Sino-Dutch research agreement on new ways to build a sponge city
Hanging Water Tank and Hengji Water Group agreed to start a joint research programme on investigating and demonstrating the use and possibilities of rainwater collection in and around ‘sponge’ buildings.
The agreement was signed at the Sino-Dutch Sponge City Development Seminar in Chongqing, China, on 5 June.
Impression of the innovative elements presented by Hanging Water Tank to store rainwater in and around a building.
Practical approach
Many Chinese cities experience waterlogging during the raining season. In order to improve the drainage challenge in these cities, the Chinese government has launched big sponge city projects in a number of pilot cities.
On the occasion of signing the agreement, general manager Bert Dautzenberg of Hanging Water Tank warned for the large scale implementation of these sponge cities. ‘This can still be limiting’, he said. ‘We actively promote sponge buildings, which is on a much smaller scale. This makes the opportunities and possibilities much clearer to municipalities and governments.’
Sponge building
Hanging Water Tank developed a concept to store – and potentially use - rain water in and around a building. The concept includes several innovative technical elements.
‘We can build a sponge building within two weeks’, Dautzenberg continued, ‘and the gathered data is put online so that everyone can use it.’
The construction of a sponge city is a complex task of systems engineering and requires the support of a high volume of data about the city's natural geography, social economy, water resources, and eco-environment.
Dautzenberg emphasized that the data they collect is internationally available. Such a widespread network also benefits from broad support.
Increased cooperation
The willingness and readiness of Chinese partners and the government is something that also pleasantly surprised Dautzenberg. ‘Hengji Water Group and the Chinese government have invested a lot in this project from their side. There was a very sincere interest in our project and to work together.’
Urban water management
All aspects of potential cooperation on urban water management were emphasized during the Sino-Dutch Sponge City Development seminar.
At the seminar Dutch and Chinese experts talked about building a resilient city adaptive to climate change, dynamic planning, monitoring and evaluation technologies for water management,
It was agreed that there are many opportunities for fruitful Sino-Dutch cooperation in future projects.
This news item was originally published on the website of The Netherlands and you.
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● Expo Milano: Sense of urgency in cities to increase capacity to absorb more water, 18 September 2015
● Two days to go: AIWW rain proof festival turns Amsterdam's Dam square into blue green oasis, 30 October 2015
More information
Hanging Water Tank
Doorwerth, the Netherlands
bertdautzenberg@hangingwatertank.com
www.hangingwatertank.com
Innovative elements of the urban rainwater system are explained in this promotion movie by Hanging Water Tank.