Reading the landscape for water cycle restoration

Following up from the last episode in which I explained some of the broader concepts of water cycles and their relationship with land, vegetation, and management practices, we're going to go down to ground level to explore what it means to read the landscape for water restoration potential. More than a conceptual exercise however, this discussion is one I recorded with my colleague and water restoration practitioner Nick Steiner. Together we went out to assess the water retention potential on a farm of clients of ours in southern Portugal. For those who don't know, this area has been on a long trajectory of degradation and drying out. The whole region is in severe need of a change in how they manage water as the status quo of the last decades has desertified the area. Though we'll be speaking about the unique conditions and context of this farm and bioregion, the steps and considerations from our assessment process are widely applicable to any landscape or climactic region. My hope here is that you'll be able to go into any landscape and begin to observe how water move through and is received by the space your in. This is the first step in being able to design for water management on any farm. You can share what you observe and learn from your own land in the Climate Farmer's community where we have a dedicated channel where we talk about water management with our group of more than 800 farmers around Europe.