Urban flooding occurs frequently in many regions of China. To reduce the losses caused by urban flooding, sponge city (SPC) and low-impact development (LID) have been carried out in many Chinese cities. However, urban flooding is influenced by various factors, such as climate, land cover characteristics and nearby river networks, so it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of LID measures. In this study, the Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) was adopted to simulate historical urban storm processes in the mountainous Fragrance Hills region of Beijing, China. Subsequently, numerical simulations were performed to evaluate how various LID measures (concave greenbelt, permeable pavement, bio-retention, vegetative swales, and comprehensive measures) influenced urban runoff reduction. The results showed that the LID measures are effective in controlling the surface runoff of the storm events with return periods shorter than five years, in particular, for one-year events. Furthermore, the effectiveness on traffic congestion mitigation of several LID measures (concave greenbelt, vegetative swales, and comprehensive measures) was evaluated. However, the effective return periods of storm events are shorter than two years if the effectiveness on traffic congestion relief is considered. In all evaluated aspects, comprehensive measures and concave greenbelts are the most effective, and vegetative swale is the least effective. This indicated that LID measures are less effective for removing ponding from most storm events in a mountainous, low-lying and backward pipeline infrastructure region with pressures from interval flooding and urban waterlogging. The engineering measures including water conservancy projects and pipeline infrastructure construction combined with the non-engineering measures were suggested to effectively control severe urban storms.

In recent years, urban waterlogging problems have become more and more serious, which has led to flood disasters in some cities. The Chinese government launched the sponge city pilot construction in 2015 to mitigate the risk of urban flooding and control the runoff in source areas. Rain-runoff control is one of the main indices of a sponge city, thus, evaluating its control effect is essential for sponge city construction. This paper chose Fenghuang city, located in the west of Hunan province, as a case study area to assess the rainwater control effect by using the MIKE FLOOD model. The results showed that: (1) the total annual runoff control rate (TARCR) of sponge city design was a reasonable indicator for daily rainwater control; (2) the goal of Fenghuang Sponge City was close to the 1-year rainfall event; and (3) infiltration and storage measures could reduce but not eliminate urban waterlogging. The capacity of the drainage system should be fundamentally improved to enhance the prevention standards of urban waterlogging.