The Shanghai Sponge City Demonstration Park is a collaboration between Shanghai Botanic Gardens Green Engineering Ltd (SHBGE), STAR Water Group and The Centre for Organic Research & Education (CORE). Located within Shanghai’s famous legendary Botanic Gardens, The Sponge City Demonstration Site not only features world’s best practice in urban water management but is also a refinement and testing ground for new innovation for future design. The collaboration project combines Shanghai Botanic Gardens horticultural and engineering expertise, along with their organics resource recovery & composting, as well as with CORE’s research capability and STAR Water’s technological and global experience.

What are Sponge Cities?

Sponge Cities is the vision of Premier Xi Jing Ping who recognised that a new approach was needed to address such problems as water quality, local flooding and water scarcity. The concept of the sponge city is to absorb, clean and make the cleaner water available for reuse or to make waterways healthier.

STAR Water’s Reactive Sponge Filter Technology is the “sponge” in Sponge Cities!

Convergence of Expertise for a Common Cause

The technologies showcased within the Demonstration Park contain Reactive Sponge Filter media produced using materials recovered and recycled within the Botanic Garden. This is achieved using STAR Water’s Kalkulus sponge filter design tool that selects the most appropriate proportions of each component to optimise the treatment capability. Shanghai Botanic Gardens Engineering (SHBGE) then manufactures Reactive Sponge Filters and assembles the various devices on display in the Demonstration Site.

SHBGE and STAR Water have formed a joint venture to provide the Reactive Sponge Filter technologies throughout Shanghai and other parts of China.

Collaborating Partners

In addition to SHBGE and STAR Water there are a number of other partners that have collaborated on the Shanghai Sponge City Demonstration Park. Shanghai Association of Landscape Architects are contributing design and materials testing services to the project. The Centre for Organic Research & Education (CORE) is providing research and educational capability that spans resource recovery to bio-filtration research and development.

The partners and collaborators would also like to thank the Shanghai Sponge City Committee members for their vision and support for the Demonstration Park.