Understanding Earthworks

The Permaculture Research Institute is offering an Understanding Earthworks Course from Monday the 23rd to Friday the 27th of November. These are all the elements of our course.

Introduction

The course begins with principle and design of earthworks as a general introduction and the reason for using earthworks in Permaculture design.

Climate effect

The climate effect on different features of earthworks in design and how the climate effects the earthworks that we design.

Rehydration and stabilisation

We work through how rehydration and stabilisation works with good design and how we can link to hard surface runoff.

Reading maps

Reading maps and how maps can be used to start the design process of earthworks and integrating animals into design work.

Earth resources and soil conditioning

The course covers how materials, soil types and earth resources effect our design and how we can condition the soil. Not just understanding the materials and the soil types in earthworks resources but how you can condition the soil itself.

Types of Earthworks

Then we go into the types of earthworks;

• the different types of dams and how the dam wall is constructed
• how to dig and construct ponds
• canals and chinampas and specific fish pond construction

We’re also looking at the understanding of how to use soaking systems;

• swales for rehydration
• gabions (sometimes called leaky weirs) on dry country and leaking weirs on running creeks
• silk traps and lumonias – how silk traps work and how lumonias work with hard surface run-off.

Design

The course covers how to design access; roads, driveways and tracks. These are your well used hard surface roads and driveways and then the farm tracks and how they work around a property and how you have to design those in.

We will look at how to set up crossings to get water across access with pipes and other formation features. Also;

• diversion drains
• contour banks
• level sill spillways
• level sills
• spreader banks
• terraces
• silk traps
• filtration systems and how you filter water
• how to set up house sites and benches, earth mounds, and natural swimming pools. Connecting features together.
• how as a designer you can connect all these features together for a greater benefit for the total design of a property.

Machinery

We’re also going to explain the different types of machines and how to communicate with drivers to explain the type of work that needs to be performed. Then the different types of machines;

• the bulldozer
• the excavator
• the drop
• the grader
• the roller
• the loader
• the dump truck
• backhoe and tractors

When you may need to use a scraper and how to schedule machines if you’re using more than one machine at a time on the job. Then to work with different drivers to make sure everybody understands what exactly the job entails and what it is that we’re designing towards.

Surveying, construction and repair of dams

This course goes into detail about the installation process of a dam;

• How to evaluate a site by what is the catchment potential
• what is the rainfall potential
• what is the quantity of materials that we’re going to need
• how do we assess the quality of that material.
• How to use the laser level, the dumpy level also called a transit level.
• How to assess the dam wall height that we’re going to need
• survey the dam wall height and survey the water line in comparison to it and the difference between the two – what is called the free board.
• Assessing where spillways are best placed and how to construct spillways and how to peg out all of these elements with a basic survey.
• Then the processes of dam wall construction and building a dam stage by stage, right the way through to completion. Even up to the point of revegetation.
• How to repair dams that have a physical problem or that are leaking.
• how to work around all these features by fencing the country around the earthworks features to the advantage of the property itself.
• How to work with compaction and compacting earth features to make dams water tight and if needed
• how to put in swivel pipes and pipes with baffles through dam walls for irrigation pipes.

Safety and Basic Maintenance

The course covers the safety aspect of working with machines and around a construction site with heavy machinery. The basics of tractor mechanics and maintenance.

Erosion

How to deal with erosion;

• control erosion and the design principles of erosion control
• working with the soils that are easily erodible

How we work with levels and levelling and how we loosen the soil with ripping principles so that we can then move soil quicker with the machinery.

Construction

This course covers the construction of graded banks and of waterways and how we can move water safely without causing erosion.

You will learn how to fill gullies and shape them. How to clear land carefully to perform earthmoving tasks. We don’t normally clear land, but it may be required to weed trees that are in the way of construction which will quickly revegetate with the earthworks we create. Working with flumes and chutes so that we actually control water in the safest and most passive way.

Join the Course

As a student of this course, you will be involved in construction. We will be putting in pipe crossings of swales and gullies and access tracks. We will be repairing a dam, building a new dam and linking dams together. We will also have terraces, benches, and if at all possible, we will be constructing a paddy as a growing wet paddy terrace and also transplanting some large clumping bamboo. This is all part of the earthworks course. All of this needs to be prepared, designed and surveyed on site. It is a major construction process while the course goes on, weather permitting.

Bookings are essential, see here the full course outline and to book a place.

To read more about Geoff Lawton visit his author profile here.

To read more about Earthworks visit the article category here.