Sponge Cities: Discover a concept that uses science to prevent tragedies like the one that happened in Republika Srpska | amazing

The question that has resonated in these difficult days, with so many scenes of devastation caused by rain in Rio Grande do Sul, is: What can cities do to avoid this kind of tragedy? One of the most innovative ideas in this field is its creation Sponge cities, Designed to absorb a large amount of water.

Chinese Congjian Yu, who today is considered one of the world’s greatest architects, is considered the father of the concept and spoke with amazing in New York.

“I’m from a small village with a river. I lived as a farmer for 17 years, and it taught me how to work with nature,” he says.

His village is located in the monsoon region, where rain falls non-stop in the summer. When he moved to a big city, Yu understood the cause of the floods.

“Nature adapts, it is alive,” he explains. “The concept of the sponge city is based on the principle that nature regulates water.”

Yu now works as an advisor to the Chinese government. He has designed works in over 70 citiesWhich today is capable of receiving more rain than has now fallen in Rio Grande do Sul There are three main points in every project he undertakes.

• The first point is It retains water when it descends from the sky: He says that 20% of each farm’s area should be allocated to water in dam systems, so that it doesn’t all end up going into the main river. There must be large permeable areas: porous and unpaved.
• The second is Slow down rivers – “When you slow the flow of water, you give nature the opportunity to absorb it. To slow it down, you can use plants and create a system of lakes.”
• The third point is Adapting cities to have areas susceptible to floodingwhere water can flow without causing destruction: creating large, natural floodable structures so that water can be contained for a period of time and then quickly absorbed into the water table without invading homes.

Understand better in the full report, in the video above.

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