Can We Make our Cities Sustainable with Permaculture?

Permaculture.co.uk write…

“It is predicted that the next century will see 70% of the world’s populations reside within the ‘safety’ of the modern metropolis. Here are 15 ways to make our cities more healthy, creative and sustainable…”

15 Steps to Creating a Healthier, more Sustainable City

As a brief guide, I will leave you with the ‘International Ecocity Frameworks and Standards’ (IEFS) 15 conditions, for which to analyse the biological, geographical, ecological and social progress of the cityscape:

1. Access by Proximity: Walkable access from housing to basic urban services and transit access to close-by employment options.
2. Clean Air: Air quality conducive to good health within buildings, the city’s air shed, and the atmosphere.
3. Healthy Soil: Soils meet their ranges of healthy ecosystem functions as appropriate to their types and environments; fertility is maintained or improved.
4. Clean and Safe Water: Access to clean, safe, affordable water; the city’s water sources, waterways and water bodies are healthy and function without negative impact to ecosystems. Water is primarily sourced from within the bioregion.
5. Responsible Resources/ Materials: Renewable and non-renewable resources are sourced, allocated, managed and recycled responsibly and equitably, without adversely affecting human health or the resilience of ecosystems.
6. Clean and Renewable Energy: The city’s energy needs are provided for, and extracted, generated and consumed, without significant negative impact to ecosystems or to short- or long-term human health and do not exacerbate climate change. Energy consumed is primarily generated within the local bioregion.
7. Healthy and Accessible Food: Nutritious food is accessible and affordable to all residents and is grown, manufactured and distributed by processes which maintain the healthy function of ecosystems and do not exacerbate climate change. Food consumed is primarily grown within the local bioregion.
8. Healthy Biodiversity: The city sustains the biodiversity of local, bioregional and global ecosystems including species diversity, ecosystem diversity and genetic diversity; it restores natural habitat and biodiversity by its policy and physical actions.
9. Earth’s Carrying Capacity: The city keeps its demand on ecosystems within the limits of the Earth’s bio-capacity, converting resources restoratively and supporting regional ecological integrity.
10. Ecological Integrity: The city maintains essential linkages within and between ecosystems and provides contiguous habitat areas and ecological corridors throughout the city.
11. Healthy Culture: The city facilitates cultural activities that strengthen eco-literacy, patterns of human knowledge and creative expression, and develop symbolic thought and social learning.
12. Community Capacity Building: The city supports full and equitable community participation in decision making processes and provides legal, physical and organizational support for neighborhoods, community organizations, institutions and agencies.
13. Healthy and Equitable Economy: An economy favoring economic activities that reduce harm and positively benefit the environment and human health and support a high level of local and equitable employment options – the foundation for “green jobs”.
14. Lifelong Education: All residents have access to lifelong education including access to information about the city’s history of place, culture, ecology, and tradition provided through formal and informal education, vocational training and other social institutions.
15. Well Being – Quality of Life: Strong citizen satisfaction with quality of life indicators including employment; the built, natural and landscaped environment; physical and mental health; education; safety; recreation and leisure time; and social belonging.

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Bill Mollison Permaculture Lecture Series, On-Line

Networkearth.org writes…

“These videos are documents from two design courses taught by Bill Mollison at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose Texas in 1994 and 1995. They are a definitive selection from our original 16 part series. These tapes bear many viewings and will benefit anyone who wants to learn how to help regenerate the earth – from back yard to bio-region. Teachers of permaculture have found these tapes to be a valuable coaching tool – edited to one hour.”

The Function Of Design
This is an opening lecture. The principles of functional design for sustainability are unique to Permaculture design.

Fundamentals Of Pattern
From a singular event all other events are set in motion in recognizable and predictable patterns This pattern recognition is the core of design in Permaculture.

Pattern Application
Efficiency of energy, resources, and time, and the creation of highly productive systems are the results of good Permaculture design. The methods are obvious once we have become co-creative with the forces of nature.

Home Gardening
Find out why it is so important to grow your own food and how to install the easiest, and highly productive, home food propagation systems; mulch garden, potato box, herb’s spiral, and more. You don’t need much space. These are basic Permacultural techniques.

Trees 1
The tree is life – profound, magnificent, and mysterious. To learn what little we can know of trees is sufficient to leave one awestruck and reverent.

Trees 2
Why is a tree green? Where does a tree end or begin? Why have all human societies destroyed the tree? A Mollison rave.

Farmer’s Trees
These are very specific trees which are used around the world for their ability to improve
soils. They are invaluable in range for livestock, as well as in fields under cultivation.

Forests And Woodlands
Methods to plant, sustain, and best utilize woodland and wood for fuel, forage, windbreak and construction.

Pasture And Range Restoration
What is cultura promiscua? To maintain functional bio-diversity is a basic tenet of Permaculture. Severely degraded land can be easily restored to highly productive land by using good observation techniques, plants and animals in succession, and common sense.

Soil Conditioning
… a continuation of #10. Two main techniques: the chisel-plow, and the wonders of worms and how to cultivate them. The patterns described in these two videos can be replicated in any type of Permaculture system, and scaled to any size.

Water
…a continuation of the Trees video. Potable water – where does it come from? How did it get there? What has become of it? What we can do to ensure that we will have safe water to drink, and to conserve as much of this precious material as possible.

Aquaculture
Once one has learned to harvest water, then the real fun begins with production of the myriad of foods and marketable commodities hosted by ponds and other water-rich environments.

Planting In Drylands
There are a multitude of ways to harvest, conserve, and utilize water. These strategies apply to coastal regions or islands with with zero precipitation, arid lands, as well as to areas with plentiful seasonal rainfall.

Drylands 1
As desert is rapidly claiming vast areas of our planet, millions are on the verge of starvation. Yet, crops which occur naturally in arid land can provide all necessary nutrition for people and animals. The strategies discussed arise from years of observation in the deserts of Australia and from the peoples of Kalahari.

Drylands 2
… continuation of Drylands 1. Never, never irrigate the desert. The devastation caused by irrigation of arid land is irreparable. But there are alternatives: methods to set up a drought proof system. This is serious Permaculture!

Working at Ground Level
A documentary on the permaculture work done in Ecuador by the Rainforest Information Center, Centro de Investigatión de los Bosques Tropicales.

Watch videos here

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Compost Hot Tub

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