CRC for Water Sensitive Cities participates in China’s inaugural seminar on Urban Drainage and Pluvial Flooding Mitigation

The CRC for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC) was invited by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MoHURD) of China to participate in China’s inaugural Urban Drainage and Pluvial Flooding Mitigation seminar held in Guangzhou on 9 November 2013.  The seminar was organised by the MoHURD in response to an increase in pluvial flooding events in Chinese cities, due to high intensity rainfall and stormwater runoff filling the capacity of local drainage systems leading to overland flow.

The CRCWSC, the only international organisation invited, was represented by Jianbin Wang (International Engagement Manager – Asia). Jianbin’s presentation, entitled “The Water Sensitive City and its Multi-functional Drainage Infrastructure”, shared the CRCWSC’s perspective on how stormwater should be managed in future cities – an approach that will ensure that our cities use water sustainably, and have the resilience to cope with climatic extremes and uncertainties.

The presentation was well received by the audience of over 200 people from local water authorities, water utilities and industries. The water sensitive city approach of using green infrastructure to deliver multiple benefits to the urban community attracted a lot of attention. Jianbin explained that a water sensitive city:

• harnesses the potential of diverse water resources within its boundaries for water security;
• enhances and protects the health of watercourses and wetlands; and
• creates public spaces and blue/green corridors that harvest, clean and recycle water, enhance the urban microclimate, and mitigate flood risk and damage.

The MoHURD is particularly interested in this final concept of using blue/green corridors as integral elements of the city’s drainage infrastructure, and as floodways for flood conveyance during rare storms, and is interested to discover how this can be applied in Chinese cities. The CRCWSC is currently in discussions with MoHURD to identify a suitable city in China to demonstrate these ideas.