EARTH & US: Restoring Natural Water Cycles and Climate
What if, despite governments’ failure to act on transitioning off fossil fuel production and consumption to prevent climate catastrophe, there was another equally important approach to help prevent the worst droughts, floods and storms, and even sea level rise?
“Water cycles and vegetation have functioned together in coexistence over geological eons, this relationship being disrupted historically and currently by humans practicing poor land management. Giving attention only to the greenhouse gas model of climate change, while ignoring land mismanagement, may result in a large part of harmful human activity not being addressed, therefore preventing global implementation of effective measures,” according to Michal Kravčík and Jan Lambert, from Slovakia and the U.S.A. respectively, in a 2015 report called “A Global Action Plan for the Restoration of Natural Water Cycles and Climate.” They propose:
A global plan of climate restoration of the small water cycle of regional landscapes, with a goal of decreasing floods, drought, natural disasters, and other undesirable climate changes, and increasing the biodiversity and production potential of all continents, through the introduction of various measures of rainwater retention suitable for all areas of human habitation and usage.
Old paradigm thinking
Water management policies worldwide typically assume that surface waters are the main source of fresh water supplies. Global legislation and investment therefore tend to be oriented toward protecting, developing, and utilizing surface waters with infrastructure such as large reservoirs for water collection and distribution. Instead of seeing rainwater as a renewable resource, it is treated as a waste product to be drained away quickly into streams and rivers. Human infrastructure, including impervious surfaces such as pavement and rooftops and storm sewer systems, drain water away from the land, ultimately to accumulate in the oceans, contributing to sea level rise. Deforestation, agriculture, and increasing urbanization further contribute to loss of water from the soils. Every year, 127,000 square kilometers of forests are lost and 55,000 square kilometers of impervious surfaces added, say the authors. (That would be 49,000 square miles of forests lost and 21,000 square miles of impervious surface added.)
The urban “heat island effect” causes chaotic weather: heavier precipitation and flooding in cooler areas, as well as tornadoes and hurricanes.
Problems of overheating and drying will increase exponentially in coming years unless we stop the relentless surface drainage of landscapes. Restoring an integrated, holistic system of rainwater management can not only prevent floods and droughts, but also strengthen biodiversity, increase soil fertility and productivity, and restore a more healthful climate.
New paradigm water management
The authors suggest permacultural strategies to capture and retain water, allow it to infiltrate and replenish aquifers, and store it. They state that yearly, 760 cubic kilometers of rainwater are lost worldwide. Strategies that have proven effective are creation of swales on contour (trenches that hold and infiltrate rainwater on slopes, using a berm below); check-dams (small dam constructed across a drainage ditch, swale, or channel to lower the velocity of flow) and terracing of slopes.
Slovakia’s Blue Alternative
Slovakia instituted a “Blue Alternative” to a proposed $350 million dam. The cost was similar, but prevented flooding and resulted in five times the water storage that the dam would have achieved. New springs emerged. In 18 months, 488 communities implemented over 100,000 water retention measures, creating 7,700 jobs. Local stakeholders were involved. Measures included swales; use of earth, stones, and brush to repair gullies; planting of cover crops to hold otherwise bare soil, preventing drying and erosion as well as adding fertility and avoiding the need to till the soil prior to planting. Rainwater retention yields economic, social, and environmental benefits: erosion decreases, farmers have more water for their crops, soil fertility increases, food and water security improve, and biodiversity flourishes.
Implementation
Carrying out such an ambitious global plan will be complex. Where would funding come from to implement these strategies on a large scale? International development funds and the World Bank are suggested. Priority areas in countries affected by extensive drought eligible for international assistance will be available in the form of grants to kickstart the permanent renewal of water in small water cycles.
The watershed is a logical unit for planning renewal of the small water cycle. It requires involvement of multiple stakeholders, as watersheds frequently include various jurisdictions. In urban areas, rainwater harvesting can include cisterns, green roofs, rain gardens, replacement of impermeable surfaces with permeable ones, and of course planting more trees, whose roots absorb large amounts of water. The financial benefits realized, in terms of flood and erosion prevention, as well as productive landscapes and avoiding the need to acquire new water resources, would help to cover the costs. For an economic incentive to be effective, the authors estimate that the water conservation measures must be at least 5 times more efficient than acquiring new water resources.
If implemented on a global scale, the authors estimate that 100 million jobs would be created.
To read the full 25-page report: https://bio4climate.org/downloads/Kravcik_Global_Action_Plan.pdf