especially Jingmin Kan, for their interest in my ideas and putting me in touch with a lot of interesting people.

I am also extremely grateful for the friends I made in China, especially Aimee van Ham, Katharina Vlaanderen and Michael Becheanu. For all the mad conversations, adventurous trips and extensive feedback sessions we had together: I couldn’t have done it without you guys! Furthermore, I want to thank my family and friends for their relentless support, and making the enormous distance between Gouda/Amsterdam and Shenzhen feel a lot shorter than it actually is!

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1. Introduction

As an effect of climate change, the worldwide average temperatures are rising. This global warming causes extreme weather events all over the world. Recent examples of extreme weather events are extended heat waves in India and Pakistan, resulting in thousands of deaths on a yearly basis (Maziyasni, AghaKouchak, Davis et al 2017); the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, resulting in sea level rises (Capron, Govin and Stone, 2017); extreme droughts as a result of precipitation deficits in California, USA, causing deterioration of soils and depletion of resources (Wahl, Diaz, Vose 2017); and extreme rainfall resulting in floods in South-East China (Wang, Yang, Li et al ,2017; Nie, Li, Yang et al, 2011). The process of climate change is accelerated by population growth, and the effects of climate change are felt most strongly in urban areas.

China is the most rapidly urbanizing nation in the world, with an urban population that will probably reach one billion within a generation. Over the past 25 years, the increasing economic growth has put an enormous construction boom in motion, which has transformed both city and countryside. The speed and scale of China's urban revolution has challenged many views on city planning, as China’s cities have undergone a metamorphosis in a mere generation that took 150 years to complete in the United States (Campanella, 2008). But, China is being more and more affected by the effects of climate change. Floods in cities across China have caused as much as €45 billion worth of damage in China in 2016 (Shepard, 2016). As ponds, rivers and wetlands have been replaced with pavement and buildings, rain isn’t any longer absorbed into the soil, and the runoff can grow to flood-like proportions (Chan, Adekola, Mitchell et al, 2013). In addition to water abundance problems, other parts of China suffer from water scarcity. Periods of drought strongly pressure China’s food and energy security, as these domains are interconnected with water security. Several scholars argue that effective water resource management is the key to China’s food, water and water security in the next 15 years (Jiang, 2015).

Figure 1 - Ineffective water use in Shenzhen

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This is why president Xi Jinping announced in 2013 that Chinese cities should take the effects of climate change into account while making plans for the future, and provided substantial funds to experiment with the absorption and abduction of rainwater in the so-called sponge city project. In sponge cities, excessive rainwater is collected in large reservoirs underneath roads and buildings instead of overloading the network of underground sewers. The goals of sponge city are to achieve a natural accumulation, natural infiltration, and natural purification of water (Wang, 2016) and to decrease the flood risks in Chinese cities. This is done by increasing the absorption of water in the city, by increasing the amount of green spaces and by controlling the runoff rainwater. The sponge city pilot program was launched throughout China in the end of 2014, with Shenzhen as one of the pilot cities.

1.1 Scientific relevance

There is an extensive body of literature on climate change, water-related effects of climate change and how cities can respond to these threats. As the effects of climate change continue to grow in number, size and intensity, it is extremely important to understand the sources of these problems, and how to address this. Many academic sources focus on the way states and governments should react to these problems, but remain on conceptual descriptions, instead of looking at the practical implementation of drafted solutions. This research aims to shed more light on the implementation of environmental policy in China, by focusing on the perceptions of executing companies and experts.

Furthermore, the majority of the theory on governance and flood risk management is focused on Western countries. For example, there is a broad extent of literature on flood management in Australia or the United States, but just a limited amount of this in China. As the governance theories are embedded in a Western, capitalist bottom-up context, it is hard to generalise these to the Chinese reality of a socialist top-down hierarchical society. This thesis aims to shed more light on how these theories can be used from a Chinese point of view.

1.2 Social relevance

The increasing effects of climate change in south-China has grave consequences for the population of its cities. The number of deaths from flood-related disasters rise on a yearly basis, so it is evident that Chinese cities should adjust itself to floods and a rising water level. Showing the capabilities of the sponge city projects could be valuable in tackling some of these risks, and in increasing the awareness of local communities. As this research aims to identify the barriers of implementing sponge city policy, this may prove useful for policymakers, as overcoming these barriers can lead to a more effective implementation of the sponge city policy. This knowledge is also useful for the executing companies that implement the policy and construct the sponge city projects, as it can contribute to a more effective implementation.

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1.3 Thesis contents

As the sponge city policy is quite young, there isn’t much information available on current practices or the success rate of sponge city projects. However, several papers (Dabrowski, Stead, Feng et al, 2016; Liu, 2016) indicate that there is a lack of governance and coordination between such projects in Chinese cities. This research aims to analyse the implementation of government policy on sponge city, by adopting executing companies in Shenzhen as the research objects. Furthermore, several experts have been interviewed on their perceptions and recommendations on the implementation of sponge city. The research question of this thesis is “How can the implementation of sponge city in Shenzhen be improved from an environmental governance perspective?”.

The scope of this research is limited to Shenzhen, but as climate change is a global problem, chapter 2 will provide a theoretical framework with more information on the core concepts of this thesis: climate change, environmental governance and flood risk management. Chapter 3 provides a contextual framework of China, with an overview of water security in the Pearl River Delta, and finally narrowing the scope to Shenzhen. This chapter also provides information on the institutional context and the Chinese attitude towards climate change. The methodology and research design of this research are discussed in chapter 4. This chapter will also shed some more light on the decisions that were made by the researcher according to the research area and population. Chapter 5 presents the results that are derived from the data collected during the fieldwork period. Chapter 6 discusses these results, and connects the findings to the academic field and the theory presented in chapter 2. Finally, the conclusions are presented in chapter 7. This chapter also includes policy recommendations for the local government in Shenzhen. The bibliography and interview guide are included as appendices.

