建设固若金汤的大都市

    世界其他地方也是如此，而政府需要更多地参与缓解与气候变化相关的各种威胁，这一点已经越来越成为全球共识。这种全球共识在很大程度上是由过去十年以来一连串严重自然灾害所引起的，而且正在催生出一种新的极端型土木工程及建筑项目。而随着各个国家及城市试图在面对海平面持续上升以及恶劣天气活动增加的情况下增强自身的恢复力，这些项目为全球繁荣做好了充分的准备。一系列预测表明，到这个十年的末期，恢复力建设很可能形成一个价值数千亿美元的产业。

    仿佛是为了印证这种预测，过去几个月以来突然出现了一系列的设计比赛，它们都要求参赛者提交可以成为在灾害易发地区建设社区之新标准的“极端天气型建筑”解决方案。美国住房和城市发展部（the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development）6月20日推出了一项名为“通过设计重建都市”（Rebuild by Design）的广泛计划，旨在专门针对受桑迪灾害影响最严重的地区，征询快速恢复型建筑设计和基础设施的新颖设想。由美国建筑师协会（American Institute of Architects）发起的“设计恢复力”（Designing Recovery）活动要求工程师为三个具体地区提出更具恢复力的住宅解决方案的构想，这三个具体地区是：密苏里州乔普林、路易斯安那州新奥尔良以及和纽约市皇后区。而3C综合沿海社区比赛（Comprehensive Coastal Communities）提出了一个简单但棘手的设计问题：如何在重建某地区时让其地平面相比以前抬高几英尺，但又不能使它变得难看？

    如何将这些类型的新解决方案与已经通过测试的土木工程防洪减灾实践结合起来？这个问题将成为纽约市面临的挑战，因为纽约市力图证明，借助足够的投资资金以及深思熟虑的规划，城市实际上可以通过加强工程建设来绕开海平面上升及其他与气候变化相关的威胁。而且，这是全球以第一个为了增强主要城市地区应对气候变化的恢复力而发起的这种规模的重大民用基础设施彻底翻修计划，世界各地的其他城市都会拭目以待，看看纽约市打算如何处理这么庞大而复杂的新体系所需要经历的政治磋商及实施进程，同时还要看看这项投资是否能够带来回报。

    卡瓦拉罗说：“未来需要作出一些艰难的选择。某些时候要保护某些地区，而这可能会让其他地区懊恼失望，但我们终于要在遭受损失之前先投入一些资金，借以加强防灾能力。我相信，事先投入一些资金，会在暴风雨来袭时省下许多钱。”（财富中文网）

    译者：iDo98

    The same is true elsewhere in the world, and the growing consensus -- largely spawned by a spate of intense natural disasters over the past decade -- that governments need to get more involved in mitigating threats related to climate change is giving rise to a new kind of extreme civil engineering and architecture that is well-positioned for a global boom as cities and states attempt to bolster their own resiliency in the face of rising sea levels and increased severe weather activity. Projections indicate that resiliency construction could very well be its own industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the decade.

    As if on cue, a number of design competitions have sprung up in the past few months asking for "extreme weather architecture" solutions that could become the new standard for communities building in disaster-prone regions. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development launched a broad initiative on June 20 titled Rebuild by Design seeking novel ideas for resilient building designs and infrastructure specifically tailored for the areas most devastated by Sandy. Designing Recovery, launched by the American Institute of Architects, asks engineers to concept more resilient residential solutions for three specific areas: Joplin, Mo., New Orleans, La., and Queens, N.Y. And 3C for (Comprehensive Coastal Communities) asks a simple yet tricky design question: How do you rebuild a neighborhood several feet higher than it was before without making it ugly?

    Integrating these kinds of new solutions with tested civil engineering flood mitigation practices will be New York City's challenge as it strives to prove that with enough investment and thoughtful planning, cities really can engineer their way around rising sea levels and other climate change-related threats. And, being the first major civic infrastructure overhaul of this magnitude aimed specifically at enhancing the resiliency of a major urban area with respect to climate change, other cities around the globe will be watching to see how New York manages the politics and implementation of such a vast and complex new system -- and whether the investment pays off.

    "There's going to be some tough choices to make," Cavallaro says. "At some point you're going to protect certain areas probably to the chagrin of other areas. But we're finally going to put some money ahead of the damage. I believe that a little bit of money up front will save a lot money when storms hit."