This blog entry was graciously provided by J. Tabatabaee Yazdi, who hosted me when I presented at the Iranian Rainwater Catchment Systems Association conference in 2014. You can see my writings and photos on that trip and the amazing traditional water-harvesting practices I witnessed here.

My time in Iran was incredible, but too short. I wanted […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2016
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Earlier this year, while visiting the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya, I saw some of the worst erosion I’ve yet witnessed, while also experiencing a variety of growing oases. The three oases I’ll describe here are:
1. The capture of rock water (runoff from a large bedrock outcropping) into a cistern and plantings below
2. […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2016
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Joseph Saitabao saw perennial water where no one else did. He saw it around Mount Suswa, Kenya, where no one lived during the dry season due to the lack of water. During the rainy season, people would get by on rooftop water harvested in tanks, or runoff captured in ephemeral ponds […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2016
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
A bare beginning
When I moved to the Dunbar/Spring neighborhood in 1994, much of it was not a pleasant place to walk.
Most of the public rights-of-way (the area between the street curb and property lines/fences) were just hot, bare dirt, devoid of shade trees and other life. There were few sidewalks, but […]

by Brad Lancaster
www.SunAndShadeHarvesting.com
Where are we? There is so much light we cannot see.
According to NPR, nearly 80 percent of people in North America cannot see the Milky Way in the night sky due to light pollution.

[…]

by Brad Lancaster © 2016
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to return to Zimbabwe and to the farm of some of my prime water-harvesting mentors, Mr. Zephaniah Phiri Maseko and his family. While in the region, I also visited the farms of many other innovative farmers who are enhancing their soils’ hydrology and fertility […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2015

In September 2015, I got word from Ken Wilson of the Muonde Trust that an incredible mentor of his, mine, and of thousands around the world, Mr. Zephaniah Phiri Maseko, had passed away.

Mr. Phiri had set me on my path in 1995 (and his story and teachings became the core of […]

[…]

by Brad Lancaster © 2015
www.HarvestingRainwater.com

The following was prepared for the BECC/COCEF 2015 Border Green Infrastructure Forum. It is an evolving document meant to help promote and evolve the concept and practice of Green Infrastructure (GI) among local officials, developers, consultants, academics, non-profits, and the general public in communities on both sides of the US-Mexico border; […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2015
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Yesterday riding my bike home I saw a bare wet spot. A prime planting spot. A potential-life spot. A food spot. A joy spot.
Such a spot can be artificial, the result of imported water, as it was in this case. But even better if it’s natural—due to a natural concentration of […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2015
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
There are a number of ways we can work, live, and play with the seasons’ changing sun paths to freely and passively heat, cool, and power indoor and outdoor areas. A sun & shade trap creates a protected microclimate in which to plant a garden or fruit trees, hang out, or […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
My dance with the hurricane rains began on my last day in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as I walked along a beautiful acequia that predates the United States (fig. 1). “Officially” established by the Atrisco Land Grant in 1692, the acequia connected New Spain’s water system to the irrigation systems of the […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Hurricanes Norbert and Odile caused horrible destruction in Baja, Mexico, while those of us further north were more fortunate. We got the abundant rainfall from the hurricanes on September 8 and 18, but not the violent winds. How many of us were prepared to use the rain for good in the […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Got fog? Plant and grow living fog-harvesters or become one yourself, and you’ll end up increasing your rainfall—or at least your fogfall.
Note how much wetter the ground is below the trees than in areas where there are no trees. The tree leaves harvest the fog moisture, as it gathers on the […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Gutters filled with debris from overhanging tree branches. Photo taken at the beginning of the rainy season before gutters were cleaned.
Around the world among rainwater-harvesting cultures, people clean their water catchments before the rain. Children often have this responsibility, sweeping a flat roof- or patio-catchment. At my home, the responsibility is […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Plants’ water needs and tolerance determine their ideal Rain-Garden Zone. See plant lists in appendix 4 of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 2nd Edition, for more.
In the latest reprinting of “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 2nd Edition,” and on my website I have revised appendix […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
One of the best ways to make sure we have clean water is to avoid polluting our air and the water in the first place. This is why I recommend using only non-toxic building products and, ideally, making sure all materials in a water-collection system are rated for potable-water quality. (This […]

