North China's Shanxi province has mapped out four major projects to improve the living environment in urban areas in?its 2015 action plan released on June 8.

The four key projects covered infrastructure upgrades, affordable housing, reconstruction of urban villages and environment quality improvement.

Infrastructure construction will work to build a "sponge" city that flexible to environmental changes and natural disasters. It will include the construction of 600 kilometers of rainwater pipes and 1,000 kilometers of pipes for rainwater and polluted water separated distribution.

The sponge city will maximize the storage and purification of rainwater in the city, aiming to promote efficient use of rainwater and ecological environmental protection.

The province started building of 181,000 units of affordable housing to meet the needs of the low-income families.

This year, Shanxi will kick off the reconstruction of 126 urban villages, involving 72,000 households. Supporting public facilities such as water supply, roads and greening will be included in the city's public system. Moreover, the residents in former urban villages will be included in corresponding employment and social security systems.

The living environment improvement action plan also prescribed targets in air pollution control and prevention.