Rainwater Harvesting For Drylands And Beyond (Vol. 2): Water-Harvesting Earthworks Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Turn water scarcity into water abundance! Earthworks are one of the easiest, least expensive, and most effective ways of passively harvesting and conserving multiple sources of water in the soil. Associated vegetation then pumps the harvested water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, and passive heating and cooling strategies, while controlling erosion, increasing soil fertility, reducing downstream flooding, and improving water and air quality. Building on the information presented in Volume 1, this book shows you how to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen water-harvesting earthworks. It presents detailed how-to information and variations of a diverse array of earthworks, including chapters on mulch, vegetation, and greywater recycling so you can customize the techniques to the unique requirements of your site. Real life stories and examples permeate the book, including: How curb cuts redirect street runoff to passively irrigate flourishing shade trees planted along the street How check dams have helped create springs and perennial flows in once-dry creeks How infiltration basins are creating thriving rain-fed gardens How backyard greywater laundromats are turning "wastewater" into a resource growing food, beauty, and shade that builds community, and more. How to create simple tools to read slope and water flow More than 225 illustrations and photographs
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Rainsource Press; First Edition edition (July 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0977246418
ISBN-13: 978-0977246410
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.8 x 11 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #120,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #17 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Water Supply & Land Use #23 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Civil & Environmental > Environmental > Water Quality & Treatment #66 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Gardening & Landscape Design > Landscape
This book deserves to be widely read, not just for people in the desert. I live in a region that gets nearly 45" of rainfall per year, and I can't wait to apply some of what I've learned from this great "how to" manual. Fresh water is a vanishing resource on our planet, and when we send it all down the storm drains, it makes its way from storm drain to stream to river to ocean: gone. To keep from draining our aquifers, we need to capture that water in our landscape, so it can percolate back into the earth, or be used by our plants.My first project will be to divert some of the runoff from our blacktop driveway into an "infiltration basin", where it can be used by my trees and shrubs, and soak into the earth. "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2" shows you how to do this, step by step, and also tells you how to build the simple but effective specialized tools you'll need (such as a "bunyip water level", so you know BEFORE a washout rainstorm where the water will flow).Other topics include systems of berms and basins; terraces; diversion swales; check basins; and french drains. There are many helpful drawings throughout (whimsical but clear!).If you're interested in water conservation, this book is for you. It's a tour-de-force on the subject of capturing and using rainwater and runoff in the landscape.
I bought the two editions for this book, but I find the most of the first one in the second, so its not necessary to buy the two volumes.
Here is a book full of inspiring stories and painstaking details about how to catch and use the thousands of gallons of water we have each been utterly wasting every time it rains. It is both a call to action and a detailed instruction manual, and in each category it is clearly written and compelling.Being a fairly right-brained person, the stories from around the world about individuals and communities organizing to harvest rainwater and vastly improve their lives appealed to me the most. Descriptions of standing in the rain and watching the flow of water on your property made complete sense to me. I truly believe that you can read this book and intuit how to alter your landscape to harvest water and grow amazing plants without understanding the engineering behind it all.On the other hand, if you are a left-brained, engineer-type, you too will love this book. It is extraordinarily well organized and includes everything you need to know to create small and large water-harvesting systems. There are pages of equations; there are lists and very clear descriptions of every tool you will need for every project. While none of this made any sense to me, I can see that it would be enormously helpful to many others.Whether you live in the desert Southwest US or a rainforest, fresh water is becoming more scarce every day. This excellent book will help you harvest and husband this precious resource.
I think that Vol. 2 covers a lot of territory. I was mostly interested in making my own earthworks to harvest rainwater on my lot. There were many options based on slope, function etc. A great deal of information is provided on projects around the world, agricultural issues and gray water harvesting. For me this more specialized information was not necessary. I just wanted to build my own earthen harvesting berms and basins. The perfect audience for this book as is would be people doing low cost agriculture projects in second and third world countries. I still found the book very useful and put many ideas into action on my own.
I teach water harvesting and watershed restoration at a local college, and this book, along with volume 1, is my primary resource when it comes to water storage in the soil. Absolutely a must for anyone seeking to make full use of the water that falls on their land.
Volume 1 is a better book. This one doesn't add much at all to volume 1 and merely repeats. I have 30 acres I want to improve and this didn't add much helpful information for larger scale harvesting.
I had previously purchased books on cisterns and rainwater collection. However most them focused on collecting water and then distributing it. Lancaster does a great job of showing you how to store water in the best place possible. The soil. This book is easy to read with simple principles that are explored in depth with a great deal of clarity. The illustrations are easy to understand. This book stands alone apart from Volume I.
I've read a lot of permaculture style books and I learned a few new things in here that make it well worth the read. Even though this book targets drylands, there is a lot of good information in here that applies everywhere, plumbing for greywater harvesting, etc.
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond (Vol. 2): Water-Harvesting Earthworks Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 2nd Edition: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape The New Create an Oasis with Greywater 6th Ed: Integrated Design for Water Conservation, Reuse, Rainwater Harvesting, and Sustainable Landscaping Water Is Water: A Book About the Water Cycle Assessment of Drylands and Desertified Areas in the Islamic Republic of Iran Drylands: The Deserts of North America Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More. Rainwater Collection for the Mechanically Challenged Walking with Ghosts: Poems (Earthworks) Mother/Land (Earthworks) Apprenticed to Justice (Earthworks) Rainwater Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire and Emergency Use--Includes How to Make Ferrocement Water Tanks Quiet Water Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, 2nd: Canoe and Kayak Guide (AMC Quiet Water Series) Our World of Water: Children and Water Around the World Solar Water Heating--Revised & Expanded Edition: A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Water and Space Heating Systems (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) The Water Gardener's Bible: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building, Planting, Stocking, and Maintaining a Backyard Water Garden Water is for Fighting Over: and Other Myths about Water in the West Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water Managing Water and Agroecosystems for Food Security (Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture Series)
