Abstract
<jats:p>Launched in 2014, China’s Sponge City (SC) initiative represents one of the world’s most ambitious efforts to integrate nature‑based solutions into urban stormwater management for a variety of benefits. Although widely adopted as a dominant planning model across Chinese cities, SC’s long-term effectiveness and viability remain debated. Moreover, the scope and potential impact of SC initiatives have multidisciplinary implications. To address these gaps, this study adopts a novel conceptual framework and further elaborates its theoretical foundation for evaluating SC viability across six dimensions: Environment, Economy, Governance, Civic Engagement, Urban Form, and Human Wellbeing. The framework extends traditional sustainability models by expanding social and spatial considerations, which are critical factors in the urban context and often underexamined in SC research. The vast scope of SC scholarship makes it challenging to assess the viability of the national initiative in China. Thus, we conducted a systematic review of reviews and an assessment of thematic relevance across the six dimensions of the framework. Findings reveal a heavy focus on the Environmental dimension, while other important dimensions receive substantially less attention. This imbalance suggests that current scholarship may offer a partial understanding of SC viability, underscoring the need for more integrated, interdisciplinary, and evidence-based research.</jats:p>