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From Drought to Deluge:
An Ecological Approach to Addressing California’s Water Crisis as Homeowners and Land-Stewards.
By Erik Ohlsen and Permaculture Artisans
The heavy rains this winter, coming on the heels of years of drought,
highlight the need to rectify our relationship to water, both as individual land stewards and communities alike.
Home-scale solutions can make immediate impacts on our ability to address both drought and flood problems while also contributing to the health and well being of nearby streams and fish. But perhaps more important to address is a shift in our perspective in terms of how we see and approach water management on our landscapes in context of our local watersheds and our place in them.
A sensible relationship with water is a key factor that has been missing from the management of our landscapes over the last 100+ years. The development industry has thought of water as a negative that needed to be drained away lest it destroy our structures and cause flooding.
We need to think about the water
Since we have built towns and cities with a “drain away” design, we have created our own drought. If we examine the amount of stormwater which drains away from buildings, roads and farmlands, we’d be shocked by the volume of water we cause to flow away from where we need
it most – water that, as it runs off, actually increases the risk of flooding.
Managing stormwater in ways that
maximize its infiltration potential
within our landscapes is the key to all
of this. Putting it into perspective, the
Winter of 2014-15 in Sonoma County, saw
approximately 20 inches of rain, or roughly
half the average rain we get in a “normal” year. But 20 inches is still a lot of water! One inch of rain over 1 acre is approximately 27,000 gallons of water! One inch on 1,000 ft.2 of roof yields approximately 620 gallons. In a 20-inch year, 12,400 gallons of water falls on a 1000 ft.2 roof, and we still have millions of gallons flowing through our rural, suburban and urban communities. We can use this water!
within the context of runoff.
Water needs to be the first element designed into a landscape.
By integrating water into all our developments and all future planning, human and ecological systems can thrive.
The best place to put water is into the soil, which has a phenomenal capacity to store it. Think of soil as a water “battery.” It can hold an incredible charge. We just need to charge it up safely. We do this by “slowing, spreading, sinking, and saving” the water that falls and runs on our landscape.
We can immediately implement solutions that will store literally millions of gallons of water per year. You can do it too!
Water-Catchment and Flood-
Whether planning for a new development, or as is more often the case, mitigating and re-designing existing landscapes, here is a step-by-step process for designing water- catchment and flood-mitigation plans for your property.
1) Assess your drainage needs – Identify areas where you need to drain water away. Water can damage houses, roads, pathways and other built structures, which all need good drainage.
Mitigation Planning