Water and Soil - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 99

or bring water to a site. Several systems have been developed for use in arid and semiarid regions of
the world (table 7-1) and have been discussed more thoroughly in Bainbridge (2007).
Container plants offer a different challenge because they have been supported in the nursery
and will experience stress during the planting process. Placing container plants in the ground im-
mediately puts the roots in a stressed condition. Will the soil contain sufficient moisture to support
plants with very shallow roots? Will there be sufficient time for the roots to penetrate the soil down
to more reliable sources of water, such as a stable groundwater supply? Is the soil sufficiently loose
to allow for normal root growth? If the site was excavated down (i.e., lowered in elevation), did
the heavy equipment cause compaction of the upper level of the soil that can retard root growth?
Whatever your decision is regarding the use of water, be sure to think through the needs of the
living material you will be selecting for the project.

Developing a Water Supply

The decision to provide supplemental water to your site will guide subsequent decisions in the
design and site preparation aspects. Difficulty arises when large tracts of exposed ground are sus-
ceptible to erosion. Will the proposed design alter the topography, making some portions of the
site more accessible to water sources, or will a new water supply be developed? Table 7-2 illustrates
how the various water sources can be manipulated to the advantage of your project. The possibili-
ties are almost limitless given the diversity of conditions and situations in nature.

Table 7-2. Water Supply Development Approaches

Natural Systems
and Processes

Element Action to Exploit Resource

Precipitation Rain, snow, sleet,

hail

Improve permeability of soil; increase roughness
of ground to catch water and confine on-site;
create small basins or rows to concentrate water.

Surface Runoff Unconfined water

flow overland

Install small basins (i.e., imprinting), dikes and
berms, ditches, gullies, ponds, below-ground
cisterns/tanks.

Groundwater Saturated subsoil Excavate original ground to bring closer to table

level.

Existing Water
Body

Stream, creek, river Create diversion canals; install piping using gravi-

ty flow; widen channel and bank; flatten banks to
increase area.

Pond, lake, sea,
ocean

Excavate out shoreline; fill in shallows to raise
bottom; create canal or channel.

Seep, springs Channel water; flatten slope to expand area.