WATER RETENTION LANDSCAPES
as an answer to droughts, floods, and
desertification.
Tamera, Portugal
www.tamera.org
Tamera, Portugal
2006
Vision of the completed waterlandscape
In 2007, the Peace Research Center Tamera started to build a
Water Retention Landscape on its property of 150 ha.
Landscape situation in the Alentejo:
Landscape situation in the Alentejo:
Annual precipitation: ca. 700 mm, mainly from October to May.
Landscape situation in the Alentejo:
Annual precipitation: ca. 700 mm, mainly from October to May.
Summer droughts and decreasing ground water table.
Increasing land infertility, loss of biomass and biodiversity.
Landscape situation in the Alentejo:
Annual precipitation: ca. 700 mm, mainly from October to May.
Summer droughts and decreasing ground water table.
Increasing land infertility, loss of biomass and biodiversity.
Analysis:
Deforestation, overgrazing and monocultures have hardened the
soil and thus interrupted the "Large Water Cycle" (Viktor
Schauberger): the rainwater cannot infiltrate the soil anymore. It
runs off, causing erosion, loss of topsoil, decreasing soil
humidity.
Landscape situation in the Alentejo:
Annual precipitation: ca. 700 mm, mainly from October to May.
Summer droughts and decreasing ground water table.
Increasing land infertility, loss of biomass and biodiversity.
Analysis:
Deforestation, overgrazing and monocultures have hardened the
soil and thus interrupted the "Large Water Cycle" (Viktor
Schauberger): the rainwater cannot infiltrate the soil anymore. It
runs off, causing erosion, loss of topsoil, decreasing soil
humidity.
Result:
Traditional agriculture becomes too risky, farmers give up their
land. Rural depopulation leads - in the two meanings of the word
- to deserted land.
Landscape situation in the Alentejo:
Annual precipitation: ca. 700 mm, mainly from October to May.
Summer droughts and decreasing ground water table.
Increasing land infertility, loss of biomass and biodiversity.
Analysis:
Deforestation, overgrazing and monocultures have hardened the
soil and thus interrupted the "Large Water Cycle" (Viktor
Schauberger): the rainwater cannot infiltrate the soil anymore. It
runs off, causing erosion, loss of topsoil, decreasing soil
humidity.
Result:
Traditional agriculture becomes too risky, farmers give up their
land. Rural depopulation leads - in the two meanings of the word
- to deserted land.
The Alentejo is in the process of desertification.
Our question:
Our question:
Can we reverse this situation?
Our question:
Can we reverse this situation?
Can we re-install the large water cycle as a precondition for
food security and biodiversity?
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
- enable highly-productive cultivation of fruits and vegetables
on terraces around the water retention spaces
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
- enable highly-productive cultivation of fruits and vegetables
on terraces around the water retention spaces
- open new production possibilities like fishery or aqua
gardening
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
- enable highly-productive cultivation of fruits and vegetables
on terraces around the water retention spaces
- open new production possibilities like fishery or aqua
gardening
- prepare the ground for reforestation
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
- enable highly-productive cultivation of fruits and vegetables
on terraces around the water retention spaces
- open new production possibilities like fishery or aqua
gardening
- prepare the ground for reforestation
- improve the situation for wildlife
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
- enable highly-productive cultivation of fruits and vegetables
on terraces around the water retention spaces
- open new production possibilities like fishery or aqua
gardening
- prepare the ground for reforestation
- improve the situation for wildlife
- improve the economical situation of the Alentejo
Aims of a Water Retention Landscape:
- Keep the rain water on the land to give it time to infiltrate
the soil
- Increase soil humidity
- recharge groundwater aquifers
- stop erosion and recreate the layer of fertile topsoil
- save winter rainfall to irrigate summer cultivation
- recreate fertility and biodiversity
- enable highly-productive cultivation of fruits and vegetables
on terraces around the water retention spaces
- open new production possibilities like fishery or aqua
gardening
- prepare the ground for reforestation
- improve the situation for wildlife
- improve the economical situation of the Alentejo
AND REVERSE DESERTIFICATION
Lake 1, 2007
Lake 1, 2009
2011
A Water Retention Landscape
.
A Water Retention Landscape
is a landscape that stores
rainwater naturally:
in the soil, in vegetation, and in retention spaces.
A Water Retention Landscape
is a landscape that stores
rainwater naturally:
in the soil, in vegetation, and in retention spaces.
No rainwater will leave a
water retention landscape,
only clean spring water.
Tamera Valley Garden Lake, 2008
Tamera South Valley 2012
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
with deep and shallow zones for wildlife
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
with deep and shallow zones for wildlife
- Swales
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
with deep and shallow zones for wildlife
- Swales
- Terraces formed of the topsoil which is found in
the valleys
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
with deep and shallow zones for wildlife
- Swales
- Terraces formed of the topsoil which is found in
the valleys
- Gardens and edible landscapes
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
with deep and shallow zones for wildlife
- Swales
- Terraces formed of the topsoil which is found in
the valleys
- Gardens and edible landscapes
- Reforestation in mixed cultures
A Water Retention Landscape encompasses:
- Water Retention Spaces ("Lakes" and ponds)
with earth dams of natural materials
(no plastic or concrete)
with meandering shorelines for water purification
with deep and shallow zones for wildlife
- Swales
- Terraces formed of the topsoil which is found in
the valleys
- Gardens and edible landscapes
- Reforestation in mixed cultures
- Roads and houses built on the hills, not in the valleys.
Construction site
of a Water Retention
Space:
Building the earth
dam
Tamera, Southlake
August 2011
Building Terraces
with topsoil from
the valleys
to slow down
rainwater and
stop erosion.
Tamera, Southlake
July 2011
Same spot
March 2012
Fields of further research:
Effect on biodiversity
Sustaining local farming traditions
Reforestation in mixed cultures
Productivity at the shore terraces
Productivity in mixed cultures at the shores
On the terraces around
the lakes we harvest
3 kg / m2 of fruits and
vegetables per year.
Sepp Holzer, farmer and ecological visionary
from Austria, brought this knowledge to Tamera.
“Remember paradise – and manifest it, wherever you can.”
Sabine Lichtenfels, co-founder of Tamera
“Remember paradise – and manifest it, wherever you can.”
Sabine Lichtenfels, co-founder of Tamera
More information:
www.tamera.org