WATER IN PERMACULTURE
A Precious, Scarce Resource:
Watershed = All the land from which water drains to the same point. An issue of scale!
o Know your watershed (great starting point for bioregionalism) and its issues. Go to
http://water.epa.gov/type/watersheds/index.cfmt and “surf your watershed.”
Brock Dolman of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center speaks of the “Reverential Rehydration
Revolution”—your watershed = your lifeboat http://youtu.be/5o1Nj4exhOg
The “Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture” lists two imperatives:
 Live within your local water budget.
 Use water sparingly, maintain purity, thereby increasing ecosystem storage for future of all of
Earth’s community of life.
Permaculture Aspects:
 Type one errors are like finding an innocent person guiltyafter that decision, error after error will
follow, it takes a LOT of energy to “make it right” again. Type one errors with water:
o No reliable water for client, OR dangerous excess!
 Water supply is the primary factor which we can influence in using or improving land.
 Clean water is a potential economic yield of any permaculture system!
Duties of water:
 Procreate life: crops, drinking water, aquaculture…
 Productive water systems: aquaculture, microclimate, distribute nutrients, recreation, aesthetics
 Energy production: microhydro, ram pumps
Goals when designing for water in permaculture systems:
 Start with long and thoughtful observation, you can do a LOT of damage with faulty interventions
 Prevent soil erosion by
 Slowing water down and spreading it out (reduce runoff, increase infiltration
Compiled by Karryn Olson-Ramanujan, FLPCI
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Speed
Distance
Volume
Brad Lancaster says if you reduce any one part of this triangle, you start to break the erosive
cycle.
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Store water in soils and trees and preserve forests! Biomass is 80-85% water.
Recharge groundwater
Adequate quantity of water for needs any time of year
 Know your “water budget
i. How much water do you need?
1. To determine water expenses, calculate average annual water use in gallons:
a. Household use: #people x daily water use x longest drought
(remember to account for expanding family size / increased ag etc, big
social events, etc) OR
b. Use an online water use calculator:
http://www.csgnetwork.com/waterusagecalc.html
2. How much water can be harvested?
a. Calculate the amount of water you can harvest from an area:
Catchment area (sq ft) x rainfall (ft) x 7.48 gal/cubic foot x (Runoff
Coefficient) = net runoff (gal)
b. Runoff coefficients change depending on the surface … Compare
runoff percentages: Forest: .1-.2, Lawn:~.2%, Cultivated land: .5-.6,
Urban areas: ~.9% Compacted and clayey yard - .6
 Redundancy
 Careful design: no unnecessary use, minimize need for import, appropriate scale; plan layout
of roads and buildings for efficient collection, distribution, and use of runoff; cost effective…
Adequate quality for needs (match quality to use—no drinking water in toilets!)
Minimize energy use
Water always released from site clean
Maximum yield practicable = “catch and store energy”, example: Sepp Holzer in Austria
Plan for disaster: build above your 100 year flood line, protect and vegetate slopes and riparian
zones; harvest enough water to get you through droughts
From a staff person at http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/
- Since 1968, Ithaca ranges from 20-41 days with less than .1 of an inch of rain; .
- Our most extreme rain events have been 4-5 inches in one day, averaged over 30 years—but
may fluctuate due to climate disruption
- Also: our 35 inches of precip a year includes the water equivalent of snow
Continually reassess your system and build on what’s working
Optional exercises at home: 1. Continue assessing your water budget 2. Draft goals re water
Compiled by Karryn Olson-Ramanujan, FLPCI
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