The "sponge city" initiative was designed to make greater use of lower-impact "nature-based solutions" to better distribute water and improve drainage and storage.
A total of 30 pilot sponge cities were selected in 2015 and 2016.
By last year, only 64 of China's 654 cities had produced legislation to implement sponge city guidelines, researchers said in January.
Even if sponge city measures had been implemented in full, they would have been unable to prevent this year's disasters.
This year's heavy rain hit cities in the normally arid north, where sponge city development is less advanced.
Persons:
David Stanway
Organizations:
REUTERS, Thomson
Locations:
Poyang county, Jiangxi province, China, Zhengzhou, Henan province, Beijing