2025年2月10日，ASLA Dirt栏目发布专题报道《俞孔坚：水是气候行动的关键》，旨在分享北京大学建筑与景观设计学院院长，美国艺术与科学院院士俞孔坚教授及其合作者在《Nature Water》期刊发表的研究论文《To Solve Climate Change, We Need to Restore Our Sponge Planet》中的观点——“水是气候行动的关键”。基于其团队对近千个生态工程实践及其绩效的观察，指出当前以“碳”为中心的减缓行动、灰色基础设施主导的适应策略忽视了水生态系统在全球气候变化中的关键影响。而“海绵星球”则可以通过源头消纳滞蓄，过程减速消能和末端弹性适应的三大核心原则，从而实现地球的气候韧性。南昌鱼尾洲湿地公园、天津桥园公园、三亚红树林生态公园、海口美舍河凤翔公园等海绵城市项目验证了湿地和红树林等水生态系统的固碳效率超过陆地森林。俞孔坚指出，唯有将水循环修复置于气候行动核心，构建“海绵星球”，才能协同应对洪涝、极端高温、生物多样性丧失等危机，实现人类与自然的共生。此外，俞孔坚教授还呼吁景观设计师在项目中优先湿地修复、洪泛区保护等自然方案，并通过科学出版和政策倡导，推动行业从“美学导向”转向“科学战略工具”的定位。

以下为英文全文：

We can’t forget the central role of water in climate action, argues landscape architect Kongjian Yu, FASLA, founder of Turenscape, in a new research paper published in Nature Water. “Climate action must prioritize water—restoring the natural water cycle is just as critical as reducing carbon.”

Yu, along with co-authors Erica Gies, author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an age of drought and deluge, and Warren W. Wood, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University, argue that “getting off fossil fuels is undeniably a critical step in slowing climate change. But even if we did that tomorrow, it would not be enough.”

“Agriculture, forestry, grazing, mining, and building have degraded 75 percent of land on Earth, significantly altering the water cycle. That’s a problem because a healthy water cycle plays a key role in stabilizing the climate.”

They found that the conventional approach to development has “drained or filled as much as 87 percent of the world’s wetlands and dammed and diverted two-thirds of the world’s large rivers.” Since 1992, our encroachment into floodplains has “paved an area the size of Ukraine.”

For Yu, the answer to these global challenges are new infrastructure projects that “protect, restore, or mimic natural slow water systems.” These projects can mimic the natural water functions of wetlands, floodplains, mountains, meadows, and forests. In other words, Sponge Planet.

Retaining water through the landscape. ASLA 2010 Professional General Design Honor Award. Tianjin Qiaoyuan Park: The Adaptation Palettes. Tianjin City, China © Turenscape and Peking University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture / Cao Yang