Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond (Vol. 2): Water-Harvesting Earthworks (Paperback)

by Brad Lancaster (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"What a wonderful, enthusiastic book. Brad Lancaster lives what he preaches—a water-careful lifestyle that is all about more life." -- Ben Haggard , author, sustainable systems designer and teacher

Product Description
Turn water scarcity into water abundance!

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape is the first volume of three-volume guide on how to conceptualize, design, and implement sustainable water-harvesting systems for your home, landscape, and community. This book enables you to assess your on-site resources, gives you a diverse array of strategies to maximize their potential, and empowers you with guiding principles to create an integrated, multi-functional water-harvesting plan specific to your site and needs.

Volume 2 builds on the information presented in volume 1, showing you how to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen water-harvesting earthworks. It presents detailed how-to information and variations on a diverse array of earthworks, including chapters on mulch, vegetation, and graywater recycling so you can customize the techniques to fit the unique requirements of your site. Real-life stories and examples permeate this volume.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Rainsource Press (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977246418
• ISBN-13: 978-0977246410
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,828 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #6 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Environment > Water Supply
  #7 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Conservation > Water
  #9 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Natural Resources > Water Supply & Land Use

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great "How To" Guide for Landscape Water Conservation, September 11, 2008

By	Geoff in MA (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring manual for loving the earth, January 7, 2009

By	Ava Torre-Bueno (San Diego) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was looking for, December 26, 2008

By	busy1 "busy1" (Washington) - See all my reviews

What a fantastic book it is just what I was looking for. I live in the rainy northwest, but in the Summertime many of my plants dry out because I get so busy with other things that I don't have time to water them. I am looking forward to implementing some of the great ideas found in this book. Hopefully my plants will be looking a little greener this summer!