THE city’s major engineering designing body has begun renovating neighborhoods in Pudong’s Lingang area in a pilot operation to enable them to better capture and store rainwater “like a sponge.”

The trial projects have been carried out in 19 neighborhoods in Lingang New City along the East China Sea, and they will be promoted citywide, the Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design Institute (Group) Co said over the weekend.

The projects are part of the city government’s “sponge city” blueprint that is aimed at making local neighborhoods, streets and greenery lands better able to capture and store rainwater to ease the impact on the city during both rainy and arid seasons.