Keyline Swales – a Geoff Lawton/Darren Doherty Hybrid

Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Earth Banks, Land, Soil Conservation, Swales,

Water Harvesting — by Campbell Wilson November 30, 2009

A swale on Zaytuna Farm – © Craig Mackintosh

(Remaining images below © Cam Wilson.)

Geoff Lawton and Darren Doherty are the two highest profile people in Australian
Permaculture when it comes to broadacre water harvesting earthworks. They’ve both had
success in some very tough environments, and yet it’s interesting that their styles are
quite different, particularly when it comes to infiltration strategies.

This article is a short comparison of their approaches, along with an idea I had recently
for amalgamating the benefits of each.

To help illustrate, I’ve put a set of boundaries on a section of a topographic map (figure
1.1).
 Figure 1.1 – Base Map

I realise that both Geoff and Darren would be salivating as they looked up the hill at the
potential dam sites above, but I’ve deliberately left them out of the equation to keep
things simple and limit the comparison to their infiltration strategies.

Similarly, although I haven’t marked it in, each of them would put in a small
dam/wetland/silt-trap in each of the valleys to dissipate the flow coming on site and
prevent their mounds blowing out.

Geoff Lawton’s approach

Geoff’s style for infiltrating water into the landscape is to use swales (often connected to
dams but that’s another story). His aim is to catch water as high as he can in the
landscape and use the dead level swale to spread the water across the length of the land.
This water is held in the swale, giving it time to infiltrate into the soil, and it then plumes
downhill, recharging the ground water for the benefit of trees planted below (figure 2.1).
 Figure 2.1 – Soil water movement after swale infiltration
For more details http://permaculture.org.au/2008/01/10/a-swale-plume-clip-in-action-
from-geoff-lawtons-dvd-harvesting-water-the-permaculture-way/

He often builds his swales with a bulldozer, resulting in a large capacity (eg a bulldozer
blade wide and deep as in figure 2.2 – the back and front walls are battered on the
subsequent passes).

Figure 2.2 - Front view of a bulldozer building a swale

This is well suited to the sub-tropics where 50-100mm events are common and also in
arid areas where the few rain events that occur can be a deluge. A large volume of water
is held in the swale, giving it time to infiltrate into the landscape, for the benefit of the
trees planted below.

A design constant we can work with is that water flows at 90 degrees to contour, both
above and below the soil surface. Each large red dot in figure 2.3 represents an even
amount of water that has infiltrated along the length of the swale. The red lines show the
path that the water takes as it moves down through the soil profile.

Figure 2.3 Swale infiltration (red) path

Natural water flow in the landscape

A natural pattern in the landscape is that valleys are moist whereas ridges are dry. You
can see this in the vegetation in any undulating National Park you go walking in, with
lush, moisture loving plants in the valleys, and dry sclerophyll forest on the ridges.

In figure 3.1, each large blue dot represents an even amount of rainwater that has
infiltrated into the land above our boundary. The dotted lines show the path that the water
takes (90 degrees to contour) as it moves down through the soil profile. This image
clearly illustrating why it is that the ridges are much drier than the valleys.
 Figure 3.1 – Movement of soil moisture

Darren’s argument against swales in some instances

In figure 4.1 below, I’ve overlayed the swale infiltration path (figure 2.2) over the top of
the rainfall infiltration (figure 3.1). As you’ll notice, the swale tends to direct far more
water towards the valleys and hasn’t really fixed the issue of our dry ridgelines.
 Figure 4.1 Swale infiltration (red) in relation to moisture entering site (light blue)

Recognising this issue, Darren prefers to set out tree lines using a keyline pattern. In this
aerial shot of George Howson’s agroforestry property, ‘Dalpura’ (figure 4.2), the tree
mounds aren’t on contour but rather they gently slope away from the valleys (the
naturally moist areas) towards the ridges (the naturally dry areas), therefore aiming to
even out the moisture levels across the landscape.
 Figure 4.2 Dalpura tree lines from above

He creates his tree lines using a ripper and mounder, common in forestry plantings, which
have a small gutter on the upper and lower sides which help to direct the water. This is a
cheaper and more fuel efficient option than a bulldozer or excavator, and works well in
climates where rainfall events are generally consistent but small, such as in many
temperate landscapes.

The green dots and arrows in figure 4.3 indicate the infiltration of the keyline mound
during a small event. Water has been directed away from the valleys and encouraged to
infiltrate on the ridge instead. You’ll notice that when combined with the water naturally
moving down through the landscape from above, the moisture distribution is far more
even than in the swale in figure 4.1
 Figure 4.3 – Keyline mound infiltration (green) in a small rain event

Despite the obvious benefits, one downside I see to this approach is that the gutters on the
sides of the tree mounds have a relatively small water holding capacity. If the landscape
has dried out significantly, for instance during a long drought, it’s highly possible that the
soils will become hydrophobic, and therefore there will be little water infiltrating as it
travels along the gutters. During a large rain event, which occasionally come during the
summer when moisture is most needed, due to the small capacity of the gutters, only a
small amount of water will be held and given time to infiltrate. The rest will spill over the
mound and down the ridge (figure 4.4). This would particularly be the case where there is
a large catchment above as in the example used.
 Figure 4.4 – Keyline mound overflow during a large rain event

(Note: At this point, I should mention that despite Darren’s mounds being smaller than
Geoff’s swales, he places one for every line of trees, meaning that water infiltrates right
at the base of each tree. Also, in the widescale forestry example of figure 4.2, the pasture
in between the rows has been ripped using a keyline plow, which further increases the
infiltration capacity. Similarly, when water does spill, it is in the best place possible –
right up on the ridge where the water will fan out and have further opportunity to
infiltrate)

The comparison in brief

Geoff’s swales – hold plenty of water in a large event but distribute the water less evenly
in the landscape below

Darren’s keyline mounds – distributes soil water more evenly across the land, but holds
and infiltrates less during a large event.

