Reading the Landscape with Permaculture Design

effects is where it goes from rounded that way to round it that way right at the top of every single Valley on this planet in a humid landscape now look turn around the hills are rounded are they not it is not a desert it is not an arid landscape where evaporation is higher than rainfall if it was it will be angular it would have pediments and scarps you know the John Wayne movie cowboy movies that's where it's famous right so a lot of the Mediterranean is rounded but it's become a desert in climate but the landscape hasn't gone angular yet southern Spain you know a lot of the Mediterranean is now got a desert type climate because the trees added enough condensation drip to take it into a humid landscape so a lot of the Mediterranean including North Africa which the Romans smashed with growing wheat they're rounded Hills but the climate is Desert over a few thousand years it will go angular if they keep it overgrazed and not allowed for us to come back I just want to emphasize this there are two major landscapes in the world profile what you're looking at is a rounded profile you are definitely in a rounded landscape right and this is not likely to become a desert although if we give it a real good bash it probably could right so the Mediterranean is a classic switch point and you know all this you know climate change and you know Spain's desert is that's all it's about condensation trip runs your Danube condensation drip runs all the rivers it's not the rain right so there's this switch point I just want to over emphasize this right sorry I know it's starting to sound like a lawyer who over emphasizes every legal point but you you must get this right you're in a rounded landscape so at the top of every Valley at the top of every single Valley the water is coming over a convex surface before it transitions to a concave service it's a cleavage cleavage is like seem like my fingers where there's a crease and then there's not a crease that's the cleavage right on either side of every Valley there's a ridge 100 percent if there's not a ridge on one side of the valley it's not a valley it's called the side of the Hill and now it's really obvious but it people don't get taught this all right on either side of Valley there has to be a ridge one Ridge could be small lower than the other one Ridge can be slightly different shape than the other but there is a ridge on either side of every single Valley that's what makes it a bloody rally right it cannot be anything else and sometimes you just got to learn the absolute obvious at the top of every Valley there's only two things can possibly be there and so it's that simple the landscape's that simple it's either the top of a hill a Hilltop or it's another Ridge it's a valley coming off the side of a ridge if you look at your map here there is a big Ridge here right with saddles in it so if we go up here you can see above the the valley doesn't go to the top there must be a point where this hollow going up the valley or coming down the valley hits concave to convex you you still in between my knuckles in between my Knuckles right that's like a ridge there's still a cleavage in there when I clench my fist but I'm still in the valley in the concave and then I would get to the uh still in the valley in the convex but then it becomes the concave this is the key point this is the highest point you can hold water if if the geology is right and everything it won't be the biggest dam this is a huge dam for the size of what but the highest point is up there that is a planning point that is a planning point this is the key line farming identification of landscape this is PA Yeomans water for every Farm 1940s Define this as key line farming right and and it's really important to know where it is and to be able to find it so if we go to the top of the valley if it's not too treed and we walk down it we'll be walking over a concave surface so if I use the side here and this is not a key point but just as a demonstration so I'm walking over there my I don't walk on my heels it naturally if you just relax you start to walk on the balls of your feet because you need to balance right I'm on the balls of my feet I'm on my heels I'm it's there it's within that step and that step I'm going from convex convex I'm on convexed I'm on concave it's right here somewhere you can get it easily within half a meter we can stay in the bottom of the valley and walk up until that happens and then you can turn around and walk back down and go ah it's just here it's just at that point at the top of that Valley every single Valley in Hungary has one no exceptions unless someone's come in and done a load of Earthworks and changed the landscape for a little while before the erosion puts it back the erosion will put it back so it works the opposite way don't dry lines are different dry lines are angular they're shaped with heat and they're shaped with wind and massive rain events very quickly a a desert is a flood waiting to happen and usually gets half its rain half its annual rainfall in four hours Jordan where I work in the Dead Sea Valley averages 150 millimeters of range it usually gets 75 million four hours it's a different game in that that's it like because you're in an angular landscape that there are minor landscapes there are volcanic Landscapes formed by volcanic actions and they're particular angles there are high islands and low Islands there are flat lands like the prairies and there are um coasts and estuaries they're all minor landscapes they're interesting we often live on them right but the majority of the world which we get out there and destroy and and like act very unsubly on like that right is is human inherent the major part of the world is humidity they're very much the major landscape profiles the profile like like the profile of your place profile we're talking profiles now they are shaped by climatic action that's the energy that shaped them then you get the minor landscape High Islands which stand right up the largest High Continental island is Madagascar the low Islands which are either sand or Coral have a particular design Pro you have to approach them in particular ways then you have very very flat lands like the Prairies and the Savannahs which you have very large herds of animals large herds moving quickly over large flat areas and then you have um Wetlands which are your swamps which the chinampas fit on and other than a particular ways you approach them and then you have coasts which are salt wind and alkaline like the deserts at deserts are alkaline human Landscapes are acid generally you know you you can generalize a lot in permaculture you can generalize an awful lot and then find specifics there's very large generalization this is what will give the children a lot of Hope they can read the world no problem they can they can be planetary citizens you can be a a global designer and you can think globally and act locally anywhere on the planet foreign [Music]

Channel: Discover Permaculture with Geoff Lawton

Views: 30,868

Keywords:

Id: p8J2y6MOZ8I

Length: 8min 49sec (529 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2023