Earth seems to have reached its current state in random bursts of evolution rather than in a linear, unified manner as we might think. Evolution is how the earth designs itself and before trying to design any human landscape it is extremely important to understand the patterns within earth's design in the largest scales possible. From the creation of earth, the in-flux of oxygen followed by aerobic life, living in the sea for millions of years, adaptation to terrestrial life, the ecology of a mature forest, to the micro-ecology of a pond in your backyard, all need to understood through the broadest and complex lens of nature as a self-regulating design comprising of biogeochemical processes. Understanding patterns and replicating nature's patterns with highest functional use for humans is key to permaculture design.
Permaculture designing principles are most often capable of being scaled up from a specific site or plot of land up to an entire geographic region. Here are some of these principles to keep in mind while designing your site, village, town, city, district, or region; 1. Only introduce those things into your space or system that have multiple functions. Recommended is at least 3. For example on a piece of land it could be a live fence which plays the role of being a fence demarcating and safeguarding property, made up of edible fruits or vegetables for humans, a habitat for birds or burrowing animals, a wind barrier for smaller plants growing along its edge, and a natural filter of pollution coming in from the road. On a larger scale one might question if there does exist a multiple functionality to certain human structures such as dams. Do dams provide any other function other than capturing and channelling water? The truth might be rarely if at all do large dams play any other 'beneficial' function. They damage the surrounding eco-system and livelihoods of people living on those eco-systems, they change the river system ecology, and do not add any vitality to the water amongst many other issues. 2. Maximize mutually beneficial relationships This has multiple levels of designing attached to it. It refers to creating a system where things are interconnected and benefit each other. It can be about planting beans, corn, and squash together which all help each other out while using less energy and space. Or it can be about linking a huge garbage collection system to a biogas industry which is connected to a composting and gardening organization. All help each other and at the same time create circular patterns where material and energy is recycled and brought back into the system in a useful way rather than being discarded and abandoned. Ecosystems are made up of multiple levels of mutually beneficial relationships, we can only hope to imitate some of them in our designs. As long as we get our basics right, ecology will take care of the rest. 3. Designs need to be bioregional or in tune with natural patterns and ecology of the region as much as possible. In this case dams are a good example of giving no consideration to this point. The creation of sustainable and self-regulating designs depends on this principle. This principle is capable of being scaled up to how cities, countries, and civilizations are built. Our cities made with cement and glass are replicated the world over and are completely alienated from the regional eco-system. If one has the time, perhaps this is to also do with us culturally and as individuals. I find Taoism most relevant here. Understanding the way and following that path. Civilizations after civilizations have been far from this teaching. 4. Create a thoughtful diversity of elements Diversity in ecology is key to a sustainable ecosystem due to its ability to have multiple functions and adaptability in situations of disturbance. While designing creating multiple elements or methods to perform the same function can be very helpful. For example there are multiple types of energy for multiple types of use. While solar energy may be excellent for heating water and your house, biogas is better for cooking. Why should a city receive all its energy only from fossil fuel electric plants when it could be using the city waste to create biogas for cooking, solar energy for heating houses, and gravity for creating water supply? The key words here are 'thoughtful diversity'. Diversity that is random, not in tune with the natural ecology, or decontextualized can be stupid if not damaging. 5. Always ask the question, 'what happens to this once its life is over?' Using hybrids and mixes of different materials even if they are 'eco-friendly' may be disastrous when it comes to disposing these off. Its unbelievable how much trash we have created and they way we dispose it off after we have created it. The poisonous chemicals from our own 'shit' is killing us right now from nuclear plants reaching their radiation capacities to chemicals leaching into our water systems from our own backyard. It is so important to think of not just the functionality of a material be it wood, fossil fuel, or plastic, but also how does it return to earth and what does it do along the way. Asking about how far you got the material from is also very important. Staying regional is most important for great functionality as well as impact. 6. Use and enhance all passive systems before initiating an active system. Use biology before technology. Its amazing how much biology does for us passively. While vegetation is passively ensuring that the earth doesn't heat up or cool down too much, we are too busy heating up our cities through our air-conditioners that keep us cool inside a heat absorbing cement building. Growing a creeper along the wall of that building could reduce the cooling requirement inside by 30%. That is a passive and effective system. Just like using gravity to feed harvested rainwater to a building rather than an active electric pump. Or understanding the groundwater network of a city, recharging it, and enhancing easy access to this water so that there is no need for transportation of water from miles away. At this point it is important to understand just how much work micro-organisms do for us for free. They evolve much faster than any other animal or plant, they can clean up entire oil spills in a few months, entire ponds and streams in a few days, and are even used in buildings as zero-waste passive sewage treatment plants. 7. Use fossil fuels to create landscapes that do not require their continued use. We can no longer keep up the lifestyle that we live currently based on fossil fuel use. So why not use this last fossil fuel to create something that wont require them any more such as rooftop rain water harvesting systems, solar panels, trains rather than roads, and so much more. 8. Start small It is overwhelming to think of designing an entire city or country or even a civilization. It may not even be the right thing to do. Starting small is fine. And I would even add stay small. Let someone else try these things out for themselves at a small scale. It will always be different than what you did which is great! There are many more specific principles to designing while looking at energy or boundaries of a piece of land. But more of that will come later with practical examples. Check out some cool videos by Bill Mollison in the next post.
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Lessons from my Permaculture Design Certification and experiments thereafter Archives
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