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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Keyline Design - "Challenge of Landscape" book

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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Keyline Design - "Challenge of Landscape" book
  • Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:35:47 -0400

On 10/17/2011 8:01 PM, Richard Archer wrote:

I'm not sure that there would be much point even attempting to retain
flood water like that. I know Yeomans in his books recommends developing
Keyline systems to capture 100% of rainfall. But I can't see the point
of designing for a 1 in 100 year flood event when those flood events
always occur in above-average rainfall seasons.

I would be more inclined to design for say a 1 in 10 year event - say
15-20% of average annual rainfall - because these can readily occur in
the midst of a drought when water is more precious. And ensure the
design allows the 1 in 100 year events to safely flow away.

I think 1 in 1000, or at least 1 in 500, year flood event would be wise if there is money to do it with. Put the work in up front and get payback for a long time; cost effective and less expensive overall when you consider cost of disruption of lives and services as well as rebuilding expense..

If you have never learnt which climate systems drive drought in your
area, it sounds like you don't have significant drought-related problems :)

We always seem to get enough rain to keep our wells full; we do get 3 month drought with extremely little rain then I supplement rain for garden irrigation with well water. Still permaculture offers best long term solutions to impoundment and water holding capacity of soil and overall integrated systems that conserve and store water. I am convinced of this.

I am still on the list, and still interested in the topic. I just have
more important things to be working on for now. I hope to have some
spare time next winter to work on projects like these.

Maybe after G+ takes off and adds services this will be a helpful resource. I still have an installation of mediawiki and semantic mediawiki in my permaculture website but have not done anything with it yet.: http://www.ibiblio.org/permaculture

LL




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