美国国家公共电台 NPR How Pokemon Inspired A Citizen Science Project To Monitor Tiny Streams

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It is springtime. And in parched¹ western states, a lot of people are watching closely as snows melt and the rivers rise. Now, satellites can monitor water levels in the biggest rivers, but they do not spot the smaller streams and waterways that feed into them. As KUNC's Rae Ellen Bichell reports, some Colorado scientists have hit on a new way of tracking those smaller streams - inspired by "Pokemon."

RAE ELLEN BICHELL, BYLINE²: Before we get to "Pokemon," let's start with the problem. And to do that, we have to start here.

KIRA PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: So, Stephanie, at the next point, we'll just pull off on the right here by the mailbox.

BICHELL: Stephanie Kampf and Kira Puntenney-Desmond are both hydrologists with Colorado State University. And on one very windy cold morning, they took me through a valley in northern Colorado to check in on some of their favorite streams.

PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: Check it out.

BICHELL: Puntenney-Desmond bolted out of the car and across the street.

PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: Scurrying³ across.

BICHELL: She'd seen something really exciting. It was barely more than a wet ditch, but it was wet.

PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: It's no longer frozen. The water is actively⁴ flowing.

BICHELL: These hydrologists are all about the underdog streams, the ones you could step across without even jumping. They say it's the little tiny streams that are really exciting and important when it comes to forecasting water supply, even if they might look a little underwhelming.

TAMLIN PAVELSKY: It is really unimpressive-looking in person. And any one of these streams is just a really small little rivulet⁵, really.

BICHELL: That's Tamlin Pavelsky, a hydrologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel⁶ Hill.

PAVELSKY: But if you think about the number of these streams there are across the country, it's staggering.

BICHELL: Pavelsky is a big river kind of guy, like wider than a football field big or see-it-from-space big. And even he says yes, those small-potato streams are really important. We have one Mississippi River, he says, but thousands - maybe millions - of tiny streams constantly turning on and off.

PAVELSKY: And so in many ways, they actually dwarf⁷ something like the Mississippi in terms of their importance.

BICHELL: Their importance for forecasting water supply. But here's the thing - little streams are really difficult to track. You can't see them from satellites. They don't show up on most maps. When they do, the data's often wrong, especially after something like a wildfire or a flood. For hydrologists like Stephanie Kampf, that was frustrating⁸. How could they ever make water forecasts better if they didn't even know where the streams were? And then...

(SOUNDBITE OF JASON PAIGE'S "POKEMON THEME")

JASON PAIGE: (Singing) I want to be the very best, like no one ever was.

BICHELL: ..."Pokemon Go" entered the world.

STEPHANIE KAMPF: And there are all these people walking around with mobile phones looking for Pokemons.

BICHELL: The hydrologists got an idea.

KAMPF: Wouldn't it be great if those people walking around were actually collecting data that would be useful?

BICHELL: So they got funding from NASA and teamed up with a citizen science app, the one that Kira Puntenney-Desmond has just pulled up on her phone.

PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: Stream Tracker, do-do-do-do (ph).

BICHELL: It's called Stream Tracker, and they're recruiting anyone with eyeballs, legs and smartphones to check in on small streams in their area and report back really basic information. Where is it? And is it flowing, dry or frozen?

PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: Let's see. Comment - frozen. And then we save it, and we're good to go. Cool.

BICHELL: Less than a year in, they have about 80 people of all ages - school kids, hikers, retirees - monitoring streams in Colorado, Arizona, Ohio and Utah. And, of course, they'll keep checking in on their own streams near Fort Collins, Colo., like this one.

PUNTENNEY-DESMOND: So I really enjoyed stopping here because it's always a surprise. Is it flowing today, or is it not?

BICHELL: It was dry, but other ones should be thawing⁹, and as Desmond-Puntenney (ph) puts it, turning on right about now, feeding into the reservoirs and rivers that will water thirsty cities in the months to come. For NPR News, I'm Rae Ellen Bichell.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUNICHI MASUDA AND SHINJI MIYAZAKI'S "POKEMON, I CHOOSE YOU!")

GREENE: That story came to us from the Mountain West News Bureau. And get this - you can help track streams. Just go to www.streamtracker.org.

1 parched   

adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干

参考例句：

• Hot winds parched the crops.热风使庄稼干透了。
• The land in this region is rather dry and parched.这片土地十分干燥。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 scurrying   

v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• We could hear the mice scurrying about in the walls. 我们能听见老鼠在墙里乱跑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• We were scurrying about until the last minute before the party. 聚会开始前我们一直不停地忙忙碌碌。 来自辞典例句

4 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

5 rivulet   

n.小溪，小河

参考例句：

• The school is located near the rivulet.学校坐落在小河附近。
• They passed the dry bed of a rivulet.他们跨过了一道干涸的河床。

6 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

7 dwarf   

n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小

参考例句：

• The dwarf's long arms were not proportional to his height.那侏儒的长臂与他的身高不成比例。
• The dwarf shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. 矮子耸耸肩膀，摇摇头。

8 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 thawing   

n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The ice is thawing. 冰在融化。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• It had been snowing and thawing and the streets were sloppy. 天一直在下雪，雪又一直在融化，街上泥泞不堪。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