''Sponge city'
‘海绵城市’
When Typhoon In-fa pelted Shanghai with heavy rains in July, Xu Jingxin was worried about the "sponge park" he had been working on for the past two years.
七月份，台风烟花伴着强降雨袭击了上海，当时徐景新（音译）就对其过去两年来一直在打造的“海绵公园”很担心。
Located in the city's Lingang area, the park gets its nickname from the ponds, gardens and a wetland connected by swales and designed to retain water in storms and prevent flooding.
该公园位于上海市临港新片区，该公园中分布有池塘、花园和湿地，三者由沼泽连接，并被设计来在暴雨天气中蓄水以及防洪，“海绵公园”也就因此得名。
Xu, an engineer with the China Construction Technology Consulting and in charge of the construction of the sponge facilities, was concerned about whether the "sponges" that he helped to design could withstand the test of intense rainfall brought by the typhoon.
徐景新是中国建设科技有限公司的一名工程师，主管海绵设施的建设，他当时担忧自己参与设计的“海绵”能否经受住台风带来的剧烈降水的考验。
"I went to check the site when Typhoon In-fa passed, and to my great relief there were very few pools of water on the ground," Xu says. "The system worked well."
“当烟花台风过境的时候，我去工地现场检查，发现地面上几乎没有积水洼，这让我松了一口气，”徐景新表示，“这个系统效果很好。”
The park was built using permeable material that can absorb and channel water to underground storage units.
该公园使用可渗透材料修建，该种材料可以吸收水并将其导入地下的蓄水组中。
Flooding is one of the most serious water-related issues in Chinese cities due to rapid urbanization and the disappearance of natural wetlands.
由于快速城市化以及自然湿地的消失，洪水是中国城市最严峻的水问题之一。
Frequent extreme weather events due to climate change have exacerbated the problem in recent years.
气候变化所带来的频繁恶劣天气近年来也加剧了该问题。
To cope with the problem, the State Council launched the Sponge City pilot project in 2015, with the aim of having 80 percent of urban areas refitted and embedded with sponge facilities by 2030 to absorb and reuse at least 70 percent of rainwater.
为了应对该问题，国务院在2015年发起了“海绵城市”试点项目，旨在到2030年之前，改造全国80%的城市区域，为其嵌入海绵设备，以吸收并重新利用至少70%的降水。
Besides retaining rainwater from runoffs, another function of the facility is to clean and purify water through eco-engineering.
除了存储径流的降水，该设备的另外一个功能是通过生态工程来清洁净化雨水。
The sponge park was intersected and divided into four parts by two rivers, and the northeast part of the park is a 9.6-hectare wetland with several ponds and floating islands that forms a demonstration zone for the sponge system.
该海绵公园与两条河相交，被分成四片区域，公园东北部是面积9.6公顷的湿地，分布有池塘和浮岛，该片区域构成了海绵系统的示范区。
Xu says the water pumped into the park from the river first goes through a skimmer to remove surface debris before making its way into a pond to sediment.
xu表示从河中抽送到公园的水首先通过撇取设备去除表面垃圾，然后进入沉淀池进行沉淀。
Following that, the water flows through several levels of filtration ponds with aquatic plants such as vallisneria and water lilies.
之后，水又流经多层滤 池，滤池中有水兰、睡莲等水生植物。
The park, which opened to the public in August, is becoming a popular spot with residents of nearby areas because of its unique layout.
该公园于八月份向公众开放，凭借其独特的布局，正成为附近居民的热门去处。
Adjacent to the Shanghai Astronomy Museum, whose round-shaped futuristic architecture drew crowds when it opened in July, the park has adopted a coherent design－its hills, playgrounds and facilities are designed to resemble planets that are surrounded by circular and curvy paths.
上海天文馆在今年七月开放的时候，就凭借其圆形富有未来感的建筑吸引了大批群众。而毗邻上海天文馆的海绵公园采用了一以贯之的设计，公园里的小丘、游乐场地以及各种设施都仿照行星设计，周围环以圆形和弯曲的小径。
The sponge technology is at the core of the park, and the starry sky is the theme.
该公园的核心是海绵技术，而主题则是星空。
