Keyline design, Agricultural design system in Victoria, Australia
Keyline design is an agricultural system for managing water that uses the shape of the land to guide and store water. It combines dams, channels, and planting patterns to move water through fields and keep soil moist.
An Australian farmer named P.A. Yeomans developed this system in the 1950s to address water scarcity in Australia. He wrote books about the method to help farms cope with drought conditions.
Farmers still use this approach today to shape their fields and manage water resources. It shows how people read the landscape and work with it to handle dry conditions better.
Farmers using this system must first observe the slopes and contours of their land to find the best places for dams and channels. Understanding how water moves across the terrain is the first step to putting it into practice.
The system is based on the Keyline Scale of Permanence, which ranks all elements of a farm by their durability. This helps farmers prioritize their investments based on how long-lasting or changeable each element is.
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