Keyline Swales

Keyline Swales a Geoff Lawton/Darren Doherty Hybrid
Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Earth Banks, Land, Soil Conservation,

Swales, Water Harvesting by Campbell Wilson November 30, 2009
A swale on Zaytuna Farm Craig Mackintosh

(Remaining images below Cam Wilson.)
Geoff Lawton and Darren Doherty are the two highest profile people in Australian Permaculture when it comes to
broadacre water harvesting earthworks. Theyve both had success in some very tough environments, and yet its
interesting that their styles are quite different, particularly when it comes to infiltration strategies.
This article is a short comparison of their approaches, along with an idea I had recently for amalgamating the
benefits of each.
To help illustrate, Ive put a set of boundaries on a section of a topographic map (figure 1.1).
Figure 1.1 Base Map

I realise that both Geoff and Darren would be salivating as they looked up the hill at the potential dam sites
above, but Ive deliberately left them out of the equation to keep things simple and limit the comparison to their
infiltration strategies.
Similarly, although I havent marked it in, each of them would put in a small dam/wetland/silt-trap in each of the
valleys to dissipate the flow coming on site and prevent their mounds blowing out.
Geoff Lawtons approach

Geoffs style for infiltrating water into the landscape is to use swales (often connected to dams but thats another
story). His aim is to catch water as high as he can in the landscape and use the dead level swale to spread the
water across the length of the land. This water is held in the swale, giving it time to infiltrate into the soil, and it
then plumes downhill, recharging the ground water for the benefit of trees planted below (figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1 Soil water movement after swale infiltration

See this animation for more details
He often builds his swales with a bulldozer, resulting in a large capacity (eg a bulldozer blade wide and deep as
in figure 2.2 the back and front walls are battered on the subsequent passes).
Figure 2.2 - Front view of a bulldozer building a swale

This is well suited to the sub-tropics where 50-100mm events are common and also in arid areas where the few
rain events that occur can be a deluge. A large volume of water is held in the swale, giving it time to infiltrate into
the landscape, for the benefit of the trees planted below.
A design constant we can work with is that water flows at 90 degrees to contour, both above and below the soil
surface. Each large red dot in figure 2.3 represents an even amount of water that has infiltrated along the length
of the swale. The red lines show the path that the water takes as it moves down through the soil profile.
Figure 2.3 Swale infiltration (red) path
Natural water flow in the landscape

A natural pattern in the landscape is that valleys are moist whereas ridges are dry. You can see this in the
vegetation in any undulating National Park you go walking in, with lush, moisture loving plants in the valleys, and
dry sclerophyll forest on the ridges.
In figure 3.1, each large blue dot represents an even amount of rainwater that has infiltrated into the land above
our boundary. The dotted lines show the path that the water takes (90 degrees to contour) as it moves down
through the soil profile. This image clearly illustrating why it is that the ridges are much drier than the valleys.
Figure 3.1 Movement of soil moisture
Darrens argument against swales in some instances

In figure 4.1 below, Ive overlayed the swale infiltration path (figure 2.2) over the top of the rainfall infiltration
(figure 3.1). As youll notice, the swale tends to direct far more water towards the valleys and hasnt really fixed
the issue of our dry ridgelines.
Figure 4.1 Swale infiltration (red) in relation to moisture entering site (light blue)
Recognising this issue, Darren prefers to set out tree lines using a keyline pattern. In this aerial shot of George
Howsons agroforestry property, Dalpura (figure 4.2), the tree mounds arent on contour but rather they gently
slope away from the valleys (the naturally moist areas) towards the ridges (the naturally dry areas), therefore
aiming to even out the moisture levels across the landscape.
Figure 4.2 Dalpura tree lines from above

He creates his tree lines using a ripper and mounder, common in forestry plantings, which have a small gutter on
the upper and lower sides which help to direct the water. This is a cheaper and more fuel efficient option than a
bulldozer or excavator, and works well in climates where rainfall events are generally consistent but small, such
as in many temperate landscapes.
The green dots and arrows in figure 4.3 indicate the infiltration of the keyline mound during a small event. Water
has been directed away from the valleys and encouraged to infiltrate on the ridge instead. Youll notice that when
combined with the water naturally moving down through the landscape from above, the moisture distribution is far
more even than in the swale in figure 4.1
Figure 4.3 Keyline mound infiltration (green) in a small rain event

