Excellent. Like the maths. Would be easy for a brainiac to set the equations up in a spreadsheet to do all the number crunching.
I have long argued the need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of a permaculture design based around the Earthcare ethic and presented this strongly during my time as an expert witness in low impact development (sitting alongside Tony Wrench and Paul Wimbush!) for part of the Welsh Governments consultation and formulation of the One Planet Development planning permission. Sadly I couldn’t swing it and we have ended up with an extremely complicated and frankly, largely inappropriate method.
From Earthcare I derive the essential things for us to get right as air, water, soil, biomass and biodiversity, probably in that order of priority. Air relates to atmospheric pollutants emitted by the occupants and activities on the site. Water should be cleaner and there should be more of it stored on site. Soil should be accumulating, not eroding. Biomass is simply how much organic stuff there is above and on the ground and biodiversity, number of species. It’s the combination and integration of these elements that generates and sustains life. Again, as you suggest, calling in help (offering opportunities for study) means we don’t have to do it all ourselves but I think most of the above could be measured relatively easily, before and later.
I think I’ll go and have a play with a spreadsheet…
Yeah, there's more to add in for sure. I just didn't want to frighten people off!! It also gets complicated, as ever with a holistic design system, when we try and chop it up and explain bits. I talk about a bowl of spaghetti, when you start explaining one strand you end up having to explain all the others and how they connect up. I'm planning on doing a similar article on peoplecare, which is going to be a head shag. Gini coefficients applied to a local community and such like. I thought I'd bung air quality and suchlike in there.
I doubt I'm going to attract many new readers with this type of article. Fluffy Permaculture is where most people seem to head. Thinking of an article 'where Permaculture went wrong'! Put the blame squarely on people who reduce it to some form of gardening, people like me who are too militant and the fluffy bunnies who teach Permaculture and just repeat what they learned when they did a PDC.
My main objective being to show that there are hardcore designers out there who don't faff about and who do the calculations.
Excellent. Like the maths. Would be easy for a brainiac to set the equations up in a spreadsheet to do all the number crunching.
I have long argued the need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of a permaculture design based around the Earthcare ethic and presented this strongly during my time as an expert witness in low impact development (sitting alongside Tony Wrench and Paul Wimbush!) for part of the Welsh Governments consultation and formulation of the One Planet Development planning permission. Sadly I couldn’t swing it and we have ended up with an extremely complicated and frankly, largely inappropriate method.
From Earthcare I derive the essential things for us to get right as air, water, soil, biomass and biodiversity, probably in that order of priority. Air relates to atmospheric pollutants emitted by the occupants and activities on the site. Water should be cleaner and there should be more of it stored on site. Soil should be accumulating, not eroding. Biomass is simply how much organic stuff there is above and on the ground and biodiversity, number of species. It’s the combination and integration of these elements that generates and sustains life. Again, as you suggest, calling in help (offering opportunities for study) means we don’t have to do it all ourselves but I think most of the above could be measured relatively easily, before and later.
I think I’ll go and have a play with a spreadsheet…
Thanks!!
Yeah, there's more to add in for sure. I just didn't want to frighten people off!! It also gets complicated, as ever with a holistic design system, when we try and chop it up and explain bits. I talk about a bowl of spaghetti, when you start explaining one strand you end up having to explain all the others and how they connect up. I'm planning on doing a similar article on peoplecare, which is going to be a head shag. Gini coefficients applied to a local community and such like. I thought I'd bung air quality and suchlike in there.
I doubt I'm going to attract many new readers with this type of article. Fluffy Permaculture is where most people seem to head. Thinking of an article 'where Permaculture went wrong'! Put the blame squarely on people who reduce it to some form of gardening, people like me who are too militant and the fluffy bunnies who teach Permaculture and just repeat what they learned when they did a PDC.
My main objective being to show that there are hardcore designers out there who don't faff about and who do the calculations.
Bang on! Good luck with Peoplecare- admirable tenacity! I’ll just play with a spreadsheet for bit;-)