Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape, 2nd Edition

Living in the drylands myself and having a general interest in being more self-sufficient, I thought picking up a book about rainwater harvesting might be a good idea. I’ve been more than impressed with this book. It is well written, well organized, and jammed full of useful information and a myriad of helpful illustrations. The author does something that in my experience is often lacking with many “how-to” books: he delivers on what he promises and then some by providing a mountain of practical and useful knowledge. In addition, it becomes obvious fairly quickly that the author’s vast amount of knowledge on the subject was learned by doing. In other words he practices what he preaches and knows what he’s talking about because he’s done what he’s talking about.After reading this book, you would be hard-pressed not to come away with not only several ideas for rainwater harvesting, but perhaps more importantly an overall understanding of rainwater harvesting, why you should consider doing it, and just how important rain is. The book really gives you a new outlook on rain and water in general.If you want a book that will not only provide a myriad of rainwater harvesting techniques, but provide you with a foundation of knowledge that will allow you to understand what you can do and how you can do it, I highly recommend this book.

This series is fantastic. I can't wait to start putting these ideas into action. Brad writes very clearly and with a good balance of background/philosophy, anecdotes and examples, and practical, technical information. He has a no-nonsense approach that anyone can easily and cheaply implement. The only reason I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is that there's a bit too much overlap between Vol. 1 and Vol 2. You could almost maybe just go straight to Vol. 2 if you already have bought in to the concept. (I have not gotten Vol. 3 yet because I'm not ready to think about cisterns.)

This is an extremely useful, well researched series.I live in the high desert of CA, where drought seems to be the natural state of things.It has a vast array of choices on water harvesting, so no matter what your situation, there is an option for you. You can employ these techniques whether you're building your own home on acreage, or living in the suburbs in a tract home.I wish more municipalities would employ these techniques.We grade land to maximize runoff. However, this breaks the cycle of replenishing the water resources we use. Water comes out of the ground to supply our drinking water, but it never recharges, but rather runs down the drain.This series not only teaches techniques on how to help water soak into the ground, and harvest it in cisterns, but also how to prevent standing water and mosquitoes, and how to create an outlet for overflow.

Brad Lancaster is the ultimate "try it, test it, prove it" kind of guy. Everything expressed in his book is proven effective on his own property and home. He lives the life he espouses, and has transformed his neighborhood from dry and dusty to a lush, pleasant oasis. The streets of his neighborhood are safer with calming traffic circles, vegetation and public art. Several locations on the campus of the University of Arizona, Tucson now have water catchment systems and water re-use. In this volume are formulas to calculate runoff from rooftops, piping needed and recommended tank sizes as well as methods to disburse water when needed. It's amazing how much influence one individual's ideas can have on the city. Wherever you live, even in town on a tiny lot, or an apartment with a balcony, you can experience satisfying results.

This book changed my life. He opens with an inspiring account of a farmer who transformed his dusty, unfruitful plot of dry land into a life-sustaining ecosystem. Then Lancaster moves into the details of planning. He provides useful calculating sheets and simply, but powerful illustrations to convey the principles of rainwater harvesting. I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to be inspired while taking steps to implementing this type of design. I am using the images and tools In the book to convince my landlord to fund a water-wise landscape in El Paso. It works because the images are easy to understand, regardless of your background expertise and make economic sense. There is a free PDF copy of the book available, but I chose to buy the hard copy because I appreciate the obvious hardwork that Lancaster put into this book which is brimming with research, resources and Precision.

We got 9 inches of rain last year in my area. 16 inches is the norm. We're in a drought like much of the Midwest. Last year I planted a 1/4 acre to wheat that had poor results even with supplemental irrigation. I purchased Vol. I and II together. Vol. I is more of a sales pitch for how terrible our stormwater systems are. Vol. II is very detailed about how and where to build various types of rainwater harvesting systems other than roof catchment. I watched a DIY video of someone building swales and saw the problem with the system before it was done. Not that I'm and expert, but if the vlogger had purchased this book he would have saved himself the trouble of having his swales washed away with the next rainstorm.

great research book, useful info

Just looking at some of the pictures has given me loads of idea's for harvesting rain on my land! This is a must have book for anyone now days even if you live where it is "wet". Water is no longer cheap and ever cent you can save is valued. This book will let you catch free water to use to water plants or animals. With some treatments it can even be used for human consumption. Always good info to have on hand - just in case.

"Rainwater Harvesting" goes way beyond collecting the wet stuff that falls from the sky: it is the primer that everyone needs whether you're interested in saving on water costs, permaculture design, passive solar landscaping, or engineering city landscaping for the new cycles of floods and droughts. I live in the Canadian BC Interior and found this book to be as relevant here as when I lived in the Mojave Desert, and I'm eagerly awaiting the new edition of Volume 2 as well as Volume 3, whenever it gets published.

Great Book. Very informative , and easy to follow.I look forward to implementing a lot of what I learn.

Fantastic book. Really well written and a game changer to landscape designers.

This book should be the new holy Bible.It is very clear that the way we are currently exploiting our environment leads to desertification, polluting water tables...etc. California is already drying up and the same faith awaits to Spain and the likes, unless we do something!!! This book gives the answers to this problem. It is possible not only to stop damaging the Earth but actually to reverse the desertification. Where they follow these guide lines in a large scale (over 600 villages in India for example) rivers that stopped flowing in the last few decades are coming back.We have to start thinking about sustainability now!Care about our planet and DO something. clicking `Like` on Facebook will never solve anything.I loved the book and will implement these practices in our new place in Spain, where we decided not to get on the irrigation water.

en effet bien bien complet! beaucoup de diagramme, de dessins, de photos, facile a comprendre, peut devenir très compliqué car il donne toutes les méthodes de calculs de quantité d'eau sur un terrain, très relié aussi au soleil (pareil grille de calculs et schéma suivant les latitudes, dessins illustrant le soleil suivant une maison les heures et les solstices, etc...) et bien-sur a la permaculture. Une référence incontournable niveau eau dans le monde de la permaculture. Drylands mais tout les principes s'applique de toute manière a l'eau sur un terrain. En tout cas cela m'a permis d'approfondir ma connaissance permaculture du concept des swales/bessieres, celui-ci va plus loin en effet, enfin pas déçu du tout de l'avoir acheté!