Resources

On this webpage a selection of different resources are compiled for the training "An introduction to soil, water and vegetation conservation in watershed management", which can be found on the Disaster Ready platform. If you are interested in doing this training, register on the platform, after which you can do this training for free.

If you have any questions on the training, these resources, or wants to have live training on this topic, please sent me an email: sieger@regenerativesystems.nl.

Key words and methods

If you want to know more about certain aspects of the training, the following key words can be a starting point for a search on the internet:

- Agro-ecology and regenerative agriculture, fields that use a different approach to agriculture, working with nature instead of fighting nature (as regular agriculture is doing)

- Farming Gods Way, an agricultural approach with mulching developed in southern Africa, that has resulted in improved yields for farmers

- FMNR, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (Also known as Kisiki Hai in Swahili): the most successful re-greening approach developed and applied in Niger spreading around Africa

- Holistic Grazing, grazing methodology to improve pasture land especially in more arid areas

- Permaculture, integrated landscape design approach based on the ethics of earth care, people care and return of surplus for preserving and extending natural systems

- Rain water harvesting, general terminology on water harvesting

- SALT, Sloping Agricultural Land Technology, erosion preventing approach developed in the Philippines

- Soil and water conservation: terminology used for reducing erosion, by implementing all the various measures mentioned in this training

Inspirational video's

- Re-greening the Loss Plateau in Chine: “Hope in a changing climate”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iJKiFSQLn4

- The story of A regenerative farm in Brazil: “Life in Syntropy”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE

- Re-greening a wadi in Saudi Arabia: "The Al Baydha project":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39QHprz-x8

Caring for vegetation

- Tools for contour line determination

• A-Frame
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEcM2X3GDZM
• http://www.fao.org/docrep/r7021e/r7021e07.htm
• https://cdn.permaculturenews.org/resources_files/farmers_handbook/volume_5/4_a-frame.pdf
  
• Transparent tube or Bunyip Water Level
  
• http://www.fao.org/docrep/r7021e/r7021e07.htm
• Hand held leveler
• https://www.johnsonlevel.com/News/HandSightLevels
• Laser level or Theodolite
  
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rMzwSLLmZw 
  

- Plant database for different climate zones
https://pfaf.org/

- Holistic management for grasslands
https://savory.global/

- Peer reviewed papers on holistic management:
https://savory.global/science-library/

- Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR)

• https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=30735
• https://fmnrhub.com.au/
  

- Training on agroforestry and food forests (first create login):

• introduction to agroforestry: https://www.savannainstitute.org/courses/  
• food forest training: https://training.trees.org/

Caring for soil

- Soil Food Web:
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/health/biology/?cid=nrcs142p2_053868

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/health/biology/?cid=nrcs142p2_053864

https://www.soilfoodweb.com/

- Nitrogen fixing bacteria and plants: as a starting point see:
https://www.britannica.com/science/nitrogen-fixing-bacteria

- Farming Gods Way:
https://www.farming-gods-way.org/Resources/FGW_Field_Guide.pdf

- Composting:
https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/hot-compost-composting in-18-days/

- Mulching:
https://eorganic.org/node/4871

http://gardenprofessors.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/JEH-254-239-249.pdf

Water harvesting

- “Rainwater harvesting handbook”, 2006, AFD
https://www.rural-water-supply.net/_ressources/documents/default/268.pdf

- “Transforming landscapes, transforming lives”, 2011,
https://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Themen/Wasser/Politikberatung_GW/Downloads/Transforming_Landscapes.html

- “Sustainable land management in practice”, 2011, Terrafrica
https://www.wocat.net/library/media/26/

- “Securing water and land in the Tana basin”, 2012,
http://www.bebuffered.com/downloads/FINAL_tana_manual_digital_LQ.pdf

- "Profit from storage, the costs and benefits in water buffering", 2012,
https://www.un-igrac.org/resource/3r-profit-storage

- "Rainwater harvesting 1" and "Rainwater harvesting 2", 2019, Brad Lancaster (book):
https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

- Online library of SamSamWater, more than 100 documents and reports on water harvesting related topics:
https://www.samsamwater.com/library.php

- Website to help to identify possible solutions that can be applied at your location:
http://www.greener.land/

- Successful rainwater harvesting techniques applied in India:
http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/Rural/Rural.htm

Soil and water conservation in Ethiopia

Very good thorough manuals with technical guidelines on Soil and Water Conservation (Vegetation is not included) are made in Ethiopia:

- “Soil and Water conservation in Ethiopia”, 2016, MoA Ethiopia,
https://boris.unibe.ch/80013/

- “Community Based Watershed Management Guideline”, 2005, MoA Ethiopia
https://wocatpedia.net/wiki/File:Ministry_Agriculture_Ethiopia_Community_Based_Watershed_Management_Guideline_2005_Part_1_A.pdf

https://wocatpedia.net/wiki/File:Ministry_Agriculture_Ethiopia_Community_Based_Watershed_Management_Guideline_2005_Part_1_B_a.pdf

https://wocatpedia.net/images/d/d7/Ministry_Agriculture_Ethiopia_Community_Based_Watershed_Management_Guideline_2005_Part_1_B_b.pdf

Watersheds

GIS Software For mapping of watersheds you need software to process this: GIS software.
A very good free version of this that can handle all the data is QGIS:
https://www.qgis.org/

Data
You need a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) database if you want to analyse it yourself, or use processed data that provides you the mapped watersheds
    For both, check the website:
    https://www.hydrosheds.org/

Biophysical quick scan
Carry out a quick scan with existing open data at:
https://geofolio.org/

Implementation of watershed management

- "Participatory Rural Appraisal manual", 2006, FAO:
https://himachal.nic.in/WriteReadData/l892s/15_l892s/1499233403.pdf

- "The Watershed Project Management Guide", Thomas E. Davenport, 2008 (book):
https://www.epa.gov/nps/handbook-developing-watershed-plans-restore-and-protect-our-waters

- "The watershed management guidebook, A guide to outcome based watershed management", 2013,
http://www.ierstahoe.com/pdf/research/watershed_management_guidebook.pdf

- USA Watershed publications:
https://www.epa.gov/watershedacademy/watershed-management-publications