China Water Resources

"Sponge city" is regarded as a new approach to deal with serious ecological and environmental problems under the process of fast urbanization at present. In ancient times, we have accumulated valuable experiences of building adaptive landscapes in the process of water resources management over a long period of time and fighting against various water disasters, such as selection of site of settlement, water resources management in cities and formation of cities. This approach has reflected the thought of "sponge city" that has great significance to the design of city landscape. Research and studies on adaptive landscape in ancient cities by academic field both home and abroad in recent decades are introduced, among which the study results from the Middle East, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and ancient mayan civilization are plenty and most of the studies focus on water diversion and storage works. The contents and type of adaptive landscape are affected by precipitation and landscape characters. The key areas of current studies have transformed from single factors such as flood control or drought relief into comprehensive research including examining complex structure and complicated functions of water landscape. Along with development of modern technology, how to improve theories of "sponge city" construction and practice has become a key subject for modern landscape design, facing the increasingly degradation of water environment and ecosystem and the fact of heritages of water landscape in ancient cities have been damaged and disappeared with each passing day.