Brad Lancaster is a dynamic teacher, consultant, and designer of
regenerative systems. He’s taught throughout North America, Middle
East, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia; worked with the City of
Tucson and other municipalities to legalize, incentivize, and
provide guidance on water-harvesting systems, demonstration sites,
and policy; and designed edible rain-irrigated landscapes doubling
as flood control and community-building strategies for housing
developments, parks, schools, businesses, ranches, and
neighborhoods. Brad’s aim is always to boost communities’ true
health and wealth by using simple overlapping strategies to augment
the region’s hydrology, ecosystems, and economies—living systems
upon which we depend.
Brad lives his talk on an oasis-like demonstration site he created
with his brother’s family in downtown Tucson, Arizona. On this
eighth of an acre and surrounding public right-of-way, they harvest
100,000 gallons of rainwater a year where just 11 inches per year
fall from the sky. Brad is motivated in his work by the tens of
thousands of people he has helped inspire to do likewise, go
further, and continue our collective evolution.
“Brad Lancaster has published a revised, third edition of his
authoritative book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond:
Volume 1, Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and
Landscape. Lancaster has decades of experience in planting rain in
Tucson, Arizona. He began to counter poor waterscape management
after meeting water farmer Zephaniah Phiri Maseko. This man’s
wisdom, and his practice of long and thoughtful observation of land
to understand how rain flows through it and shapes it, is at the
core of Lancaster’s rainwater harvesting practice. Tucson receives
more water from falling rain than its consumers use. But
destruction of the region’s forest, and development of impermeable
urban zones has led to water scarcity, as Lancaster explains in
this Ted talk. His book addresses this problem. It tweaks Maseko’s
principles of water infiltration to fit the needs of his Tucson
home. This involves creating mulch-filled depressions in his garden
where rainwater infiltrates, and where household greywater can be
diverted. It also involves applying these practices in the public
arena; for instance, diverting rainwater from streets to irrigate
crop-bearing trees on public land. Rainwater Harvesting’s five
chapters walk the reader through principles of rainwater
infiltration, using Lancaster’s own projects as case studies. The
book’s appendices, which have been further developed in this new,
colour edition, offer another incredibly valuable resource. They
describe, for instance, patterns of water and sediment flow and how
to best utilize them; traditional Southwestern rainwater harvesting
techniques; a list of plants and their water requirements, and
information on the water-energy-carbon nexus and how domestic
rainwater harvesting saves energy and money, while reducing CO2
emissions. In short, any household or community committed to living
sustainably by conserving and recycling water should read this
book.”—International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance (IRHA)
“Brad Lancaster has done it again. In revising his excellent book,
he has given us a window into the world through the lens of water.
Water connects all things. And Brad shows us water as a practical
way of considering context and connection. From a world of water as
commodity, he takes us to a world of water as moving, enriching
exchanges, the stuff of life. A native friend got a job with his
local water company, and rather than an engineering job, he saw it
as a sacred trust. This is the shift that Brad leads us carefully
through. Water is wealth and health—let’s treat it that way, and
dance our way from scarcity to abundance.—Joel Glanzberg, author of
the The Permaculture Mind; tracker; and teacher / designer of
regenerative living systems; PatternMind.org
“In a time of escalating resource scarcity and global conflict,
this essential book helps us regain control of our water by showing
us how to enhance our water and energy supply with simple, fun, and
effective strategies at home and beyond.”—Maude Barlow, author of
Blue Covenant; Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the
United Nations General Assembly
“Brad Lancaster clearly defines the differences between the path to
scarcity and the path to abundance, both revolving around the wise
use of water while avoiding the consequences of careless use.
Throughout the book, alternatives are plainly described with
illustrations that get to the point. I have worked in the field
with Brad. He is unabashedly committed to the parallel causes of
water and energy conservation. He asks incisive questions, searches
for answers, tests solutions, documents findings, and happily
shares his conclusions with all who care to listen. Clearly Mr.
Lancaster is an agent for change, a true innovator, providing
simple but powerful solutions to difficult questions facing society
in both urban and rural situations.”—Bill Zeedyk, Zeedyk Ecological
Consulting, LLC; co-author of Let the Water Do the Work
“Lancaster’s book on rainwater harvesting is fantastic and an
abundant guidebook for a more sane approach to our most precious
resource. I highly recommend it.”—Jason F. McLennan, CEO,
International Living Future Institute
“This book and the thinking behind it should be part of the basic
education of civil engineers, architects, landscape architects, and
planners everywhere. As a civil engineer working for a progressive
municipal water utility in an arid climate, I can see if a majority
of our citizens followed these practices, many of our current and
future challenges would be alleviated. The positive side benefits
in terms of erosion-control, creation of bird habitat, and natural
cooling would be exceptional.”—Patricia Eisenberg, P.E., Past
president, Arizona Society of Civil Engineers
“This wonderful book overflows with effective ways to beneficially
cycle and enhance local water supplies, while maximizing power from
the sun. It provides much-needed guidance and ideas on how to meet
our resource needs, increase household and community potential, and
protect the ecosystems upon which we all depend.”—Sandra Postel,
founding director, Global Water Policy Project; Freshwater Fellow
of the National Geographic Society; and author of Last Oasis
“In an age of enormous, industrial questions about resources, this
book is an antidote. In these pages are solutions on a human scale,
taking water not from massive reservoirs or river diversions but
straight from the sky.”—Craig Childs, author of The Secret
Knowledge of Water
“Though a bizarre irony, rainwater in the arid west is typically
deflected away from water-starved land and shunted off to storm
drains at great expense. Not so in Brad Lancaster’s universe. He
welcomes rainwater into the landscape with creativity,
intelligence, and humor, and puts it to use growing and enriching
all kinds of resources, while reducing flooding and erosion, and
enlivening the urban environment. In this new edition of Rainwater
Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, he welcomes us to join him in
exercising the radical common sense of harvesting rainwater melded
with the harvests of sun, wind, carbon, and more.”—Ann Audrey,
Environmental Consultant, for integrating rainwater harvesting,
habitat restoration, and edible trees
“This applies three times as much to the third edition: Buy this
book now. If you live in a dry place, buy it. If you live somewhere
subject to droughts (which is everywhere), buy it. The simple
techniques (and the principles behind them) can help you save
bundles of money, and make the landscape around you more productive
and beautiful, with less work and upkeep than you can imagine. Lend
it to your neighbors, and you’ll benefit as well. (Heck—buy them
each a copy.) This how-to manual has enough stories, illustrations,
and simple ideas to inspire even the most unhandy among us (such as
myself). Buy it, try a couple of projects in your backyard, and in
a few years be sure to send Brad and me a thank you note!”—Kevin
Dahl, former Executive Director of Native Seeds/SEARCH and author
of WildFoods of the Sonoran Desert and Native Harvest: Gardening
with Authentic Southwestern Crops
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