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2. Theoretical Framework

This chapter provides an overview of the academic literature that is related to the research question. The core concepts of the research are introduced here. The first section focuses on the effects of climate change in cities and the water, energy and food-nexus. The second section introduces the topic of environmental governance, including the topics water governance and water security, and elaborates on different environmental governance approaches. The third section focuses on flood risk management and water sensitive urban development, and provides more information on sponge cities.

2.1 Climate change in cities

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014), climate change refers to “the variation of a zone’s weather pattern which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is, in addition to natural climate variability, observed over comparable periods of time”. Climate change can be caused by natural causes, such as volcanic eruptions, but can also be enlarged by human-induced activities that cause greenhouse gas emissions. As explained in the introduction, climate change is causing extreme weather events all over the world, which can end up in disasters triggered by natural hazards, killing more people over time. Maziyasni et al (2017) illustrate this, proving that an increase of 0.5°C in summer mean temperatures increases the probability of mass heat-related mortality in India by 146%. Climate change is currently viewed as one of the greatest threats to the planet Earth, and the relationship between human activities and environmental change is becoming much more apparent with the development of human societies (Nie, 2011).

In the last decades, climate change has been accelerated gravely by human activities (O’Brien, O’Keefe, Rose et al, 2006; IPCC 2014; Tracy, Trumbull & Loh, 2007). As the human population is growing, it is pressing harder on the food production and water regulation in ecosystems. This is further influenced by a diet change toward more meat consumption, which implies a rising demand for more water from agriculture, and thus further strains the already limited water resources. The growing population led to an extreme rate of urbanisation in the last decades. As urban areas expand, they further impact the environment through the conversion of land (Güneralp & Seto, 2008). The conversion of vegetated surfaces to urban areas influences the exchange of heat and water, which leads to an urban heat effect and can reduce rainfall in some regions. As the IPCC already warned in 2001, developing countries, such as China, have lesser capacity to adapt and are more vulnerable to climate change damages, as they are more vulnerable to other stresses. While urbanisation accelerates the problem of climate change, the effects of climate change are much more evident in urban areas. Densely populated urban areas are more vulnerable to harmful effects of extreme weather events. As Yin, Ye, Yin et al (2014) show, urbanization amplifies the adverse effects of

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Disasters as a result of climate change can’t be prevented or accurately predicted, but cities should be prepared and willing to address the effects of climate change.

Two main methods can be distinguished in addressing extreme weather events as an effect of climate change. On the one hand, climate mitigation, in which actions are taken to reduce GHG emissions, tackling the problem of climate change at the roots and aiming to structurally change the problem (Francesch-Huidobro, 2015). Although there is recognition that we are already locked into climate change, mitigation efforts remain focused on policies to measure and monitor emissions and develop action plans. Still, there is a need to adapt to stress and change, and to build resilience to the effects of climate change. In climate change adaptation, social systems aim to adjust to the actual or expected climate and the related weather events (Davies, Guenther, Leavy et al, 2009). In cities, climate change adaptation is very important, as the it can reduce vulnerability of cities. Administrative effectiveness in cities can provide cities and its population with a better preparation to possible disasters.

Human societies receive several services from ecosystems, such as air, food, clean water and fuel. Yet, human action can leave ecosystems unable to provide these services, leading to consequences for human livelihoods, impacting their security and resilience. Sustainable development aims to meet human development goals, while sustaining the ability of natural ecosystems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend (Folke, Carpenter, Elmqvist et al, 2002). In 2015, the United Nations adopted the ‘2030 agenda for Sustainable Development’ consisting of a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) (Corbett & Mellouli, 2017). The SDG’s include targets regarding sustainable water management, climate change and sustainable use of ecosystems. The aim is to implement these goals in every country between 2016 and 2030.

2.1.1 The water, energy and food nexus

Several scholars (e.g. Folke, Carpenter, Elmqvist et al, 2002) have been arguing for years that it is an error to assume that the human and natural systems can be treated independently. Also, many scholars (Finley & Seiber 2014; Al-Saidi & Elagib, 2017) state

that the SDG’s shouldn’t be treated as different domains, but should be considered as a holistic entity. This section focuses on the interlinkages between the main domains of sustainable development, which is addressed as the water, energy and food (WEF-)nexus.

Water, energy and food are interconnected and inseparable, as water is used in the generation of energy and the production of food. The need to produce food and energy stresses the limited supply of fresh water on the planet. The amount of water that is demanded for food production and processing is enormous(Finley & Seiber, 2014). According to Endo, Burnett, Orencio et al (2015), the demands for water, energy and food are estimated to increase by respectively 40%, 50% and 35% by 2030. Recently, the debate on resource scarcity has been framed under the word nexus, which generally

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stands for “a connection or series of connections linking two or more things”(Oxford Dictionary 2015). Water, energy and food are fundamental elements of sustainable development. In 2011 and 2012, several conferences and workshops about the nexus problems in regard to the negotiation on the Sustainable Development Goals have been held. The key message in the nexus debate is that different domains are interconnected, and can’t be effectively resolved unless they are addressed as being fully interrelated and interdependent (Boas, Biermann & NKanie, 2016).

The thoughts of scholars on the WEF-nexus show that water related problems should be connected to key social and economic systems, or, as De Loë & Patterson (2017) frame it, needs to get ‘out of the water box’ . Although the WEF-nexus aims to consider the dimensions water, energy and food equally, this thesis zooms in further on the ‘water’ dimension of the nexus, while trying to keep in mind the interdependencies between the dimensions in order to maintain a holistic view. As this research focuses on water-related consequences of climate change, more information on water security and water governance will be provided in the next chapters.

2.1.2 Sustainability in cities

Most of the SDG-activities are within the responsibility of local governments. As Corbett & Mellouli (2017) argue, cities should play a leading role in the achievement of these goals. Rapid urbanization causes an urgent and imperative reason for cities to find smarter ways to manage challenges such as air pollution, waste management, energy consumption etc. As Al Awadhi, Aldama-Nalda, Chourabi et al (2013) state, city governments are required to manage an ever-rising amount of technical, social, physical and organizational issues that arise from congregations of people in spatially limited areas. As described by Corbett & Mellouli (2017), city managers now seem interested in building sustainable cities, but they face a multitude of challenges such as economic constraints, demographic changes, and limited metrics for measuring progress. As a result, Corbett & Mellouli state that over the past 30 years, cities have made uneven progress toward sustainability.

