2024 | Agriculture

“My engagement in sustainable practices is driven by a deep belief that we must preserve our natural resources for future generations and we must cherish nature.”

My name is Grace Ebelebe and I’m a 2024 Global Footprints Scholar.

Before I started this scholarship, I was studying agriculture at TAFE and had been working with Corethics on wastewater management sustainability in Indonesia. My passion and goal have always come from believing that we must preserve natural resources for future generations. We must protect nature.

I applied with one question: can Chinese sponge city principles be adopted in agricultural landscapes to help Australian farmers?

I wanted to explore sponge farm landscapes designed to absorb rainfall, reduce runoff, improve soil moisture and build resilience to floods and droughts. Australian farmers face devastating floods and severe droughts. I wanted to find a better way.

In December 2025, I joined a 14-day sponge city workshop with Turenscape Academy in Xixinan, Huangshan, Anhui Province, led by experts from Peking University and Turenscape. The program covered sponge city theory, ecological infrastructure, traditional water landscape design and real-world project case studies.

Sponge city planning works at three scales. At the macro level, water is managed across the entire region and catchment, protecting wetlands and farmland before development begins. At the mid level, wetlands and green corridors are woven into the city. At the micro level, individual sites absorb, filter and store water.

Underpinning all three is reverse planning: protect the natural landscape first and design everything around it.

During the workshop, I visited some of Turenscape’s landscape project sites: Fengxiang Park, the Meishe River Corridor and Xixinan Wangshan. With a classmate from Argentina, I visited Xucun Village to explore its history and relationship with water.

I also climbed Huangshan, or Yellow Mountain, a World Heritage landscape which is also known as one of the most beautiful mountains in all of China. This was a really tiring and extraordinary experience of my life.

The most surprising thing that I learned in China was this: you do not always have to invent something new. Those ancient water systems were already doing what most modern engineering is trying to do. They work with nature instead of working against it.

My concept of sponge farms is not about copying China’s urban model. It is about applying the same ecological logic to Australian agricultural land: slow the water, store it, filter it and reuse it.

It could include restored wetlands, vegetation along waterways, contour banks, cover crops and farm dams designed for both production and biodiversity. For Australian farmers facing droughts and floods, this could reduce runoff and build long-term resilience.

The five Sustainable Development Goals that I focused on during my scholarship were zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, climate action, life on land and partnerships for the goals.

China taught me to think about water as a system, something to work with and not to fight against. It showed me that sustainability solutions must be place-based, responding to the local climate, local culture and local community. I believe this is very important when adapting a sustainability solution to the Australian context.

I want to thank Suellen, Carmen, Sam and the entire Global Footprints Scholarships team for your support and for making this possible.

Thank you to Turenscape Academy for sharing your knowledge and passion with me and for showing me around China.