Globally, old urban neighborhood transformation has become a new urban sustainability focus for its significant contribution to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 11. A regeneration-oriented approach is particularly important for Chinese cities with a dwindling land supply, obsoleting infrastructure, and inadequate standard of living. Using a mixed-methods approach informed by BREEAM Communities, we examined two Chinese initiatives—old urban neighborhood renewal (OUNR) and sponge city development (SCD)—through a comprehensive study of pilot project sustainability, policy emphases and gaps, and broader governance implications. We found that SCD’s top-down technocratic management was highly efficient in enhancing neighborhood hydrological functions and physical environment. However, successes were undermined by the lack of climate considerations and civic participation. Besides actionable recommendations for applied scholarship and policymaking in China, we provide insight into how the OUNR/SCD initiatives may broadly inform worldwide urban regeneration practices through project and policy experimentations that build adaptive capacity.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are key for managing water resources, as well as providing many other benefits. While traditionally “gray” highly engineered strategies have been used to manage water in urban areas, we articulate the role that NBS can play in managing water related to flooding, drought, and water quality challenges. Specifically, NBS for water can range from hybrid ecological-technological features explicitly engineered to manage stormwater to other designed or intact natural features such as wetlands or parks that may provide water management as a co-benefit. Criteria are reviewed for choosing the best NBS for the intended goal(s), and we showcase several case examples of NBS for water resilience from around the world. Remaining knowledge gaps for NBS for water implementation include space challenges, changes in performance over time, and incorporation of NBS that are not explicitly engineered for water management into existing management and regulatory frameworks.