Known as gray infrastructure, these "industrialized [solutions]" can fail or have "bad side effects," Yu Kongjian, the architect who pitched the idea of "sponge cities," told NPR. From our morning ...

Landscape architect Kongjian Yu’s radical idea to tackle climate change could be the way forward Sponge ... China Here’s a story about one man’s vision — a man who saw cities drowning ...

To date, the cities have received more than $12 billion for sponge projects. The effort faces several challenges, including China's burgeoning municipal debt crisis and its current urban planning ...