There has been a growing interest in the role which cities could have in addressing global environmental issues and, in particular, climate change. As the concentration of populations within cities poses challenges in terms of city governance, other approaches are necessary to address the emerging requirements in urban environments. According to Chourabi, Gil-Garcia, Pardo et al (2012), the emphasis on sustainable development has led to the vision of smart sustainable cities that aim for environmental quality, by aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, efficiently managing their energy and undertake other initiatives to support the sustainable development of their communities. The concept of sustainable cities is thus well aligned with the SDG’s.

Evidently, cities play a vital role in environmental protection. But, they also have a large role in reconciling economic growth of countries. These roles combined are merged in

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the term ecological modernization, which is built around the premise that policies for economic development and environmental protection can be combined, while remaining competitive (Goess, De Jong & Meijers, 2016). As Goess et al state, cities need to rethink about what defines them, which has led to several new categories of city branding and marketing concepts, such as smart-, sustainable-, eco- or low-carbon- cities. These city branding strategies mostly emphasize quality of life, and recently, cities are becoming more aware of the importance of environmental quality and sustainability as pillars of quality of life (De Jong, Joss & Schraven et al, 2015).

However, it seems that the city brands named here are to some extent interchangeable. De Jong et al (2015) show that all of the above city brands go together with a competition for business and talented people, as well as a growing dependency on private funds. The city brands can issue a more positive image and thus help a city to a better comparative advantage. This raises the question to whether the cities that carry these brands truly strive for a better environment, or have an explicitly economic agenda. De Jong, Wang & Yu (2013a) argue that all cities that brand themselves as ‘green’ are actually focusing on industrial transformation, while the terminology of a green environment is mainly used to attract talented people and to create innovation. This suggests that while cities seem to strive for a good compliance of the SDG’s, their motives may be economic rather than on environmental.

2.2 Environmental governance

This section introduces the concept of environmental governance. In this thesis, governance is defined as “the way collective action steers and controls society to achieve collective goals” (Francesch-Huidobro, 2015). As a process, governance focuses on the procedures and structures of decision making and management, while engaging people across levels of government in order to carry out a public purpose. Climate change poses a challenge for future governance, as it should now also incorporate climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. As explained previously, the relationship between humans and nature should be in balanced. Policy factors can contribute to the regulation of human activities, and thus influence the human contributions to climate change. Policies play a large role in transforming nature, but also in dealing with unexpected natural disasters. Cities can be subject to large losses from flood damage as they are not adequately prepared or have a low level disaster management, inefficient officials or inefficient governance organization. Different types of governance in political systems can render cities and their populations unequally vulnerable to climate-related risks (Francesch-Huidobro, 2015). This shows the necessity of sustainable approaches in dealing with climate change. This section firstly focuses on water governance. Subsequently, the topic of water security is introduced. Finally, three environmental governance approaches are further identified. .

2.2.1 Water governance

As described in the previous sections, there are many implications of climate change. Unfortunately, the growing flood risk resulting from climate change is sometimes not

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recognized by planners and urban designers, as the emphasis is often on rapid urban and economic development (Dabrowski et al, 2016). Proper governance of water is needed in order for sustainable urban development to be successful. Here, the definition of water governance by De Loë & Patterson (2017) is used, where it refers to “the ways in which societies organize themselves to make decisions and take action regarding water”. Water governance involves many public and private actors, at several scales and levels, and takes place through diverse mechanisms such as regulations, market tools and networks. As Corbett & Mellouli (2017) illustrate, managing water is a complex task, and cities are faced with problems such as ageing water infrastructure, a continued population growth combined with the effects of climate change.

In the early 20th_{century, Integrated Water Resources Management has been developed} by environmental scientists, water resource engineers and economists as a response to negative outcomes of earlier water resource policies (De Loë & Patterson, 2017). It can be defined as “the unified or holistic management of water, land and other natural resources within the boundaries of entire river basins, watersheds or catchment areas” and it has been the dominant paradigm for water management for the past decades (Bakker, 2013).

According to De Loë & Patterson (2017), the IWRM is based on hydrological units (basins and watersheds), stakeholder involvement and good governance principles, which means it is based on openness, integrity and responsibility, and reflects norms about how water should be managed. According to De Loë & Patterson (2017), IWRM isn’t too strong in addressing external connections, because of the strong water-centric perspective. It has further been criticized for a lack of insight towards the institutional and political challenges linked to pursuing governance reform based on basin boundaries. Furthermore, critics state that the aims of IWRM often align poorly with the physical boundaries they are based on, as they inadequately recognize the spatial extent of problems. While IWRM was originally designed to account for such cross-sectoral linkages (e.g., between water, land, agriculture, industry, and environment) and vertical linkages (e.g., across basin, national and transboundary scales), these objectives have largely not been achieved in practice (De Loë & Patterson, 2017).

2.2.2 Water security

The water system on Earth includes all water sources that can be utilized for human consumption. However, adequate water supplies don’t always exist where they are needed the most, and thus water is frequently moved between watersheds to meet human demands. Dry areas can cope with water scarcity, while other areas may suffer from high precipitation levels and thus have to cope with water abundance. In this thesis, water security is defined as “an acceptable level of water-related risks to humans and ecosystems, coupled with the availability of water of sufficient quantity and quality to support livelihoods, national security, human health and ecosystem services” (Bakker & Morinville, 2013).

