A park path that disappears under floodwater might look like a design failure. At Yanweizhou Park in Jinhua, Zhejiang, some paths were deliberately made floodable. The aim was to create a landscape that could accommodate high water, with planting and routes arranged around that possibility.
Turenscape, the design practice led by landscape architect Kongjian Yu, completed the park in 2014. It occupies a river-junction setting where the Wuyi and Yiwu rivers meet. This gives “sponge city” thinking a real place to examine, rather than leaving it as a cheerful comparison between a city and a kitchen sponge.
The riverbank is a series of terraces
The designers’ account describes planted terraces along the embankment, with paths and pavilions that can flood. Access to those areas is intended to close during high water. The choice concerns how a part of the park is used at different times; it is not an invitation to walk into a flood.
The design also includes permeable surfaces, planted depressions and a pond. These elements have different jobs in receiving or moving water. A depression can hold some water temporarily; a permeable surface offers a route through the surface rather than sending all runoff straight across it.
Their usefulness depends on the whole arrangement. A patch of planting cannot be assessed only by whether it looks green, and a pond does not become flood protection simply by being attractive. Position, capacity, surrounding land and maintenance all affect the work a feature can do.
The bridge gives people another route
The park’s winding pedestrian bridge connects riverbank areas with the site. In the designers’ explanation, its elevated structure and lower connections respond differently to high water. Some access ramps can be submerged even when the higher bridge remains above the water level it was designed for.
That distinction is important. Saying there is an elevated bridge does not establish that every route onto it stays usable in every storm. A connected public space still needs access decisions when conditions change.
The bridge also changes an ordinary day at the park. A river can separate nearby parts of a city even when the distance on a map seems small. A pedestrian connection makes the landscape part of people’s routes, rather than something they can admire only from the opposite bank.
Why call a city a sponge?
The World Bank’s 2021 explanation of China’s sponge-city approach describes combining planted and water-based measures with conventional infrastructure. Rain gardens, wetlands and permeable surfaces sit within wider drainage and flood management, rather than replacing every pipe or protective structure.
The sponge comparison is useful because it directs attention to the beginning of rainfall’s journey. Water falling on a sealed surface tends to become runoff. Giving some of it places to enter, wait or move more slowly can change how it reaches the wider system.
But a real city has slopes, catchments, roads, buildings and connected rivers. Its behaviour cannot be predicted by pouring water onto two household objects. Rainfall intensity and duration matter, and the available storage can be exceeded. Engineers need evidence about the particular location and storm, not just a convincing metaphor.
Design continues after the opening photograph
The World Bank stresses wider flood protection, maintenance, forecasting and warning systems. These belong beside nature-based measures because the consequences of a storm extend beyond one planted space. A park can contribute to an approach without guaranteeing that the entire city will never flood.
The Yanweizhou project description is the designers’ account of their intended arrangements. It explains how the parts were conceived; it is not an independent measurement of performance during every subsequent flood. Keeping that distinction clear makes it possible to appreciate the design without turning it into an unlimited promise.
What the park offers is a concrete change in the question. Instead of only asking how to keep water outside a public landscape, its designers also asked which parts could receive it and how the landscape could remain useful between floods. A path can belong to a park even when, for a time, the sensible decision is to close it and let the river take its space.