来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2023年2月15日
Rivers' most obvious benefit in the UK is the water they supply. According to Water UK, which represents the country’s water industry, about two-thirds of tap water in England and Wales comes from rivers and the reservoirs and lakes they flow into; the rest is taken from aquifers. Northern Ireland and Scotland rely almost exclusively on rivers, reservoirs and lakes. All told, 87 per cent of the UK water supply comes from these sources.
河流给英国带来的最明显的益处是它们提供的水。代表英国水务行业的英国水务表示，英格兰和威尔士约三分之二的自来水来自河流、水库和湖泊；其余的是从含水层中提取的。北爱尔兰和苏格兰的淡水供应几乎完全依赖河流、水库和湖泊。总而言之，英国87%的水供应来自河流及相关水源。
According to government statistics, water companies in the UK abstract about 4.6 cubic kilometres of river, lake and reservoir water in England for the public supply every year. People drink it, bathe in it, flush their toilets with it, irrigate their gardens with it and use it to wash their clothes, floors and cars. Offices, shops, restaurants and other firms drink deep of it too.
根据英国政府的统计数据，英国水务公司每年抽取约4.6立方公里的河流、湖泊和水库水供公众使用。人们喝它，用它洗澡，用它冲厕所，用它灌溉花园，用它洗衣服，地板和汽车。办公室、商店、餐馆和其他公司也大量使用这些淡水。
Water is abstracted for other purposes. Electricity generators take 3.4 cubic kilometres to turn their steam turbines, while fish farms use 0.8 cubic kilometres and agriculture and private water supplies another 0.8. That adds up to a grand total of 9.6 cubic kilometres.
水也被提取用于其他用途。发电厂需要3.4立方公里来驱动蒸汽轮机，而养鱼场则需要0.8立方公里，农业和私采水则需要0.8立方米。总计9.6立方公里。
Even in a relatively rainy country like the UK, that is milking it. The UK government estimates that about 1 in 5 surface water sources are depleted by over-abstraction, which has knock-on effects on river health.
即使在英国这样一个多雨的国家，这也是在榨取水分。英国政府估计，大约五分之一的地表水资源因过度开采而枯竭，这对河流健康产生了连锁效应。
The opposite problem – too much water – is an increasingly familiar hazard during the winter. Flooding is a growing problem as climate change causes extreme weather events. According to the Environment Agency, the UK has had six of its 10 wettest years on record since 1998. Last year was the first to see three named Atlantic storms in the space of a week.
相反的问题——过多的雨水——在冬季是一个越来越常见的危险。由于气候变化导致极端天气事件，洪水是一个日益严重的问题。根据英国环境署的数据，英国有记录以来10个最潮湿的年份中有6个是在1998年以后。去年是第一次在一周内出现三次命名的大西洋风暴。
Natural floodplains can help to mitigate flood risk by corralling the excess water and releasing it slowly back into the river. That is especially true of riverine landscapes engineered by beavers, whose dams and pools massively slow the passage of water through the system. Where rain used to hit the ground and surge straight into the waterways, it now is trapped for weeks. Beavers are being reintroduced all over the UK after they gained legal protection last year.
天然洪泛区可以通过将多余的水聚集起来并缓慢释放回河流，从而帮助减轻洪水风险。在河狸造就的河流景观中尤其如此，河狸筑造的堤坝和水池极大地减缓了水在水网系统中的流动速度。过去雨水会打在地面上，然后直接涌进水道，现在雨水被困在河狸筑造的堤坝和水池长达数周。在去年获得法律保护后，英国各地正在重新引进河狸。
The problem is that many of those floodplains are far from natural, let alone beavered: housing estates and industrial development are often sited on them and these are generally quite useless at mitigating floods.
问题是，许多洪泛区都不是天然的，更不用说被河狸改造了：住宅区和工业开发区往往建于其上，而这些通常对缓解洪水毫无用处。