The Permaculture Earthworks Handbook

How to Design and Build Swales, Dams, Ponds, and other Water Harvesting Systems

The Permaculture Earthworks Handbook covers the functions, design, and construction of nine types of earthworks to maximize water availability in any climate. It’s a practical guide for landscape designers, permaculturists, and landowners seeking to maximize food production and ecosystem resiliency at the lowest cost and impact.

$22.75 USD$34.99 USD

Earn up to 35 Points.

Description

Maximize your water harvesting potential with efficient, cost-effective earthworks

In the face of drought and desertification, well-designed, water harvesting earthworks such as swales, ponds, and dams are the most effective way to channel water into productive use. The result can be increased food production, higher groundwater levels, reduced irrigation needs, and enhanced ecosystem resilience.

Yet, due to a lack of knowledge, designers, and landowners often build earthworks that are costly, inappropriately sized and sited, or even dangerous. The Permaculture Earthworks Handbook is the first dedicated, detailed guide to the proper design and construction of water harvesting earthworks. It covers the function, design, and construction methods for nine main types of water harvesting earthworks across a full range of climates.

Coverage includes:

  • Swales, ponds, dams, hugelkultur, net-and-pan systems, spate irrigation, and more
  • Cost versus benefit of different earthworks
  • Assessing site needs and suitability
  • Soil types and hydrology
  • Designing for maximum efficiency and lowest cost
  • Risk assessment and safe construction
  • Stacking functions and integrating earthworks into a design

This practical handbook is the essential resource for permaculture designers, teachers and students, landowners, farmers, homesteaders, landscape architects, and others involved in maximizing the water harvesting potential of any landscape at the lowest cost and impact.

Douglas Barnes is a permaculture designer trained in Australia by Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. He has designed and built earthworks in North America, Japan, and Andra Pradesh, India. He lives in Tweed, Ontario in a passive solar house he designed and built, and he blogs at permaculturerelections.com.

About The Author(s)

Douglas Barnes is a permaculture designer and trainer who specializes in rainwater harvesting earthworks. Trained in Australia by Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton, he has designed and built earthworks in North America, Japan, and Andra Pradesh, India. Douglas has an interest in complexity theory and systems ecology, educational design and rock climbing. He lives in Tweed, Ontario in a passive solar house he designed and built, and he blogs at permaculturerelections.com.

View Author Profile

Book Specifications

ISBN: 9780865718449

Page Count: 192

Dimensions: 7.5 × 9 × 0.48 in

Publication Date: September 18, 2017

You Might Also Like

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “The Permaculture Earthworks Handbook”

Give the Gift of
Social Change

Give the Gift of Social Change

Your support contributes to the amplification of voices that strive for progress, making it a thoughtful and impactful present for any occasion. Join us in fostering a more informed and compassionate world.

Select your currency