14. Techniques: Catching, Storing, & Using Water Swales Rain Gardens Roof Catchment Infiltration & Soil Storage Keyline Design: Earthworks & Ponds Greywater Systems
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16. Contours Digging swales (or narrow trenches) on contour catches uphill water and allows it to sink in to the ground are points of equal elevation on the landscape; contour lines connect these points
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18. Swale cross-section Water flowing from uphill, collecting in the swale
23. Above and below ground cisterns capture and store greater volumes of water
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Editor's Notes
Ask class; what does water do? And put on board…
What percentage of earth is water? What percentae is salty? How much is locked up in ice? Underground?
Groundwater feeds rivers when it is not raining Rivers are needed for many functions (habitat, irrigation, recreation) Therefore, we can make designs that encourage the infiltration of water into ground reserves in order to keep rivers flowing consistently while preventing periodic floods
Drainage Water flows from source to sink Goal: to slow water down and infiltrate it (this is what natural systems do!—forest, canopy, debris) Permaculture mantra: “ Slow it, Spread it, Sink it” Watersheds Definition: an area of land that drains into a common water body Watersheds follow the branch pattern (function is to distribute and collect) The landform/topography dictates the drainage patterns
During storm events in older cities with outdated piping systems, the stormwater runoff that enters the storm drain combines with the sewer drain, overwhelms the system, and the overflow is managed by dumping raw sewage into the nearest river
Areas inland from the coasts receive rain from the evapotranspiration of trees (oaks, for instance, evapotranspire 80 gallons of water a day); when forests are cut down, drought conditions increase
Obtain a yield; Catch and store energy
(Keyline and Greywater are discussed in later sessions in the course)
CSO’s
Soil dug out for swale is bermed up on the left and planted with edible trees and shrubs; water collected in swale passively irrigates crops
First a geo-textile fabric lines the depression, then large gravel followed by crushed gravel, ending with a growing substrate Then, species that can tolerate wet and dry conditions are planted A perforated underground pipe helps with overflow SOME EXAMPLES OF PLANTS THAT DO WELL IN A RAIN GARDEN?
Water can be stored in the soil because it has a vast amount of space and it is an affordable, and easily accessible for growing GREENING THE DESERT