Global Sponge Cities Snapshot

Our cities aren’t just concrete jungles. Every blade of grass, every tree, pond, lake and lump of soil together form vital infrastructure. As cities face increasing threats from climate change – including heavy rainfall and extreme heat events – they need to fully understand this natural infrastructure and how to enhance it. That’s why, using our Artificial Intelligence and land use analysis tool, Terrain, we have developed the Global Sponge Cities Snapshot looking at the urban centres of seven global cities: Auckland, London, Mumbai, Nairobi, New York, Shanghai and Singapore. Using Terrain, we calculated the amount of green and blue areas in the urban centres of each city. We then factored in the impact of soil types and vegetation and calculated the rainfall runoff potential. We used this to produce our sponge snapshot. This survey is not intended as a scorecard. Or an assessment of risk. Some cities may be less “spongy” but have fewer heavy rainfall events to cope with. The snapshot is aimed at getting cities thinking more about nature as an asset, as infrastructure – to be protected and enhanced.