密歇根新闻广播 为更湿润更温暖的城市而计划

City officials around the country are trying to figure out how to make changes in their communities to adapt to climate change.

Researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of North Carolina looked at 44 of these climate adaptation plans, and found they were a mixed bag.

Missy Stults is a Ph.D. candidate at U of M in the Urban and Regional Planning Program and the School of Natural Resources and Environment.

She says in the Great Lakes region, city officials are mainly concerned about excessive rainfall events.

"Heavy precipitation events leading to localized flooding, storm water overflows¹. Those are really the main issues, at least in the Midwest," she says.

Stults says they examined stand-alone climate adaptation plans.

"What that means is these 44 communities created a plan solely² focused on understanding how they're vulnerable to climate change, both existing impacts as well as future impacts, and then they created a plan focused on solutions to those different impacts," she says.

She says there are a lot of other ways communities can plan for climate change, so this group of plans from 44 cities is just a small subset.

Strengths and weaknesses

Stults says there were strengths in some of the plans.

"They do a really great job of drawing on different fact bases. What I mean by that is they're pulling reports from the U.S. federal government or local universities. They're also doing a really good job at selecting a wide array of strategies to prepare."

That could mean changing infrastructure³ in a city to make it better able to withstand heavy wind or flood events, or creating green rooftops or permeable pavement that allows storm water to soak in instead of running off into a drain.

"So that's great, they're thinking about lots of different things they can do within their powers to become more resilient; we're excited about that," she says.

But there's a flip⁴ side.

"We don't see a lot of detail about how they're going to implement⁵ these strategies. So they're putting these great ideas forward, but they're not substantiating⁶ that with detail about who's responsible for implementing⁷, how they're going to fund these strategies, how they're going to evaluate whether these strategies are effective," says Stults. "So that leaves us really questioning whether these plans are going to translate into actions on the ground that are going to create more resilient communities."

There are barriers to putting these plans in place.

She says funding, of course, is a big one.

"We just don't have the amount of capital needed to really invest at scale in climate adaptation. And there are a lot of discussions that are happening within philanthropy, at the private scale, at the federal government, to really try to figure this out."

And she says a lot of local governments have had to cut staff in recent years.

"The Great Recession hit local governments really hard, so they laid off a lot of staff. And now you've got people that are, really in my eyes, they're kind of heroes at the local level that are fighting the fight to make sure you have your trash being picked up, that you've got good drinking water that's coming out of your faucet⁸, but then they're also responsible for planning for climate change, this big issue," she says.

And so they're basically doing the job of two and a half to three people, so there's just not a lot of capacity to take on more work. So we've got to overcome a lot of hurdles⁹ in that space."

But Stults says they also found that local officials acknowledge climate change is real.

"Stakeholders believe it's happening, and that belief is really strong at the local level, because it's where you see the impacts: because you flood ... and you need to prepare for a flood. Or it's hot, and you have to prepare for heat," she says.

The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

1 overflows   

v.溢出，淹没( overflow的第三人称单数 )；充满；挤满了人；扩展出界，过度延伸

参考例句：

• He always fills his glass till it overflows. 他总是把杯子斟得很满。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A distributary overflows its banks. 分流水溢出河岸。 来自辞典例句

2 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

3 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。

4 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

5 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

6 substantiating   

v.用事实支持（某主张、说法等），证明，证实( substantiate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Darby Now faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 新旧库信仰乃是所盼望之事的实现心态，是未见之事的实验标准。 来自互联网
• Substantiating and enriching the world outlook theory is an effective way of perfecting philosophical method. 充实和丰富世界观理论是完善哲学方法的有效途径。 来自互联网

7 implementing   

v.实现( implement的现在分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• -- Implementing a comprehensive drug control strategy. ――实行综合治理的禁毒战略。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• He was in no hurry about implementing his unshakable principle. 他并不急于实行他那不可动摇的原则。 来自辞典例句

8 faucet   

n.水龙头

参考例句：

• The faucet has developed a drip.那个水龙头已经开始滴水了。
• She turned off the faucet and dried her hands.她关掉水龙头，把手擦干。

9 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句