Keyword Analysis and Systematic Review of China’s Sponge City Policy and Flood Management Research

With the acceleration of climate change and urbanisation, Chinese cities are facing increasingly severe flood risks. To address this challenge, China began implementing its sponge city policy in 2013, leveraging low-impact development, green infrastructure construction, and integrated water resource management to enhance urban resilience to floods and improve water security. This study utilises the Web of Science database as a reference, retrieving 201 relevant literature sources. From these, 61 studies closely related to China’s sponge city policy and urban flood management were selected. CiteSpace was employed to conduct keyword co-occurrence and temporal evolution analyses, comprehensively outlining the research hotspots and developmental trajectory of this field. The results indicate that research content has gradually shifted from early engineering-based flood control models to multi-objective, interdisciplinary comprehensive management, encompassing flood risk assessment, policy implementation mechanisms, integration of green infrastructure, and economic feasibility analysis. Based on this, this paper constructs an analytical framework incorporating technical, environmental, institutional, and social dimensions to integrate existing research findings, while identifying gaps in cross-scale coordination, smart management, and public participation. The research conclusions can provide valuable references for future policy optimisation and urban sustainable development.