3.3 Supporting evidence - Index of Design Principles

 Below are the design principles of Permaculture as outlined by its founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. I use this as a reference both during the design / build of a  project and the creation of my OPs

David Holmgren´s 12 Permaculture Design Principles:

1. Observe and interact - To stand back from, observe and interpret both traditional
and modern methods of land use, is a powerful tool in evolving new and more
appropriate systems. While complete change within communities is always more difficult for a host of reasons, the presence of locally evolved models, with its roots in the best of traditional and modern ecological design, is more likely to be successful than a pre-designed system introduced from outside.

2. Catch and store energy - We live in a world of unprecedented wealth resulting from the harvesting of the enormous storages of fossil fuels created by the earth over billions of years. The most important storages of future value include:
* Fertile soil with high humus content
* Perennial vegetation systems, especially trees, yield food and other useful resources
* Water bodies and tanks
* Passive solar buildings

3. Obtain a yield - The previous principle focused our attention on the need to use existing wealth to make long-term investments in natural capital. But there is no point in attempting to plant a forest for the grandchildren if we haven't got enough to eat today. This principle reminds us that we should design any system to provide for
self-reliance at all levels

4. Apply self regulation and accept feedback - This principle deals with selfregulatory aspects of permaculture design that limit or discourage inappropriate growth or behavior. With better understanding of how positive and negative feedbacks work in nature, we can design systems that are more self-regulating, thus reducing the work involved in repeated and harsh corrective management.

5. Use and value renewable resources and services - Renewable resources are those that are renewed and replaced by natural processes over reasonable periods, without the need for major non-renewable inputs. In the language of business, renewable resources should be seen as our sources of income, while nonrenewable resources can be thought of as capital assets. Spending our capital assets for day-to-day living is unsustainable

6. Produce no waste - This principle brings together traditional values of frugality and care for material goods, the modern concern about pollution, and the more radical perspective that sees wastes as resources and opportunities.

7. Design from pattern to detail - The study of forests patterns inspired Permaculture. The use of zones of intensity of use around an activity center such as a farmhouse to help in the placement of elements and subsystems is an example of working from pattern to details. Similarly environmental factors of sun, wind, flood, and fire can be arranged in sectors around the same focal point.

8. Integrate rather than separate - In every aspect of nature, from the internal workings of organisms to whole ecosystems, we find the connections between things are as important as the things themselves. Thus the purpose of a functional and self-regulating design is to place elements in such a way that each serves the needs and accepts the products of other elements. From competition to cooperation
    1. Each element performs many functions.
    2. Each important function is supported by many elements.

9. Use small and slow solutions - Systems should be designed to perform functions at the smallest scale that is practical and energy-efficient for that function.

10. Use and value diversity - From diversity comes balance. It is now widely
recognized that monoculture is a major cause of vulnerability to pests and diseases,
and therefore of the widespread use of toxic chemicals and energy to control these.

11. Use edges and value the marginal - This principle works from the premise that the
value and contribution of edges, and the marginal and invisible aspects of any
system should not only be recognized and conserved, but that expansion of these
aspects can increase system productivity and stability.

12. Creatively use and respond to change - The acceleration of ecological succession within cultivated systems is the most common expression of this principle in permaculture literature and practice, and illustrates the first thread. For example, the use of fast growing nitrogen fixing trees to improve soil, and to provide shelter and shade for more valuable slow growing food trees, reflects an ecological succession process from pioneers to climax.

Bill Mollison’s 34 Permaculture Design Principles:

1. Relative Location: Components placed in a system are viewed relatively, not in isolation.
2. Functional Relationship between components: Everything is connected to everything else.
3. Recognize functional relationships between elements: Every function is supported by many elements.
4. Redundancy: Good design ensures that all important functions can withstand the failure of one or more element. Design backups.
5. Every element is supported by many functions: Each element we include is a system, chosen and placed so that it performs as many functions as possible.
6. Local Focus: "Think globally - Act locally" Grow your own food, cooperate with neighbors. Community efficiency not self-sufficiency.
7. Diversity: As a general rule, as sustainable systems mature they become increasingly diverse in both space and time. What is important is the complexity of the functional relationships that exist between elements not the number of elements.
8. Use Biological Resources: We know living things reproduce and build up their availability over time, assisted by their interaction with other compatible elements. Use and reserve biological intelligence.
9. One Calorie In/One Calorie Out: Do not consume or export more biomass than carbon fixed by the solar budget.
10. Stocking: Finding the balance of various elements to keep one from overpowering another over time. How much of an element needs to be produced in order to fulfill the need of whole system?
11. Stacking: Multilevel functions for single element (stacking functions). Multilevel garden design, i.e., trellising, forest garden, vines, groundcovers, etc.
12. Succession: Recognize that certain elements prepare the way for systems to support other elements in the future, i.e.: succession planting.
13. Use Onsite Resources: Determine what resources are available and entering the system on their own and maximize their use.
14. Edge Effect: Ecotones are the most diverse and fertile area in a system. Two ecosystems come together to form a third which has more diversity than either of the other two, i.e.: edges of ponds, forests, meadows, currents etc.
15. Energy Recycling: Yields from system designed to supply onsite needs and/or needs of local region.
16. Small Scale: Intensive Systems start small and create a system that is manageable and produces a high yield.
17. Make Least Change for the Greatest Effect: The less change that is generated, the less embedded energy is used to endow the system.
18. Planting Strategy: 1st-natives, 2nd-proven exotics, 3rd unproven exotics - carefully on small scale with lots of observation.
19. Work Within Nature: Aiding the natural cycles results in higher yield and less work. A little support goes a long way.
20. Appropriate Technology: The same principles apply to cooking, lighting, transportation, heating, sewage treatment, water and other utilities.
21. Law of Return: Whatever we take, we must return Every object must responsibly provide for its replacement.
22. Stress and Harmony: Stress here may be defined as either prevention of natural function, or of forced function. Harmony may be defined as the integration of chosen and natural functions, and the easy supply of essential needs.
23. The Problem is the solution: We are the problem, we are the solution. Turn constraints into resources. Mistakes are tools for learning.
24. The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited: The only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible is the limit of information and imagination of designer.
25. Dispersal of Yield Over Time: Principal of seven generations. We can use energy to construct these systems, providing that in their lifetime, they store or conserve more energy that we use to construct them or to maintain them.
26. A Policy of Responsibility (to relinquish power): The role of successful design is to create a self-managed system.
27. Principle of Disorder: Order and harmony produce energy for other uses. Disorder consumes energy to no useful end. Tidiness is maintained disorder. Chaos has form, but is not predictable. The amplification of small fluctuations.
28. Entropy: In complex systems, disorder is an increasing result. Entropy and life-force are a stable pair that maintain the universe to infinity.
29. Metastability: For a complex system to remain stable, there must be small pockets of disorder.
30. Entelechy: Principal of genetic intelligence. i.e. The rose has thorns to protect itself.
31. Observation: Protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor.
32. We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities.

33. Wait one year: (See #31, above)

34. Hold water and fertility as high (in elevation) on the landscape as possible.