Like a sponge, cities can have good "elasticity" in adapting to environmental changes and responding to natural disasters. The international common term is "low impact development rainwater system construction". When it rains, it absorbs, stores, seeps and purifies water. When it is needed, it releases and uses the stored water to realize free migration of rainwater in cities. From the perspective of ecosystem services, the core of sponge city is to build water ecological infrastructure by cross scale and combining various specific technologies.

On March 5, 2017, at the fifth meeting of the Twelfth National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, Premier Li Keqiang's government work report mentioned that: coordinate urban overground and underground construction, start construction of more than 2000 kilometers of urban underground pipe gallery, launch a three-year action to eliminate key waterlogging prone areas in urban areas, and promote sponge city construction, so that the city has both "face" and "interior".

In the new situation, the sponge city is an innovative expression of promoting green building construction, low-carbon city development, and the formation of a smart city. It is an organic combination of modern green new technology and social, environmental, cultural and other factors under the background of new era characteristics.

The substantial application of "sponge city" materials has shown excellent features such as water seepage, compression resistance, wear resistance, skid resistance, environmental protection, beauty, color, comfort, easy maintenance, sound absorption and noise reduction. It has become a "breathing" urban landscape pavement, effectively alleviates the urban heat island effect, and makes the urban pavement no longer hot.