It would not be permaculture if we tried to design something without understanding some basic ecological processes. For me ecology includes several if not all sciences such as biology, hydrology, geology, geography, physics, and a lot more. Ecology helps us become aware of patterns existing in nature and borrows research done by all fields. Permaculture uses ecology and also adds economics and other social sciences and tries to design useful things with all this knowledge combined with experience and meditation. The following are the most important concepts to keep in mind while creating permaculture designs. Sun and Energy The sun is the nearest star to us and is at the center of our solar system. 99.8% of the mass of our entire solar system is the sun alone. All forms of energy on earth have been created through solar energy. It is the primary form and the mother of all kinds of energy. It is important to understand how solar energy has transformed our earth and continues to do so. Since solar energy is a renewable source of energy, it makes most sense to design systems that utilize this energy first. Unlike plants, humans transform energy into states where it can no longer be useful to us and also ends up causing negative impact on ecosystems and other species. Maybe instead of using fossil fuels to run our cars, industries, and agriculture, we could use it to create landscapes that do not require their use beyond creation. Designing energy efficient and self-sufficient landscapes is one of the key elements of permaculture. Solar energy has shaped the earth and we cannot change where the sun will be in the sky. But we can design to utilize its power to the fullest through passive system that have very little ecological impact and eventually high economical benefits. Water and Vegetation as Thermal Mass The sun continues to radiate its heat at us and were it not for water and vegetation, we would never be able to survive the extreme heating and cooling that used to take place as the earth rotated into day and night. Water as we all know has a lot of thermal mass that prevents it from extreme cooling and heating. Millions of years ago once there was water on earth, creatures could now survive in water which would mitigate the night and day temperature vacillations. Slowly as life spread to the land, vegetation functioned just like water on land. Thinking of vegetation as water on land helps us grasp the importance of having vegetation to prevent excessive cooling and heating. This easily explains the why dense urban areas get so hot in the summer. There is hardly any vegetation in cities and most of the structures are concrete and surrounded by polluted water, air, and soil. This is called the urban heat island effect. It takes much more energy to cool a building than to heat it up. Thus designing cities with ponds and lots of vegetation can be extremely helpful in creating cool microclimates. Biogeochemical Cycles We are now living in a society that is has focussed too much on linear thinking whether it is in economics or waste systems. This is completely opposite of what nature does. All matter in nature cycles. Biogeochemical cycles is the movement or cycling of matter through a system. Matter is elements and molecules such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, h2o etc. Examples are water cycles, carbon cycles, nitrogen cycles, phosphorus cycles etc. Here below is a diagram of a hyrological cycle. Here is a great link to diagrams of biogeochemical cycles. Ecosystems arise and persist because of cycles. Following the patterns of these cycles in our designs is possibly the best thing you can do to create a sustainable landscape. So many of our current systems do not base themselves on these cycles and therefore have created massive impact on earth and the climate. In India you often see that many rivers that have huge dams on them do not even reach the ocean. That is an incomplete system and the effects are going to be disastrous. The goal for any designer should be to create zero-waste systems where everything cycles and is utilized in one way or another. Succession and Disturbance Succession is an ecological concept that explains the structure and pattern of evolution or growth of a biological community over time. Every landscape goes through different stages of growth towards a something called as a 'climax' community. It is an extremely diverse, stable, and highly productive stage for any ecosystem to be in. You can call it where nature would like to have things ideally go towards. These patterns or stages of development can often be seen after 'disturbance' events. Disturbance is any event natural or human created that destroys almost everything that is living in that particular area or ecosystem. Fires, floods, clear-cutting forests, controlled forest fires etc. are examples of disturbances. These events lead to the resetting of the land and that is when you can see the different stages of succession as the land such as starting with grasses, followed by shrubs and fast growing small trees, followed by medium sized trees and finally large and slow growing trees that form the climax community. Succession can also be understood in terms of entire ecosystems such as moving from desert to grasslands to shrubland followed by deciduous forest to an evergreen forest. Here is a diagram of disturbance and succession. It is fascinating to understand these ecological processes because nothing we produce can ever compete with the production of a climax community. Integrated design will try to move or expedite the biology of a place towards a climax community with a healthy mix of beneficial elements for humans. Creating zones of use along with planting useful trees and food forests, and creating ponds amongst many things may be the best win-win situation we can achieve.
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