This is a video from Calgary which is experiencing rainfall right now. The overflow from the soil is pooling and creating massive flooding. The video here shows a house being carried downstream by the river, and crashing into the bridge. Please turn down the sound as there is a major expletive halfway through the video. Click here for more news from NPR.
Dried out, compacted soil. Dead. No life, no porosity, no ground cover. It will not hold the rain, and the rain must go somewhere. The examples of problems created by poor soil quality are only getting more and more severe. How do you know when when our community has an effective or non-effective soil cycle?
Effective Water Cycle Characteristic Non-effective Water Cycle
Low Soil Surface Run-off High
Low Soil Surface Evaporation High
Low Drought Incidence High
Low Flood Incidence High
High Transpiration by Plants Low
High Seepage to underground reservoirs Low
High Effectiveness of Precipitation Low
This table is courtesy of the book Holistic Management by Allan Savory (Figure 12-2). As part of the chart, Mr. Savory adds as an explanation: Effective and noneffective water cycles. Over three months, three rainfalls of one inch (25 mm) each will wet soil layers all the way down to level C (meters deep) on the left where the water cycle is effective. The excess will trickle through the decomposing rock fragments to join underground supplies. In the non-effective water cycle on the right, most of the moisture wil evaporate after each rainfall and will never wet soil layers deeper than level A (approximately 6 inches - 2 feet). Ground water will receive no recharge at all in the non-effective water cycle.
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