Riding a Bicycle Naked Might Make You Sweat, But It Saves Water and Generates Joy
by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
I love Portland’s World Naked Bike Ride! When I participated there were over 5,000 of us riding naked together.
The ride is brilliant bicycle advocacy. Cycling home—fully clothed—after the ride, folks in cars would cheer us on, calling […]

My trip to Iran by invitation of the Iranian Rainwater Catchment Systems Association
Another incredible opportunity to share ideas, traditions, and innovations across borders within similar climates
by Brad Lancaster © 2014
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Los Angeles, California
The February 2014 trip began with a bike ride. (My preference is to ride my bike to the airport, or walk to the bus […]

I’m honored to announce that my new, expanded 2nd edition of Volume 1 has received yet another 2 literary awards! They are:
Foreword Reviews’ 2013 Book of the Year Award Finalist:

botya.forewordreviews.com/finalists/2013/home-and-garden
2014 Nautilus Book Award Silver Winner:
www.nautilusbookawards.com/2014_SILVER_Winners.html
For a list of additional awards the book has won click here.
Get your copy here or gift one now!

Brad Lancaster wins 2014 Bicycle Commuter of the Year along with Juan Mungia

Said of Brad upon presentation of the award:
For years Brad has lived car free. He conducts all his local business by bicycle, and uses a bicycle for other kinds of trips most of us don’t think of as bikeable (including picking up friends […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2013
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
www.SunAndShadeHarvesting.com
I heat, light, and power my home primarily with the sun, and cool it primarily with shadows and natural ventilation. Free/passive strategies are at the core of how I make all this work. Examples include choosing a home oriented to the sun, likewise orienting my landscape to the sun, allowing […]

This year’s release of the updated, expanded Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 2nd Edition has won three literary awards:
* Best Indie Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews in the Nonfiction category
* 2013 USA Best Book Award in the General Home category
* 2013 Southwest Books of the Year pick
More awards could be on […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2013
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
This past September I had the great pleasure of teaching (and learning more about) ancient and modern water and sun harvesting in the Puglia region of southern Italy. Flying in, I saw perennial food-producing solar-power systems everywhere in the form of olive, almond, apricot, peach, loquat, apple, quince, fig, pomegranate, walnut, […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2013
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
I designed the sizing and placement of the roof overhang/gutter and windows on my garottage (one-car garage turned cottage) in Tucson, Arizona, to let the sun’s rays in when I need them for heating, and shade the sun’s rays out when I need cooling.

The sculpture shown in the photos below celebrates […]

From September 25 to October 8, 2013, I’ll be conducting an autographed-book giveaway for U.S.-based book readers on the website GoodReads. (Note: To get in the running for one of 5 free copies, you’ll first need to become a member at www.GoodReads.com, but this is super quick and easy.)
Please sign up if you are interested! […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2013
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
You don’t need to own property to engage with, harvest, cycle, and enhance your local resources—and your potential to live collaboratively with them. Below are some ideas all elaborated upon within the books Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 2nd Edition and Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2013
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Brad’s nephew Vaughan playing in the rain, the runoff from which is passively directed to our street-side food-bearing, native shade trees.
Climate change is real, it’s well underway, and we need to step up and make it a major part of the national dialog now, as we all work on solutions. The […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2011
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
A watershed is “that area of land, a bounded hydrological system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community.”
— John Wesley Powell
Political boundaries are arbitrary. Watershed boundaries are real.
Click here for […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2011
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Show the flow. Cycle it. Celebrate it. Know it. And as you do, show others the way.
The following three images are installations that I feel show and celebrate the flow. Their beauty lures me in, and invites me to look deeper. See more images in the Contemporary Water-Harvesting Art gallery, part […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2011
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
There is a tradition of harvesting rainwater in all human-inhabited drylands of the world where it rains (and a great many wet areas that also experience dry seasons). I’ve been very lucky to have been able to travel to, and learn from, some of them.
Below are three images. One from Israel. […]

by Brad Lancaster © 2011
www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Brad transporting plants
Years ago at a red light I looked into the car beside me and saw the frowning driver’s hair blowing into the back seat as though she were leaning into a mighty storm. But her windows were up. The gale was coming from her air conditioner—on a beautiful day […]

