美国国家公共电台 NPR--Heavy storms have been taxing California's levees. Are they up to the task?

Heavy storms have been taxing California's levees. Are they up to the task?

Transcript¹

NPR's A Martinez talks to Jay Lund, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, about the aging system, and how climate change could lead to more breaches².

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

California residents are assessing the damage after a series of storms battered³ the state in recent weeks. The weather caused power outages, flooding and landslides⁴ and killed at least 20 people. And the rainfall also tested California's water infrastructure⁵. In central California, multiple homes flooded over the weekend when levees were breached⁶. We called Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Davis, to ask if the state's thousands of miles of aging levees can hold up against the pressures of climate change.

JAY LUND: These levees were built at very different times over the last more than 100 years - in some cases, about 150 years. Some of the early levees, which are still around, were made basically by farmers and landowners piling up dirt between them and the river. On some occasions, those have been formalized, and certainly for the major levees that are protecting large cities, we now have, you know, pretty well-engineered, pretty well-maintained levees that all provide finite amounts of protection.

MART?NEZ: And generally, Jay, when these levees were built, how long were they expected to last?

LUND: I don't think people were thinking about that so much when they were first built. You know, they were built to try to keep your property safe for the next few years, because California was growing very fast at the time. The horizons, I think, were fairly short.

MART?NEZ: How much is climate change affecting the situation with levees in California?

LUND: I think it's going to be increasingly important. The warmer storms can bring more moisture than they would have in the past. The floods will become bigger. We'll kind of have to adapt to that, either by increasing the channel capacities to let them pass, raising the levees to protect human structures and human people and changing the way that we operate reservoirs.

MART?NEZ: So it sounds like - that maybe a complete overhaul⁷ isn't necessarily required, but maybe a lot of maintenance.

LUND: That's true. We have several hundred local levee districts throughout California, certainly hundreds if not thousands of people that work on those levees all the time. I would say that we certainly have flood problems and levee problems, as you would expect with a system that has thousands of miles of levee. But I wouldn't say we're nearly starting from scratch.

MART?NEZ: What's the biggest, then, threat or at least maybe the biggest thing people are thinking about when it comes to - say, if we were to have this conversation 50 years from now, when it comes to California's levees, what kind of shape would we be in then?

LUND: I think we need to prepare for a future that has worse floods. Climate changes that we're seeing are pretty real. The levees function pretty well for the traditions of the past, not only in terms of climate, but also in terms of human settlement. We've been moving quite a few people into some of the flood-prone areas. And so levees that were originally built to protect agriculture now have to protect suburban⁸ areas.

MART?NEZ: Is California thinking enough about this?

LUND: I think we should think more about it. The hard part is to think about it consistently, even during dry periods, for years at a time, the time that it takes to plan and build flood infrastructure and the time it takes to finance and pay for flood infrastructure. People often aren't willing to pay for flood infrastructure when it's sunny out.

MART?NEZ: Is that something that the state of California would need to take the lead on?

LUND: Well, state of California has had several large, multibillion-dollar water bonds over the last 15, 20 years and have worked pretty well for the major urban areas. But we still have a lot of communities in rural areas that are underprotected, I think. And I think we could also do better on some of the urban areas, too.

MART?NEZ: That's Jay Lund, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis. Jay, thanks.

LUND: You're very welcome.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 breaches   

破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背

参考例句：

• He imposed heavy penalties for breaches of oath or pledges. 他对违反誓言和保证的行为给予严厉的惩罚。
• This renders all breaches of morality before marriage very uncommon. 这样一来，婚前败坏道德的事就少见了。

3 battered   

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。

4 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 breached   

攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
• Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。

7 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

8 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。