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Water | In a healthy landscape, water is a valuable resource that is critical for life. In a landscape that lacks dense plant cover and soil life, water can be a harmful and destructive, eroding soil, leaching nutrients and destroying homes and infrastructure. Increasing severity of weather events due to the heating climate is further exacerbating the effects of heavy rain and insufficient plant cover, damaging both urban and rural lands, ecosystems and communities. |
Regenerative Water Management: Rain fall is slowed by leaf cover, soaked into soil that is porous, aggregated by root systems and soil biology and infiltrated into water tables or filtered through the ground and discharged into rivers and lakes. Water from precipitation is collected high in landscapes for use during dry periods. Water is utilized in ways that leaves it clean or kept within a contained system until it is cleaned of everything that is not a resource for natural ecosystems. Landscapes are irrigated with water that has not been chemically treated, transported long distances or drawn from depleting aquifers. | Degenerative Water Management Rain falls directly onto bare soil or hard surfaces. Rather than soaking in, it flows across compacted soils, impermeable surfaces, or bare earth, eroding soil and carrying pollutants and sediment into rivers and lakes. Water flows away from where it falls quickly, leading to increased flooding downstream. Lack of infiltration, leaving ecosystems more susceptible to drought conditions. Polluting water and not ensuring that it is cleaned before being released back into natural systems. Irrigating landscapes with treated water and/or water drawn from aquifers that are being depleted faster than they can refill |
