Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster

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Thought Seeds

“Our street curbs flow like ephemeral creeks when it rains. So let's treat them like creeks, by planting the native vegetation you would naturally find growing along such local waterways. Then cut or eliminate the street curbs to allow the creek water to water the plants in flood-controlling, street-side rain gardens.

For every inch of rainfall...
• A 10-foot wide paved street will drain 27,800 gallons of runoff per mile
• A 30-foot wide paved street will drain 83,500 gallons of runoff per mile

For every 100 mm of rainfall...
• A 3-m wide paved street will drain 300,000 liters of runoff per kilometer
• A 9-m wide paved street will drain 900,000 liters of runoff per kilometer”

--  Brad Lancaster, "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2"

Enough rain runs off my 38-foot wide neighborhood street to support over 400 native shade trees per mile, or one tree every 25 feet on both sides of the street.

Rainwater Harvesting

 

Hand cistern reaching for the rain. Inflow via forefinger, overflow via the thumb to terraced gardens.
Vine Street, Seattle, Washington


HarvestingRainwater.com Video Gallery: Water-harvesting and other water-related videos

HarvestingRainwater.com Image Gallery: Captioned water-harvesting photos grouped by focus

Drops in a Bucket Blog

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Upcoming Events

  1. Water Harvesting Presentation, Book Release & Signing with Brad Lancaster – Phoenix, AZ

    January 24 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

  2. Borderlands Regional Watershed Restoration Practitioners Workshop

    February 8 - February 9

  3. Spring 2020 – Permaculture Design Course, Tucson, AZ

    February 8

  4. Online Water Harvesting Course Through Oregon State University

    February 10 - March 15

  5. Guided Water-Harvesting Home & Neighborhood Tour with Brad Lancaster – Tucson, AZ

    February 15 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

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Umbrella Newsletter

The Umbrella: Winter 2019/2020

THE UMBRELLA: A catch-all of resources, events, media, and more from Brad Lancaster   Rain Planting E-BOOK now available! Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1, 3rd Edition now available in E-BOOK format Plant the Rain gifts Get holidays gifts that spread the word and practice on how we can make the world a […]

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