From single-purpose facilities to ecological infrastructure: functional evolution and research frontiers of stormwater bioretention systems

Abstract

As urbanization accelerates, traditional gray drainage facilities struggle to meet modern stormwater management needs. Consequently, stormwater bioretention systems—core to sponge city construction—have become research hotspots due to their combined storage, purification, and ecological restoration capabilities. This paper systematically reviews recent progress in this field. First, it compares area- and volume-based sizing methods, highlighting their limitations under dynamic responses and extreme rainfall. Second, it analyzes media composition and purification mechanisms, discussing performance differences between single and combined media, alongside long-term bottlenecks like clogging and adsorption saturation. Third, it elaborates on vegetation’s roles in hydrological regulation and pollutant removal, emphasizing configurations that balance ecological adaptability and functional synergy. Furthermore, it evaluates mainstream models (e.g., SWMM, HYDRUS, MUSIC) and summarizes experimental design trends toward multi-factor, long-term, and real-world scenarios. Finally, future prospects are proposed regarding system collaborative optimization, long-term performance evolution, multi-scale model coupling, and climate adaptation. Ultimately, bioretention systems are evolving from single-purpose treatment facilities into integrated ecological infrastructures, requiring interdisciplinary integration and whole-process optimization to enhance urban stormwater governance.