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Water scarcity

Water security is an emerging perspective within the broader water governance discourse during the last decade and reflects growing concern among scholars about the vulnerability of human and natural systems to water-related threats. A human security perspective emphasizes the need of water security for economic growth and poverty alleviation. In turn, a national security perspective emphasizes water security at the national level and link broader water-related threats to geopolitical instability. Physical water scarcity can have its origin in climate variability, and express itself in unfavourable trends of water supply and demand. Climate change is considered as one of the main driving forces of water scarcity, and already affecting the temporal and spatial variability of water availability (IPCC, 2014). Furthermore, various factors including population growth, economic development, change of land use and environmental degradation affect the changes in water demand (Gain & Giupponi, 2015). Many of the international river basins are likely to experience increasing water scarcity in the next decades (Beck & Bernauer 2011; Gain & Giupponi, 2015)

According to Al-Saidi & Elagib (2017), due to growing scarcities, the pressure on water resources is increasing, which is the main driver behind the emergence of the nexus-thinking. For example, China experienced droughts in 2010 and 2011, which led to wide water shortages and loss of electricity generation from hydropower. This drought affected the global wheat production and resulted in higher prices in many other countries. The global water cycle is changing in response to warming caused by climate change. The effects are expected to vary across areas and seasons. The interlinkages between the areas complicate the matter of addressing their growing demands.

Water abundance

As defined in Whitfield (2012), flooding is a rising and overflowing of a body of water onto normally dry land. This can occur as a result of extreme weather events, or as a result of floods of rivers or other large waterbodies. As Whitfield (2012) states, flooding is primarily caused by hydrometeorological conditions such as snowmelt, runoff or rain. Other causes of flooding are coastal flooding associated with sea-level rise, storm surges, or result from the failure of man-made structures such as dams. Another problem that may arise in flood-prone areas is waterlogging. Waterlogging is the saturation of the soil by groundwater, which can hinder agriculture or cause urban flooding (Sang & Yang, 2016). During water abundance related events, socio-economic

resilience and other activities can be disrupted, as lives are lost and extensive damages may occur.

As a result of climate change, it is predicted that global sea level will rise at least between 0.18 and 0.59 m by 2100 (IPCC, 2007). If temperatures rise faster than expected, this projected global sea-level rise may even be higher. Whitfield (2012) calculated that the number of high-magnitude floods appear to be increasing over time, as well as the related water damage costs. People have always lived and worked along rivers and lakes, because of the (seemingly) never-ending supply of food and drinking

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water. With the current urbanisation and encroaching in cities, the impacts of floods is rising , and is depending more and more on the adaptation choices that are made.

2.2.3 Environmental governance approaches

There is a large variety of models for governance. This section presents the pros and cons of three types of governance that are adaptive to change, and resilient to extremes. First, an overview of theories regarding adaptive governance is provided. Subsequently, the nexus-approach of governance is analysed. Finally, an overview of theories that focus on the role of communities is discussed.

Adaptive governance

The term adaptive governance is broadly used within academic literature (e.g. in Pahl-Wostl, Craps, Dewulf et al, 2007; Benson, Gain & Rouillard, 2015), as it addresses local policies and conflicts of interest as well as the knowledge of natural processes and possible problems within an ecosystem. It is a form of multi-level governance, and according to Folke, Hahn, Olsson et al (2005), adaptive governance is collaborative, flexible and learning-based across different scales.

As Rijke, Farrelly & Brown (2013) state, adaptive governance emerged as a way of governing by anticipating long-term change such as population growth or climate change, by responding to immediate shock events such as flooding and droughts and recovering from these events. Gupta, Van der Leeuw & De Moel(2007) state that global and local aspects of nature should be addressed by multiple administrative levels. This implies that an integrated policy on water, planning, housing etc. is needed in order to address these environmental problems. Several scholars (Van de Meene, Brown & Farrelly, 2011; Rijke et al, 2013) suggest that multi-level governance is considered crucial for enhancing resilient water management, as decision-making is dispersed across several centres of authority. As such, it builds on the interaction between public and private organisations and institutions.

Adaptive governance requires increased collaboration of all community levels, but, as Bakker & Morinville (2013) explain, the complexity of socio-environmental systems poses challenges to such a collaboration. This poses the question of how feasible the implementation of adaptive governance is, as there are many possible limitations to operationalizing the strategies. As Kowalski & Jenkins (2015) state, implementing adaptive governance is an immense challenge, as it requires the linking of diverse stakeholders and knowledge systems, across management levels and institutional boundaries. Furthermore, Bakker & Morinville (2013) argue that although adaptive governance might imply an increased focus on adaptation to harmful effects of climate change, it only offers a reduced contribution on mitigation of climate change itself. The nexus approach

The solutions for the water, energy and food nexus as described in section 2.1.2 should be carefully integrated in order to meet the needs for all inhabitants in our planet

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none of these issues can be effectively resolved in isolation. According to Finley & Seiber (2014), development of new technology in any sector should consider the impact on the other sectors, as well as on the environment. Furthermore, government and international policy need to be developed to ensure integrated implementation of technologies considering growing population stresses and the associated energy and food needs.

Al-Saidi & Elagib (2017) state that we need a nexus approach to governance because of the apparent failures of sector-driven governance strategies such as IWRM in the previous decades. They states= that the focus needs to be shifted from local ‘watersheds’ to regional ‘problem-sheds’, and to focus on what water can do for society, instead of the other way around. Water scholars such as Pahl-Wostl & Knieper (2014) are criticizing the gaps in the existing water governance frameworks, and are arguing that the nexus improves governance since water is a cross-cutting issue that should be linked to governance changes in other sectors as well (Gupta & Pahl-Wostl, 2013) De Loë & Patterson (2017) state that the proponents of the nexus approach specifically aim to move beyond a water centric perspective, by shifting the focus to a cross-sectoral and dynamic perspective, rather than from a single sector. According to De Loë & Patterson, this perspective aims to provide a common focus for the engagement of diverse actors, which, as he states, has failed to happen under the traditional IWRM perspectives. Still, he questions the extent to which the WEF-nexus has moved beyond a project of the water community. Allouche, Middleton & Gyawali(2015) argue that, as the nexus language has sought to frame debates around acute pressures on natural resources, the concept is not much more than a ‘new development buzz word’. Nevertheless, Boas et al(2016) argue that, as ‘water’ has been framed as the most central domain that influences all other domains within sustainable development, the central idea behind the nexus approach is narrower than earlier concepts promoting an integrated approach to sustainable development.

