The poster introduces some basic considerations, goals and approaches envisaged in a pre-project (“RAIN-GIS”) that is currently carried out in a universities’ cooperation between Germany and Jordan. As one opportunity to mitigate negative consequences of drought, the sponge city concept is discussed. Within the RAIN-GIS-project, these considerations are currently elaborated aiming at setting up a scientifically sound framework in which sponge city elements can be conceptualized, tested, and finally evaluated, based on the analysis of spatial data, as well as demographic and socio-economic information.