Water Drainage Elements For Broadacre Water Systems Design ~Epi-022
Release Date: 12/19/2022
Tater Biggums Is HERE
The Sovereign Homestead
If you're seeing this in your podcast feed it means our first child has either arrived or is very nearly earthside! Sammy and I greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and good vibes in this time. The podcast will be on an indefinite (though hopefully relatively short) break, while we welcome our first child into the world and find our feet as new parents. Thank you all for listening and keep shining your light. -Casey & Sammy (and Tater) ____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT I DO: Create Resilient Habitats Where People And Ecology Thrive...
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The Sovereign Homestead
Floating wetlands are a "new" old technology that is well worth looking into if you are doing aquaculture at just about any scale - from small backyard tanks a few hundred gallons in size, on up to multi-acre ponds and lakes. Floating wetlands take the essential functions provided by wetlands and concentrated them into a smaller and more mobile footprint. Wetlands are the kidneys of the landscape, and floating wetlands amplify many of those beneficial functions, such as: Integrated wetland (edge) functionality into an open water body = excess nutrient removal and water clarification Increased...
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The Sovereign Homestead
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The Sovereign Homestead
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The Sovereign Homestead
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The Sovereign Homestead
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Sovereign Water - Spring Development Basics ~Epi-074
The Sovereign Homestead
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The Sovereign Homestead
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The Sovereign Homestead
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As Within So Without ~Epi-071
The Sovereign Homestead
As within so without. If we want to see changes in our external world (i.e. regenerating landscapes and ecosystems), we have to first address our internal state. The older I get and the more I learn, the less I can say I know for sure. This, though, is one of those things that I've arrived at as being one of those "indivisible kernels of truth" - something solid and constant upon which I can build a foundation for regeneration. The external state of our landscapes is a direct reflection of our own internal states. This has always been true in every consultancy I have ever done. This is...
info_outlineAny time water encounters anything but a perfectly level surface, it will move. This movement is called drainage. Water will always move at right angle to contour in response to gravity on a non-level surface – i.e it will move straight down slope. Water will continue to move straight down slope until its course is somehow altered by something in its path. In this way water movement is predictable at the macro scale. This is drainage.
Anytime water is being drained (moving) from one area to another, you have an opportunity to design those patterns of water movement throughout your landscape to reduce or eliminate any potential for damage while maximizing its productive use and ecological benefit. This is the exact opposite of how drainage is treated in most modern design contexts - as a “problem” to be "solved" with what I call 'hydrophobic design' - that solely focuses on getting the water AWAY as fast as possible, without thought to the opportunity lost and the negative downstream impacts that WILL have upstream consequences in the future.
We can do WAY BETTER at designing and patterning water drainage than our current societal norm. By selecting appropriate drainage elements and DESIGNING & MAINTAINING them well you can turn what others might look at as a problem into a massive advantage in your landscape. Think of these drainage elements as tools in your toolkit that you can select from as needed when designing or retrofitting your landscape for improved hydrological function - they all have their right place, time and context for use.
This is the first show in what will be a series on broad acre water systems design. As of now, there will be a show and accompanying blog post for the following sub-topics that make up a holistic broadacre water system:
- Water Drainage Elements (today's show)
- Water Infiltration Elements
- Water Storage Elements
- Erosion Prevention & Repair
- Water Pumping Elements
Each show in the series will be accompanied by a blog post with detailed write-ups on each of the elements we talk about in here. Each element write up will contain a description of the element, followed by a list of functions it performs, a list of context-specific design criteria for determining whether or not it is appropriate in a given situation, general rules of thumb/design criteria to follow when designing and installing it, and additional resources for continued learning.
Show Resources
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