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科学美国人60秒 SSS Wetlands Could Save Cities--and Money, Too

时间:2017-10-11 05:43:03

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(单词翻译)

Wetlands Could Save Cities--and Money, Too

湿地不仅能保护人类还能替人类省钱

As Houston begins recovery efforts from Hurricane Harvey, a new storm threat—Hurricane Irma—is barreling west towards the Caribbean and Florida. We have few defenses against hurricanes' lashing1 rains and wind and storm surge—but nature does provide one.

当休斯顿开始努力修复飓风哈维带来的创伤时,一场新的风暴威胁——飓风厄玛向西肆虐加勒比海和佛罗里达。对于飓风带来的“强降雨和强风暴”,我们拥有的防御措施很少,不过大自然却为我们提供了一道防护。

\"Wetlands act in two ways to reduce the impacts of storms. They reduce storm surge by acting2 as a wall or a barrier and they act as a sponge by soaking up the waters that come down via rainfall."

“湿地可以通过两种方式来降低风暴的影响。它们能够像防护墙或屏障一样来缓解风暴潮,也能够像海绵一样吸收雨水。

Michael Beck is a coastal3 scientist at The Nature Conservancy and the University of California Santa Cruz. He says as we've paved over swampy4 coastlines, we've changed how storm waters flow. Or, for an analogy a little closer to home:

迈克尔·贝克是大自然保护协会和加州圣克鲁斯大学的海岸科学家。他表示,我们在沿海岸线铺设道路的同时也改变了风暴潮水的流向。或者打个比方说,让它们离我们的家园更近了:

"Rain falls on your driveway, it's going to run straight out into the street. Rain falls in your garden it's going to soak into the ground. When you've done that at the scale of whole watersheds5, there's nowhere for that water to go when it rains.”

“雨水落到了车道上,然后径直流到大街上。它还会落到花园里,随后渗入地下。当整个流域都变成了这种情况,那么下雨时,雨水便无处可去了。”

But some wetlands do remain. Beck and his colleagues teamed up with the insurance industry, and, using the industry's risk assessment6 models, asked: how much more damage would Hurricane Sandy have delivered if all the eastern seaboard's wetlands were gone? And they found that marshy7 coastlines saved some $625 million dollars in direct flood damages—or about one percent of Sandy's total cost.

但还有一些湿地依然存在。贝克和他的同事们和保险界进行了合作,利用保险业的风险评估模式做了如下假设:如果东海岸所有的湿地都消失了,那么飓风“桑迪”带来的损失会增加多少?他们发现,沼泽海岸线在对抗直接的洪水破坏方面节省了约6.25亿美元——大约相当于“桑迪”总破坏程度的1%。

The researchers also battered8 Ocean County, New Jersey9, with thousands of hypothetical storms using flood models. And found that wetlands cut flood damages there by 16 percent, compared to areas of the county where wetlands are gone. The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.

研究人员还在新泽西的海洋县利用洪水模型做了数千次假想的风暴袭击。他们发现与那些湿地已经消失的郡县相比,那里的湿地减少了16%洪水破坏造成的损失。这项研究发表在《科学报告》杂志上。

Next, it's up to local governments and the insurance industry to take notice. "Certainly we hope that we will continue to conserve10 wetlands in part for their intrinsic beauty and the importance of nature." But he says by putting a price-tag on the economic benefit of wetlands it might change the conversation…about conservation.

接下来,就是地方政府和保险商要注意的了。“我们当然希望,人类将继续为了湿地本身的美和保护自然的重要性而保护湿地。”但是他也表示,为湿地贴上经济效益的价签可能会转变湿地保护交涉的对话方式。


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 lashing 97a95b88746153568e8a70177bc9108e     
n.鞭打;痛斥;大量;许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 );煽动;紧系;怒斥
参考例句:
  • The speaker was lashing the crowd. 演讲人正在煽动人群。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The rain was lashing the windows. 雨急打着窗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
3 coastal WWiyh     
adj.海岸的,沿海的,沿岸的
参考例句:
  • The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
  • This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。
4 swampy YrRwC     
adj.沼泽的,湿地的
参考例句:
  • Malaria is still rampant in some swampy regions.疟疾在一些沼泽地区仍很猖獗。
  • An ox as grazing in a swampy meadow.一头牛在一块泥泞的草地上吃草。
5 watersheds 12dac97dd0f3c330deb3ba24768943c9     
n.分水岭( watershed的名词复数 );分水线;转折点;流域
参考例句:
  • Hyetographs are important in estimating stormflow hydrographs from upstream watersheds. 降雨历线资料为上游集水区推估洪水流量历线的重要依据。 来自互联网
  • Sediments check dam in small watersheds in loess hilly gully area come from three proportion, i. 黄土丘陵沟壑区治沟骨干工程泥沙淤积来源于坡面侵蚀、沟道侵蚀和库区岸坡坍塌。 来自互联网
6 assessment vO7yu     
n.评价;评估;对财产的估价,被估定的金额
参考例句:
  • This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
  • What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何?
7 marshy YBZx8     
adj.沼泽的
参考例句:
  • In August 1935,we began our march across the marshy grassland. 1935年8月,我们开始过草地。
  • The surrounding land is low and marshy. 周围的地低洼而多沼泽。
8 battered NyezEM     
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损
参考例句:
  • He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
  • The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。
9 jersey Lp5zzo     
n.运动衫
参考例句:
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
10 conserve vYRyP     
vt.保存,保护,节约,节省,守恒,不灭
参考例句:
  • He writes on both sides of the sheet to conserve paper.他在纸张的两面都写字以节省用纸。
  • Conserve your energy,you'll need it!保存你的精力,你会用得着的!

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