Despite the obvious benefits, one downside I see to this approach is that the gutters on the sides of the tree
mounds have a relatively small water holding capacity. If the landscape has dried out significantly, for instance
during a long drought, its highly possible that the soils will become hydrophobic, and therefore there will be little
water infiltrating as it travels along the gutters. During a large rain event, which occasionally come during the
summer when moisture is most needed, due to the small capacity of the gutters, only a small amount of water will
be held and given time to infiltrate. The rest will spill over the mound and down the ridge (figure 4.4). This would
particularly be the case where there is a large catchment above as in the example used.
Figure 4.4 Keyline mound overflow during a large rain event

(Note: At this point, I should mention that despite Darrens mounds being smaller than Geoffs swales, he places
one for every line of trees, meaning that water infiltrates right at the base of each tree. Also, in the widescale
forestry example of figure 4.2, the pasture in between the rows has been ripped using a keyline plow, which
further increases the infiltration capacity. Similarly, when water does spill, it is in the best place possible right up
on the ridge where the water will fan out and have further opportunity to infiltrate)
The comparison in brief

Geoffs swales hold plenty of water in a large event but distribute the water less evenly in the landscape below
Darrens keyline mounds distributes soil water more evenly across the land, but holds and infiltrates less
during a large event.
The keyline swale

With the benefits of each in mind, I came up with a hybrid, which you could call a keyline-swale.
Its built just like a swale, set out on contour, except that the base of the swale isnt level, rather it slopes from the
valley out towards the ridges.
To build the keyline-swale, pegs are set out on contour. Starting at the ridge, a mark is made on each peg, rising
at 1 in 500 towards the valleys. This is the guide for the blade depth (figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 Side section view of a bulldozer building a keyline swale

During a small rainfall event (figures 5.2 & 5.3), water is directed along the trench from the valleys to the ridges,
where it infiltrates in a very similar pattern to Darrens keyline mound.
Figure 5.2 Side section of a keyline swale during a small rain event
Figure 5.3 Keyline swale (dark blue) infiltrating during a small rain event
During a large event, the water would fill up along the length like Geoffs large swale, however the water depth
wouldnt be constant. One possible benefit of having a greater depth of water out on the ridges is that there will
be more pressure here, causing water to infiltrate at a faster rate than it will in the valleys (figures 5.4 5.5). As the
water level drops, it will of course infiltrate the remaining water on the ridge.
Figure 5.4 Keyline swale full
Figure 5.5 Keyline swale (dark blue) infiltrating during a large rain event
If this was a temperate climate where large rainfall events are rare, on this landscape I would go for a keyline
swale at the very top of the property, and then use Darrens keyline mounds parallel to this down the slope. This
means youll get the benefits of water being infiltrated at the base of each of the tree rows (by the mounds),
hydration of the ridgelines, while also capturing any large flows that enter the property, infiltrating them right at the
top of the slope.
~~~~~~~~
Cam Wilson runs Forest Edge Permaculture Design, a Melbourne based consultancy offering
permaculture Design, Education and Implementation. See the website for more details.

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Keyline Swales a Geoff Lawton/Darren Doherty Hybrid

Biological Cleaning, Conservation, Earth Banks, Land, Soil Conservation,

A swale on Zaytuna Farm Craig Mackintosh

Figure 1.1 Base Map

Geoff Lawtons approach

Figure 2.1 Soil water movement after swale infiltration

Figure 2.2 - Front view of a bulldozer building a swale

Figure 2.3 Swale infiltration (red) path

Natural water flow in the landscape

Figure 3.1 Movement of soil moisture

Darrens argument against swales in some instances

Figure 4.2 Dalpura tree lines from above

Figure 4.3 Keyline mound infiltration (green) in a small rain event

Figure 4.4 Keyline mound overflow during a large rain event

The comparison in brief

The keyline swale

Figure 5.1 Side section view of a bulldozer building a keyline swale

Figure 5.4 Keyline swale full

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