The keyline swale

With the benefits of each in mind, I came up with a hybrid, which you could call a
keyline-swale.

It’s built just like a swale, set out on contour, except that the base of the swale isn’t level,
rather it slopes from the valley out towards the ridges.
To build the keyline-swale, pegs are set out on contour. Starting at the ridge, a mark is
made on each peg, rising at 1 in 500 towards the valleys. This is the guide for the blade
depth (figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 – Side section view of a bulldozer building a keyline swale

During a small rainfall event (figures 5.2 & 5.3), water is directed along the trench from
the valleys to the ridges, where it infiltrates in a very similar pattern to Darren’s keyline
mound.

Figure 5.2 Side section of a keyline swale during a small rain event
 Figure 5.3 – Keyline swale (dark blue) infiltrating during a small rain event

During a large event, the water would fill up along the length like Geoff’s large swale,
however the water depth wouldn’t be constant. One possible benefit of having a greater
depth of water out on the ridges is that there will be more pressure here, causing water to
infiltrate at a faster rate than it will in the valleys (figures 5.4 5.5). As the water level
drops, it will of course infiltrate the remaining water on the ridge.

Figure 5.4 – Keyline swale full

 Figure 5.5 – Keyline swale (dark blue) infiltrating during a large rain event

If this was a temperate climate where large rainfall events are rare, on this landscape I
would go for a keyline swale at the very top of the property, and then use Darren’s
keyline mounds parallel to this down the slope. This means you’ll get the benefits of
water being infiltrated at the base of each of the tree rows (by the mounds), hydration of
the ridgelines, while also capturing any large flows that enter the property, infiltrating
them right at the top of the slope.

~~~~~~~~

Cam Wilson runs Forest Edge Permaculture Design, a Melbourne based consultancy
offering permaculture Design, Education and Implementation. See the website for more
details.

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Comments (12)

12 Comments »
• Great article!

Comment by Erik Klockemann — November 30, 2009 @ 8:35 am

• I love it when a couple of ideas catch attention and then someone has a look at
how they might work together. Great work. This gives us all another option for
 our properties and our larger landscapes. Given the predictions of climate change
creating fewer but larger rain ‘events’ it’s timely you have put your considerable
mind power to this new take on water in Permaculture. Thank you.

Comment by Cate Ferguson — November 30, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

• This article surprisingly answers my questions on differences between swales and

keyline mounds I’ve read in this blog. Your hybrid offers a practical solution,
thanks a lot!

Comment by Abdi Christia — November 30, 2009 @ 1:25 pm

• Great post and just in the nick of time as I am in the planning stage for our
property and have followed both Yeoman’s and Geoff’s ideas for a while now.

Thanks

Comment by Matt Luthi — November 30, 2009 @ 4:31 pm

• Interesting idea. I would imagine sediment deposits (at the ridge points) and the
effects of moisture on the base material would waste away any depth variation
between the valley and ridge points over time. So in effect, you’d end up with a
typical level swale.

Comment by Ben Falloon — November 30, 2009 @ 7:13 pm

• I get the whole idea of swales (I think) but I cant work out what to do to capture
water on my land which is essentially flat.

Comment by Hamish — November 30, 2009 @ 8:00 pm

• Any ideas would be apreciated.

Comment by Hamish — November 30, 2009 @ 8:01 pm

• heard on the grape vine this was coming, been looking forward to it. very
interesting and inspiring. thank you.
J

Comment by jay — December 1, 2009 @ 7:38 am

• Swales work on ‘flat’ landscapes. There is no such thing as a truely flat landscape
so a swale will catch water. Look at the site of the Greening the Desert video and
you’ll see what I mean.

Comment by Evan Young — December 1, 2009 @ 8:36 am

• Hi Hamish -

You should join the PRI Forum if you haven’t already

-http://forums.permaculture.org.au/

There are people there that will be able to help.

Cheers,
Matt

Comment by Ave a go — December 1, 2009 @ 10:16 am

• Hi cam, thanks for the ideas.

I’ve always been of the mind that the way to treat the swales was that the
overflow be on the ridge top of the swale. Then it drains into the next one down
which overflows to the next & on… but this happens @ the ridge. It’s also
captured in a dam @ somewhere between the middle or bottom of the ridge.
Also access tracks are best on the ridgetop too. Aren’t they?? This was the way to
combine the need for drainage to the track & in the same drain the overflow for
my swales. Also the size of the swale, to me, is dependant on the characteristics of
the soil, slope, rain events (well pointed out w/ diags, thanks) & the size of the
property. I’ve been involved in putting in a few ‘mini-swales’ & find that they fill
up quiet nicely. Perhaps I should’ve put in 1 massive swale @ the top of the
property & smaller ones below.
How bout deep ripping a criss-cross pattern in the soil above the swale ( or below,
everywhere? only in the valleys? where?)
I haven’t seen Darren’s keyline appropriation but I’ve seen pictures of his ripper,
planter, compost tea waterer machine combo. Cool stuff!

Comment by Pedro — December 1, 2009 @ 5:20 pm

• Seems that the hybrid approach would require a bull dozer and a keyline plough. I
think the beauty of the keyline method is that its much cheaper to get done. I have
wondered how much water loss would occur in swales due to evaporation before
it gets a chance to penetrate the soil. If the soil has a fair amount of humus and
mulch wouldn’t it be able to hold onto water better than in open air trenches?

Comment by Glen Novello — December 1, 2009 @ 9:05 pm