Potentials for Sponge City Implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Anna Thoms () and Stephan Köster
Additional contact information
Anna Thoms: Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management, Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
Stephan Köster: Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management, Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 18, 1-21

Abstract: Despite the growing interest in implementing sponge cities (SPC), their potential is not yet being tapped in many fast-growing Sub-Saharan African cities. This is remarkable because SPC interventions can contribute considerably to increasing water safety and availability in a city. By means of a three-stage potential assessment, this study provides the first analysis of what concrete options can be identified for implementing the SPC concept in Sub-Saharan cities. The methodology was filled with information obtained especially from expert interviews, literature reviews, and satellite imagery. Thus, the analysis also considers what obstacles impede SPC implementation, and, in particular, what technical and socioeconomic constraints need to be taken into account. The cities of Hawassa (Ethiopia), Beira (Mozambique), Kigali (Rwanda), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and Cotonou (Benin) are examined in detail. Additionally, a local SPC implementation was conceptualized and evaluated for two districts in Ouagadougou and Cotonou. The first finding is that, when geographical and socioeconomic aspects such as climatic patterns, migration flows, health risks, and existing infrastructure are sufficiently taken into account, SPC interventions would massively help African cities to mitigate current and urgent challenges such as water scarcity and urban flooding. In terms of water safety, the second key finding is that rainwater harvesting solutions at the household level could be implemented quickly; however, there would be substantial difficulties such as lack of financing and maintenance as well as claims of ownership, especially in informal settlements and slums. Thus, it seems quite promising to directly strive for a rapid “centralization” of SPC implementation in individual neighborhoods. This neighborhood approach paves the way for SPC measures to receive public acceptance and constant maintenance. When this mosaic of implementations comes together, many individual instances of SPC implementation can help to improve urban resilience and living conditions for the city dwellers as is here demonstrated for the districts in Cotonou and Ouagadougou.

Keywords: sponge city; green infrastructure; Sub-Saharan Africa; urban rainwater management; flood protection; urban planning; rainwater harvesting; climate change; urban growth; African urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11726/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/18/11726/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:18:p:11726-:d:918503

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().