Abstract: Sponge urban construction has brought about significant achievements in improving urban water environment and water resources and solving waterlogging and other problems. However, understandings of its effectiveness are far different over China due to the lack of effective planning, design, evaluation, or management tools for the practical measures. This paper reviews the simulation models applicable to evaluation of the whole-life-cycle effectiveness of sponge city construction, including SWMM, SUSTAIN, MUSIC, MIKE URBAN and Info-Works, focusing on their basic functions, suitability for different applications, advances in research, and practices. Examples of using different models for simulating such construction effectiveness in China are given in this paper.