De Loë & Patterson (2017) introduce some other critiques to the added value of the WEF-nexus approach. He stresses that, although scholars regularly refer to ‘the’ nexus, there are many possible nexuses among different sets of issues. He prefers ‘nexus thinking’ rather than any particular version of a nexus. So, according to De Loë & Patterson, ambiguities and tensions in making boundary judgments can’t be avoided any more easily in nexus thinking than under IWRM or adaptive governance perspectives. Furthermore, he states that a particular weakness of nexus thinking is the poor regard for the governance implications, as the integration challenges within any resource sector are immense. He argues that these integration challenges are much greater when considering multiple resource sectors simultaneously, and thus making the problem much more complex.

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Community based governance

The WEF nexus is being promoted as a tool for achieving sustainable development, but according to Biggs, Bruce, Boruff et al (2015), these frameworks have failed to explicitly incorporate sustainable livelihoods perspectives. As Biggs et al explain, livelihood activities may contribute to the depletion of ecosystems and their services, but conversely they may benefit these ecosystems by for instance reforestation and biodiversity programs. Most approaches to sustainable development have focused on top-down programs, based on scientific expertise, while sustainable livelihood approaches tend towards bottom-up movements from household, community and local levels.

As Loorbach & Rotmans et al(2009) state, there seems to be an increasing degree of consensus that top-down steering by the government is outmoded as an effective management mechanism. As Gilley (2012) argues, this top-down approach may produce quick outcomes, but doesn’t necessarily result in satisfying outcomes. As Gilley states, the lack of input from stakeholders and a lack of social control, creates a risk of poor policy implementation. Therefore, new governance models are invented that reduce the lack of direction and coordination, and aim to increase the governance and planning effects in the long term on the society (Loorbach & Rotmans, 2009). These bottom-up approaches can result in a new balance between state, market and society.

Steenbergen, Clifton, Visser et al (2017) argue that in order to counter dominant top-down influences, governance in coastal cities needs to be more responsive to local realities, and needs to develop upward influences in order to gain more support from local communities. Steenbergen et al furthermore states that a focus to improve accountability and transparency is essential in order to avoid the common pitfalls of decentralisation. As Buijs (2016) argues, active citizens may contribute to the environmental, social and institutional resilience of cities. Furthermore, several scholars (Fors, Molin, Murphy et al 2015; Dennis & James, 2016) have shown a correlation between community participation and the success of urban green commons, expressed in an increased amount of biodiversity.

This suggests that in order to increase the success-rate of projects in neighbourhoods, sustainable livelihood of the community should be integrated within the water-energy-food nexus. According to Biggs et al (2015), this requires the identification of the inter-linkages between these securities, as well as the assets of human populations and the natural environment. This environmental livelihood security framework (ELS) acknowledges the mutually dependent relationship between water and livelihood, as water is needed to support livelihood activities, and livelihood activities can contribute to or deplete water security.

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An example of how this works in practice, is provided by Dennis & James (2016). They state that user participation in green spaces, such as maintaining parks, doesn’t just benefit the parks, but can also contribute to a better quality of life of the local community. Several projects have aimed to benefit to the SDG’s by developing programmers where citizen-uses physically take part in ongoing maintenance. Dennis & James (2016) furthermore prove that there is a synergistic relationship between green space use and biodiversity. This shows that human participation doesn’t just contribute to a better quality of life, but also benefits to the ecosystem.

2.3 Sustainable flood management

As the text above shows, the role of governance and cities in sustainable development has become much more important. Concerns regarding climate-related flood hazards have led to increasing interests in understanding the links between these ecosystem services, climate change trends, flood and human responses. This section focuses on sustainable flood management. First, some definitions regarding flood management are discussed. Subsequently, water sensitive urban design (WSUD) as a response to floods is presented, together with the barriers of implementing WSUD. Finally, the sponge city idea that is currently being implemented in Shenzhen is discussed.

As defined in Burrell, Davar & Hughes (2007), flood management includes activities that prevent floods, reduce the probability of a flood, or lessen the damaging effects of unavoidable floods. As the starting point for urban flood risk assessment, hazard analyses are conducted to identify the occurrence probabilities and magnitude metrics (Yin et al, 2014). According to the IPCC (2007 & 2012), vulnerability is composed by

Figure 2 – Environmental livelihood security framework.

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exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, whereas risk is calculated by chance x consequence, where chance refers to the probability of the accident occurring, while consequence refers to the expected loss in case of flood. Burrell et al (2007) state that risk assessment for flooding is determined by the degree of vulnerability to hardship and financial losses, in the areas susceptible to flooding.

Until the middle of the previous century, the approach to prevent floods was mainly about flood control, including building dams and protection works, whereas the contemporary approach includes considering all methods for flood control, that is compatible with policies and funds and thus cost-effective, including human adjustment to floods: adaptation instead of mitigation (Burrell et al, 2007). Mitigation flood measures include mostly hard measures such as building dams, levees and protection works, whereas adaptation measures focuses on dealing with inevitable floods.

Flood risk management shouldn’t rely solely on hard-engineering approaches, as this is unlikely to be successful in the long term. According to Chan, Mitchell & McDonald (2012), sustainable flood risk management should involve a wider use of a soft-engineering approach, and should include active engagement with stakeholders. Flood management also needs to be addressed at the community level. This could be done by more adaptive measures, such as increasing public awareness of the hazards of flood, or by building community resilience to floods by facilitating flood proofing and investments that strengthen economic, human and social capacity (Kumar, 2001). In the context of governance of flooding, governance is the norms and values and mechanisms of cooperation that allow coordination between spatial planning strategies and flood-risk management actions (Francesch-Huidobro, 2015). Evidently, proper national and regional governmental action should be undertaken to tackle possible flood disasters.

