Capturing more upland rainfall before it storms to the sea
Creating new jobs, public procurement, and other ecological and economic opportunities across the world
https://www.behance.net/gallery/61119509/Acadiecology-Reinventing-Upland-Water-Management
Over the last several months, I’ve managed to combine caving/karst sleuthing with independent ecological work alongside the waterbucket.ca gig. Proposing a novel form of upland dike (“Sinuosity Dike”) to capture more precipitation surface run-off on its way down to the sea.
Aboiteaux are saltmarsh dike-valve drain systems that were developed by Huguenots first in The Netherlands, and then France (La Rochelle). These techniques came to Canada (Grand-Pré) and the USA (Louisiana) with the settlers whose descendants became the Acadian people. The systems were used to de-salt seaside fields.
There may be a way to re-use the 350-year-old methods to retain upland precipitation runoff. The concept is to “flip” the technique. This is much like terracing but does not use walls. Instead, sinuous low dikes shaped to the landscape’s natural contours; at a variety of scales, from metres down to 10’s of centimeters; using natural materials such as softwood, saplings, and wicker as “weaveware” baffles placed in the heart of the sinuosities.
The lower left “sleuthing” image is an incredibly neat pilot’s rutter held at an archives in NS, circa 1604. Made by a merchant captain traveling the coast on a voyage to what is now Maine. B. de Mirgligaiche is now the roadstead outside Lunenburg, NS {homeport of the famous racing schooner depicted on the Canadian dime}.
