遇见未来?洪水恣肆的纽约城,安全最重要

The devastation wrought by Sandy is forcing New Yorkers to consider a whole host of measures – from fortress-like flood barriers to offering a buy-out to people living in flood-prone areas – to make the city safe from future storms.

桑迪造成的破坏迫使纽约人考虑一整套的措施——从堡垒一样的防洪障碍到向洪水易发地区的人提供一个收容所——让城市在未来的风暴中处于安全之地。

"We are vulnerable," the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, told reporters this week. "Anyone who thinks there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is deny reality. We have a new reality and old systems." New York, with its 520 miles of coastline, is second only to New Orleans in the US for the numbers of people living within 4ft of the high tide mark, or about 200,000 people. There is also valuable property at risk – and those risks will only grow.

“我们是脆弱的，”州长安德鲁•科莫本周告诉记者。“那些认为气候模式没有戏剧性变化的人都是在否认现实。我们面临新的现实和旧的系统。”纽约有520英里的海岸线，在4英尺的洪水下或约20万人受困，仅次于新奥尔良。也面临着宝贵的财产风险——那些风险只会与日俱增。

As New Yorkers discovered this week, subways, power lines, and other infrastructure are also at risk from storm surges and flooding. And time is running out to find a solution. Flooding during Sandy even exceeded the disaster scenarios envisaged in a 2011 New York state government designed to help authorities plan for future climate change.

纽约人发现这个星期在暴风雨和洪水的冲击下，地铁、电线和其他基础设施也面临瘫痪。而找到解决方案的时间已不多了。桑迪期间的洪水甚至超过了2011年纽约州政府旨在帮助当局规划未来气候变化时设想的灾难场景。

"The impacts we saw in the last couple of days were actually impacts we did not think we would see until the 2080s, such as the flooding in lower Manhattan, and in Long Island, the vulnerability of subway tubes and some of the airports," said Art DeGaetano, a Cornell University professor and director of the north-east regional climate centre, who was one of the authors of the report.

“在过去的几天里我们看到的影响实际上是我们认为我们看不到的影响，直到2080年，例如洪水淹没曼哈顿下城，在长岛脆弱的地铁系统和一些机场，” Art DeGaetano说，康奈尔大学的教授和东北地区气候中心的主任，他是研究报告的作者之一。

With sea-level rise, a common storm could prove as catastrophic as Sandy, putting about a third of the city's streets in a flood danger zone.

随着海平面上升，一个常见的风暴都可能会像桑迪一样灾难性，把大约三分之一的城市街道置于洪水的危险地带。

The city is looking at a variety of options from big engineering projects, such as levees, sea walls and pumping stations, to offering a buy-out to people to move out of flood-prone areas.

这个城市正在从大型工程项目如堤坝、海堤和泵站寻找各种方法，以提供一个收容所帮助人们搬出洪水易发地区。

But protecting a city of 8 million from the consequences of climate change is a monumental undertaking. In the end, there may be no iron-clad guarantees.

但是保护800万人的城市远离气候变化的恶果是一个不朽的事业。最后，也可能没有万全的担保。

"You are not going to be able to build any infrastructure that is 100% safe from everything that nature may throw at it," DeGaetano said.

“你无法建立任何自然的一切都无法摧毁的100%安全的基础设施，”DeGaetano说。

"There is a trade-off to making something that works through a lifetime against some fortress that will withstand any type of devastation nature may throw at it. I am not sure anyone could have designed a system to withstand the type of surges that New York City saw."

“有一种平衡来使得一些东西一辈子有效，而不是承受任何类型破坏的一些自然可以摧毁的堡垒。我不确定有人可以设计出一个系统，能够承受纽约市所遇见的各种波涛汹涌的类型。”