2.3.1 Water Sensitive Urban Design

This section focuses on water sensitive urban design as a response to floods in cities. As discussed previously, cities and towns can face water restriction in response to drought and water scarcity, while at the same time suffer from floods and extreme weather events. Evidently, this combination of low water availability and (future) effects of climate change can compromise human health and security. According to Coutts, Tapper, Beringer et al (2012), water sensitive urban design (WSUD) provides a mechanism for retaining water in the urban landscape, through storm water harvesting and re-use to meet ecological, social and financial objectives, while reducing urban temperatures through evapotranspiration. In this thesis, the definition of WSUD of the Council of Australian governments (2004) is used: “The integration of urban planning with the management, protection and conservation of the urban water cycle that ensures urban water management is sensitive to natural hydrological and ecological processes”. According to this definition, WSUD should lean on three pillars: Water conservation; wastewater minimisation; storm water management.

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WSUD is also known as Low Impact Development (LID), Storm water Best Management Practices (BMP’s) or Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). Urban drainage systems are generally designed to rapidly escort storm water from the urban environment in order to minimize flood risk created by an extensive impervious surface cover. WSUD aims to minimize the hydrological impacts of urban development, specifically targeting storm water. This can be achieved by the collection, treatment and storage of storm water, through features as vegetated bio-retention systems, permeable pavements, wetlands , rainwater tanks and distribution through irrigation.

Sharma, Pezzaniti, Myers et al (2016) focus on evaluating the implementation of WSUD, its drivers and impediments. The outcomes of this research indicate the benefits of this multi-level approach, including the focus on storm water management. According to Sharma et al, local water professionals reported that the most common drivers for the WSUD implementation in Australia were storm water flow reduction, improved runoff water quality and water conservation. Furthermore, this article shows that if rainwater or detention tanks are provided in 38% of the homes, peak-flow reduction of storm water can be realized. Morison & Brown (2011) state there is a strong municipal commitment to WSUD in areas bounded by the coast. Furthermore, Morison & Brown argue for policy reform for WSUD, considering the highly committed municipality, and emphasizes the need to enable the participation of the public and municipalities, by linking WSUD to greater public concerns. Based on two WSUD projects in Australia, Singh & Kandasamy (2009) show that the projects reached their water quality objectives through good design development, community and stakeholder consultation project management and innovative construction of storm water treatment systems. According to Singh & Kandasamy (2009), the water quality has surpassed all standards for discharge to the bay, and anticipates that the reduction of nutrient and sediments loads will provide a habitat for flora and fauna in the bays.

2.3.2 Barriers to implementing WSUD

Sharma et al (2016) listed several barriers to implementing WSUD. As Sharma et al show, there is often a lack of a clear technical and economic justification for WUSD, as

Figure 3 – A schematic view of WSUD on city-level

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there is a lack of understanding of how small-scale features can contribute to reducing storm water flows and improve the water quality. Furthermore, Sharma et al state that the design-element of WSUD is often constrained by poor implementation by executing companies. Sharma et al stress the need for the companies involved in the design of WSUD to also maintain oversight during the construction phase. In many cases, there has been no validation and monitoring of WSUD approaches, so there is no way of determining if the sustainability objectives that the approaches were designed for, are actually achieved.

Dabrowski et al (2016) identified several barriers in implementing WSUD in the Pearl River Delta. Dabrowski et al show that often, coordination is missing: the central government has little means of enforcing implementation of national policies locally, which ends up in counterproductive results. Also, short-term thinking is the norm, for example in Haizhu Lake in Guangzhou, where an expressway is hindering the water storage capacity of the lake. Furthermore, as typhoons and the related floods are seen as normal by the Chinese residents, the focus is on draining the excess water rather than on preventing storm surge floods. Urbanisation is still the priority of the government, and flood risk management seems to lag behind. Still, there are signs that the barriers of implementing sustainable urban development in the Pearl River Delta are slowly lifted, as programmes such as the sponge city project makes a better water management a national priority. At the local level, some water governance and urban development projects fit in the description of urban climate change adaptation, but are not labelled as such yet (Dabrowski et al, 2016).

2.3.3 WSUD in China: sponge cities

As described previously, WSUD has attracted much attention as an approach for urban flood mitigation in China. Chinese cities have suffered from heavy flooding and waterlogging hazards, due to extreme precipitation, the low criteria of urban drainage systems and the large proportion of impervious areas. As Yin (2014) states, China’s urban environments are particularly vulnerable to flooding due to climate change and rapid urbanization. The enhanced consequences of urban flooding are generally attributed to climate change and urbanization. According to Yin (2014), ongoing urbanization amplifies the adverse effects of floods by increasing runoff from impervious surfaces and blocking water flow. Poor urban planning and insufficient adaptation measures in developing countries further contribute to urban floods. Hu, Sayama, Zhang et al (2017) show that the implementation of WSUD in Chinese cities can, to some extent, mitigate flood inundation hazards in watersheds.

In order to mitigate these urban flood disasters, the central government of China has proposed its plans for constructing ‘sponge cities’ nationwide in 2014 (Wang, 2016). The sponge city programs promote the application of WSUD in order to overcome the shortcomings of China’s traditional urban storm water management. According to Liu, Huan, Su et al (2015), the sponge city concept emphasizes combining natural and constructed methods of storm water management that will collect, store and filter

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rainwater in urban areas, to promote rainwater conservation. The aim of sponge cities is not just to tackle flooding, but also try to offer a solution for water shortages. Results from a sponge city program in Australia show how effective sponge cities can be: the Figtree programme resulted in total water saving of 60% and almost complete storm runoff detention (Coombe, Argue and Kuczera, 1999).