All photos and text by Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com © 2011
This is number six in a series of Drops in a Bucket Blog posts on Brad Lancaster’s water wanderings in the Middle East; this trip led in part to Volume 1 of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond being translated into Arabic, and Brad’s participation […]

by Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, © 2010
Jordan Valley, Jordan, 2009
One day my guides Mohammed Ayesh of NCARE and Iqbal of JOHUD took me to an oasis.
The village we were in was strewn with garbage, and the soil was bare and severely eroded. Houses were made from concrete brick and whatever materials could be scavenged. Then we […]

by Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, © 2010
Number 4 in a series of Drops in a Bucket blog posts on Brad Lancaster’s and David Eisenberg’s U.S. State Department-sponsored adventures and gleanings in the Middle East

Northern Jordan, April 2009
Throughout northern Jordan we visited dynamic villages that were enhancing their quality of life by recycling water and money as […]

by Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, © 2010
Number 3 in a series of Drops in a Bucket blog entries on Brad Lancaster’s and David Eisenberg’s U.S. State Department-sponsored adventures and gleanings in the Middle East
Al Absaa, Saudi Arabia, April 2009
At Al Absaa we toured irrigation projects within the largest oasis in Saudi Arabia. Over one million date […]

or If You Pray for Rain – Harvest It
By Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, ©2010
Number 2 in a series of Drops in a Bucket blog entries on Brad Lancaster’s and David Eisenberg’s U.S. State Department-sponsored adventures and gleanings in the Middle East
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, April 2009
Most of the water people now drink in Saudi Arabia is […]

or If You—and Your Drink—Sweat, Then Harvest Condensate
By Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, ©2010
I am finally getting to the sharing of my travel gleanings. This is the first of a series to follow – so keep checking back. This piece is from my U.S. State Department-sponsored trip to Jordan and Saudi Arabia in 2009. David Eisenberg of […]

Many thanks to Craig Mackintosh for the permission to repost a portion of his blog entry, enhanced with his own beautiful photographs, describing some of his Middle-Eastern travel experiences and the West Bank’s first PDC, which Murad Alkhuffash, David Spicer, and I just finished teaching. Visit permaculture.org.au/2010/06/30/letters-from-the-west-bank-seeds-of-hope-scattered-from-the-west-banks-first-pdc to read Craig’s blog entry in its entirety.
Letters […]

By Brad Lancaster
© 2010 www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Watergy is a term coined to describe the interconnection of water and energy. Every time we consume power we consume water. This is because water is used in the generation of our power – in Arizona this figure ranges from 0.001 to 56 gallons of water per kWh of power consumed.1 […]

By Julia Fonseca
Whew, digging swales and basins is hard work!  Gutters and tanks are expensive.  And as the skimpy summer rains of 2009 demonstrated, how do you harvest rain when the rain refuses to fall?
Fortunately, there is a way to harvest water, even during droughts.  It costs nothing, and requires no expenditure of energy.  Can […]

By Brad Lancaster
© 2010 www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Rainwater is known as “sweet water” throughout much of the world due to its pure “sweet” flavor when compared to brackish, alkaline, chemically-treated, or polluted ground and surface waters. Now it is also known as “beer water.” And folks, it is good – very good.
I sampled numerous pints of Golden Number […]

By Brad Lancaster
© 2010 Drops in a Bucket Blog, www.HarvestingRainwater.com
When I was little I was terrified of death. I often cried myself to sleep as I thought of the end of life. It seemed so bleak, pointless, and severe.
Mom tried to comfort me with the concept of going to heaven. This did not reassure me […]

© 2009 Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com

Many garden hoses leach lead and other chemicals into the water as it sits in the hose. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brass fittings are often the culprits.
Yuck – the water tastes like lead!
To reduce such risk, purchase, use, and/or drink only from hoses labeled safe for drinking water. Never buy any […]

How the harvest of urban nuisance runoff is reviving a community

Crushed rock or decomposed granite used excessively on landscapes grinds up mountains to spread them out in yards, but there are alternatives.

Recommendations from an Australian delegation touring U.S. cities to share their experiences with water efficiency as a result of prolonged drought

Harvesting street runoff to passively irrigate community orchards and support public celebrations

Check out, and apply for, up to $1,200 in these tax credits for water harvesting systems

A simple retrofit of a parking lot enabling it to harvest water and grow food-producing shade trees.

How runoff from apartment roofs, a parking lot, and a city street irrigated a bountiful 1-acre city farm

An introduction