In order to tackle urban flood disaster, water deterioration and the urban heat island effect, sponge city has details above ground and below-ground (Wang, 2016). Below the ground, a water basin is built in order to retain the water that is caught above the ground. The water can be caught by permeable pavement, gutters or by green spaces such as parks or rain gardens. Besides collecting water, public green spaces benefit strongly to sustainable cities, as they provide a wide range of environmental, aesthetic and health benefits. Furthermore, as Corbett & Mellouli (2017) show, green spaces can contribute to the quality of life of residents. This shows that sponge city has the potential to not only contribute to flood managing and water purification, but also to enhance the quality of life of local communities.

Figure 4 – A public green space on top of a mall in Shenzhen

Source: Picture taken by author

Summarizing the theoretical framework, it is evident that cities contribute in a large extent to climate change, while they are at the same time very vulnerable for its effects. The main effects of climate change are water-related, and cities can help in mitigating climate change or aim to adapt to the effects of climate change. Evidently, in order to reach the SDG’s by 2030, cities should develop and implement a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to sustainable development. Unfortunately, the literature so far suggests that many cities that engage in city branding have economic rather than environmental motives. In order to successfully help tackle the harmful effects of

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climate change, adaptive governance has much to offer. The overview of literature suggests that multi-layered governance types that focus on community inclusion are most likely to contribute to tackle the effects of climate change in cities, while also contributing to the quality of life of its population. Furthermore, in dealing with water related effects of climate change, cities should rely on both hard and soft measures. The sponge city project that has recently been launched in China poses as a possible answer to the water-related effects of climate change in China. However, as this project was only launched recently, there is not much information available on this subject. This thesis aims to contribute more information on the implementation of the sponge city policy. The next chapter will introduce the study area and institutional context of this research.

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3. Contextual Framework

This chapter aims to provide a more detailed overview to the context of this thesis. First, a general introduction to China is provided. Then, climate change in China is discussed. Subsequently, an overview of water security and flood risk management in the Pearl River Delta is provided. Thereafter, the study area is introduced. Finally, the institutional context in China is discussed, including environmental governance in China. This chapter aims not only to provide an overview of the study area, but also poses as a navigation through the main points of interests in this research.

3.1 An introduction to China

During the Maoist era (1949-1976), the Chinese state emphasised on agricultural production and heavy industry (Cartier, 2002). During this period, China had shut its doors and became isolated from other countries. In 1978, reform policies began to rearrange the national economy, in favour of rapid development in the country. After 1978, urban areas in China began redeveloping quickly, replacing traditional low-rise buildings for typical six-storey concrete buildings. As a result, the built environment of Chinese cities dramatically changed, as urban areas were enlarged and replaced wetlands and rural areas.

There are two striking characteristics to China’s demography. On the one hand, there is the well-known ever-growing population. However, as Jiang (2015) shows, this population growth has been slowing down to less than 0.6% in 2012. As a result, China is expected to experience rapid ageing and urbanisation over the next two decades. According to Chen, Dietzenbacher & Los (2017), China’s population aged over 65 will be around 20 % in 2030. The population peak of China is projected to take place in 2030. Furthermore, there is a rapid urbanization going on in China. From 2013 to 1978, the urban population in China has grown over 250% (Jiang, 2015). Urban areas in the Pearl River Delta in South China have expanded by over 300% between 1988 and 1996. As Chen et al (2015) show, rural-urban migrants in China are mostly young people, so the problem of the ageing population will be more serious in rural areas than in urban areas. As the urbanisation in China continued, the built environment in Chinese cities changed quickly. Remarkably, as shown by Su, Wei and Zhao (2017), the expansion speed of built areas in Chinese cities is larger than the urbanisation rate, which led to a reduction of the urban population density. However, the effects of this lands sprawl include several economic, environmental and social issues.

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As China is the second largest country of the world, its complex topography and unique climate systems make it difficult to describe the physical environment of the country. For this reason, a description of the physical characteristics of China as a whole is omitted in this thesis. The next section focuses on climate change in China, and the section thereafter elaborates on the physical environment in the Pearl River Delta, where Shenzhen is situated.

3.1.1 Climate change in China

As Gilley (2012) shows, China accounted for 25% of the global CO2 emissions in 2009, and is expected to account for half of global CO2 emissions by 2030. It is also the country where the absolute impacts of climate change will be greatest: the melting of Tibetan glaciers, sinking of Shanghai, devastating typhoons and an expected 5-10% decline in agricultural production. As Tracy et al (2007) show, the physical consequences of climate change are being felt for decades already: from drought, to floods to a demonstrable rise in sea level.

As Jiang (2015) shows, a strong warming trend has been observed in China over the past 50 years. Among the risks of climate change, an uneven distribution of annual precipitations in different regions in China could lead to drought or flood damage to varying degrees (Guo, Huang, Wang et al, 2017). There is a strong variability in the country, as the drier north of China has been receiving less rainfall (a decline of 12% since 1960), while the wetter south of China has received more rainfall (Jiang, 2015). As Chan et al (2013) state, it can be foreseen that global sea-level rise will further increase the impact of storm surges, in particular causing low-lying deltaic and coastal flood-prone areas to be more vulnerable. According to Ding, Ren, Shi et al (2006), the annual average precipitation of China will increase by 5-7% and the 100-year storm surge event in the Yangtze River delta could become a 10-year event by 2050. Jiang (2015) shows that the mean annual runoff will increase in the water-abundant South, while decreasing in the northern provinces. At the same time, the drainage network of many Chinese cities is out of date and functions insufficiently.

Furthermore, China faces serious pollution from carbon emissions, and thus feels a pressing need for sustainable development (Qu, & Liu, 2016). China aims to adjust the industrial structure, and to develop clean and renewable energy. At the Climate Conference in Paris in 2015, China promised that it would cut the carbon intensity of its economy by 60-65% below 2005 levels by 2030. The realisation of this goal requires action in all environmental policies, and the emission reduction control target is assessed each year (Wu, Gong, Zhou et al, 2016). Furthermore, several projects have been initiated in order to reduce this pollution.

The Chinese government initiated a series of eco-city related projects for tackling environmental degradation and pursuing sustainable urban development firstly in 1994 (Li & Qiu, 2015). Afterwards, several initiatives have been developed, and Liu, Lin, Wang et al (2017) shows that currently, over 200 green ecological demonstration projects are

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under construction in the major cities of Shenzhen. As Liu et al (2017) and De Jong et al(2013a) show, the Chinese government has devoted substantial attention and resources to administrative capacity building for sustainable development and is providing national funding to markets and real-estate developers to promote eco-city constructions such as low-carbon city, or the recent sponge city project as introduced in the previous chapter. More information on environmental policy and governance in China is provided in chapter 3.3.2.

The water, energy, food nexus in China

As Jiang (2015) shows, the interaction between water and food is of a particular importance to China’s sustainable development, as China’s food supply is mostly depending on the north, dry part of China. Thus, food production in north China is limited by insufficient surface water and thus uses a large amount of groundwater. Combined with the rising population, changing diets and the effects of climate change, groundwater depletion is looming, thus threatening the sustainability of food production.

The energy sector in China intensively uses water, which is in conflict with the scarcity of water resources. The consumption of coal is significantly larger in China than in the rest of the world, as china’s energy supply is mainly fuelled by coal. This further influences the poor air quality in China, and is responsible for 20% of all water withdrawals (Schneider, 2011). This leads to the question whether there will be sufficient water to sustain China’s energy production, and if China will be able to achieve both water and energy security.

As Jiang (2015) illustrates, China’s water resources are unevenly distributed: the water availability in North China is about 904 m3 per capita per year, while the per capita availability in South China is 3280 m3. This results to severe water scarcity problems in North China, that threaten the socio-economic development and sustainability of the entire country. At the same time, there are water abundance problems in South China. According to Burrell et al(2007), China knows a long history of flood-related problems. As Burrell shows, the frequency of flooding in China increased quickly since 1990. Although climate change might appear to be an underlying factor, Burrell shows that the main source of these problems are human activities such as deforestation and resource over-exploitation, which lead to soil-erosion problems and reduced flood-reducing capacities.

Evidently, China faces challenges in meeting the growing demand for food, water and energy under an increasing environmental pressure. Although these sectors are interconnected, the connection in terms of policy and implementation is still weak (Rasul, 2016). The development of policies and approaches have no regard for cross-sectoral consequences yet, and poor coordination triggered an unsustainable use of resources and thus threatens the sustainability of WEF in the region. Rasul (2016)

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suggests that cross-sectoral strategies should be implemented in order to strengthen regulation in the WEF-sectors.

3.1.2 Water governance in the Pearl River Delta

The study area of this thesis, Shenzhen, is situated in the Guangdong Province in south China. That means that, according to the section above, the water-related problems in this area are mainly problems of water abundance. This section will provide more information on water management in the research area. The entire Pearl River Delta (PRD) is discussed here, as water is a transboundary resource and thus the problems regarding water in Shenzhen affect the entire delta of the Pearl River, and should be considered on a larger scale than just on city-level.

The PRD is situated in the south of China, and is known as one of the wealthiest and most urbanised areas of China. At the same time, the PRD extra vulnerable to consequences of climate change (Francesch-Huidobro, 2015). Land use in the PRD is dramatically changing, especially in Shenzhen, as a result of rapid economic growth in the PRD. Between 1979 and 2004, over 63.6% of its agricultural land has been transformed to residential and industrial areas (Chan et al, 2013).

Due to climate change, the frequency of extreme weather events in the Pearl River Delta has increased (Yang, Scheffran, Qin et al 2015). According to Chan et al(2012), big cities in the Pearl River Delta such as Hong Kong and Shenzhen face increasing flood risk from sea level rise; increasing frequency of storms and surges and inland pluvial flooding caused by more intense precipitation, as the return period of intense precipitation has shortened over the last century (Lee, Wong & Woo, 2010). Furthermore, other actors such as subsidence, ocean currents and water discharge influence regional sea-level rise in the PRD (Lee et al, 2010). This might result in the relocation of over 1 million people in the PRD, and could damage over 6500km2 of coastal regions in the PRD. Together with the on-going urbanizing in flood-prone areas, this is expected not only to increase flood frequency, but also to aggravate both the scale and degree of flooding in the Pearl River Delta (Yang et al, 2015). Chan et al(2013) states that inland urban flooding is likely to overload the flood water capacity of the urban drainage system in the future, if

Figure 6: The location of Guangdong Province in China Source: https://chinacentric.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/

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there are no adaptation practices, particularly taking in consideration the recent rapid land-use changes and urbanization in the region.

Evidently, the flood management strategies in the PRD should cope with these pressures. However, as Chan et al(2012) state, such strategies are relatively undeveloped in the PRD. Chan et al (2012) state that these strategies fail to address a broader range of concerns compatible with sustainable development. Apparently, wider opportunities for flood risk mitigation are overlooked, and hard-engineering solutions continue to dominate. This suggests a lack of a holistic approach, and a need of an approach with more attention for wider opportunities for flood risk mitigation.

3.2 Study area: Shenzhen

The study area of this research is Shenzhen. Shenzhen is situated in the south of the Pearl River Delta, in the Guangdong province.

Up until the 1970’s, Shenzhen existed out of a collection of several villages, with a population of about 350.000, and it’s only function was as a border between Hong Kong and mainland China. However, during the 1970’s, Shenzhen began its transformation to a large city in the Pearl River Delta. This was further influenced by the moving of 80.000 factories from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. In 1979, Shenzhen was, as first city in China, appointed as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The goal of the SEZ was to attract foreign investment, promote exports and to evaluate different economic policies. After 1979, the slogan “Time is money, efficiency is life” was introduced in order to motivate the

Figure 7 – The location of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province

Source: http://china-trade-research.hktdc.com/business-news/article/Facts-and-Figures/PRD- Economic-Profile/ff/en/1/1X000000/1X06BW84.htm

Towards sustainable flood risk management in Shenzhen : an analysis of the implementation of sponge city policy in Shenzhen, China