A swale is one of those permaculture terms that probably gets thrown around to readily (or inaccurately) and perhaps implemented irresponsibly. Only a few years into my permaculture career, I have certainly been guilty of this, and I have distinct memories of mistakes I made with regards to both attempting to construct swales and putting them in the wrong place.

In my defense, and perhaps to my own credit, I had read enough material about swales to get the general gist, but as I’ve learned since, a general gist doesn’t always cut the mustard. I put swales in beyond questionable locations. I was sloppy in my installation, leveling by eyeballing and ignoring contour lines. In short, I had the idea, but I lacked the execution. I missed the message on what exactly the entire swale-system accomplished and required.

For me, this never amounted to a major problem. I was working by myself with shovels and hoes, which meant the results were small and any failures easily remedied. But, I know now that I could have done a much better job, and I hope that, by sharing a bit of what I’ve learned, this might help to lead people towards more successful swales and, in turn, permaculture systems.

Why We Use Swales





Video: Harvesting Water DVD –The Swale Plume

There are a few reasons, with regards to water, that we use swales. By putting them on contour lines and giving them level bottoms, we are able to pacify water flows that might otherwise be destructive to the landscape. In this way, we are preventing the erosion, and we are capturing nutrients, silt, and organic matter. As that water is pacified, swales also spread it out over the landscape rather than having it concentrate only in specific topographical areas, and they hold the captured water in place until it is able to soak into the soil. Over the next several years, the landscape will become fully hydrated, which will make it drought-resistant, and the groundwater sources will begin to recharge. Swales, like any catchment, are a means of stopping water runoff, especially from roads and hard surfaces, and putting it to use rather than having it drain away. Using swales for these reasons can prevent both floods and droughts, which make them a pretty powerful tool.

Swales are also commonly used in conjunction with other water catchments, especially dams, ponds and gray water systems. They can serve a few major functions in these combinations. By attaching swales to dams, we are able to increase the water catchment area feeding the dam, such that the swale will fill the dam as with water that would normally go elsewhere. Swales also perform the opposite function, taking on the overflow of dams that have reached capacity and spreading and soaking the excess water across the landscape. In these overflow systems, swales allow for the specific placement of level sill spillways, which set the water level on the dams, and this allows the overflow to be passively released wherever is advantageous for design. Otherwise, spillways are simply put beside the dam wall and allow water to continue its journey downhill. Using swales can vastly improve the water availability of dams, as well as the usefulness of overabundant water harvesting in them.

But, water isn’t the only function of swales, and it is, in fact, imperative that they be regarded as a tree growing system. Swales without trees can possibly be even more damaging than the flow of water they have pacified. In some climates, they can potentially oversaturate the landscape, leaving a designer with difficult growing conditions. Trees, however, will moderate the saturation levels, utilizing the water deep into the soil as opposed to having it collect and cause problems. The other reason trees are vital to swale systems is that their roots stabilize the landscape, especially the berm, that loose pile of soil build on the downhill side of the swale, and the backside of the excavation. In effect, swales only make sense when they are used to cultivate trees, as in a humid climate they would probably overcharge the ground with water and in a bare, arid climate the system would likely fill, erode, and evaporate very quickly.

How to Use Swales Appropriately





Video: Permaculture Behind Greening the Desert with Geoff Lawton

While swales don’t have any particular size or measurements, there are certain rules that must be adhered to when building them. Swales—in permaculture terminology—are built on contour, which means they run level across the landscape. Even more importantly, they must be excavated to have level bottoms so that the water rests evenly within in them, soaking throughout the terrain rather than congregating in a particular area. The berm is on the downhill side of the swale and should be planted with both trees and groundcovers so that the soil is stabilized. The swale also must have a level spillway so that, in times when water is overabundant, it can release safely and passively in an appropriate location without damaging the berm.

Where we place swales is also significant, and it’s important to remember their relationship with water when doing so. Swales are not appropriate on steep landscapes. Any area with more than a fifteen-degree slope (about 1:3.75) isn’t appropriate for installing swales, as the water saturation may cause slides, which could be dangerous. However, like dams, the higher we can get swales in our landscape the more effective they’ll be, as the water will plume beneath them, continuing to use force of gravity to permeate the subsoil at a right angle down from contour (i.e. water can’t move uphill without a pump). Lastly, swales should have trees downslope to regulate the water and stabilize the soil, which means putting a swale just uphill of a building (and its foundation), with nothing between them, probably isn’t a great idea.

Lastly, swales are used to grow trees. Even in the case of using them to extend catchments for dams or to provide an overflow system, trees should still be planted, especially on the downhill side of the swale, and it is advisable to plant more just along the uphill edge or backside (nitrogen-fixers are great for this). When used for rehydrating and reforesting, swales can more or less be left to naturally fill with sediment and organic matter as the forest grows. By the time they are full, the forest should be fully hydrated and regulating its own water needs, and the soil will have plenty of detritus from leaf-fall to prevent it from eroding and to help it with soaking up moisture. Without the trees, the swale is missing and integral part and function, not to mention that trees are equally as important to maintaining water cycles.

Parting Thoughts and More Reference Material





Video: Bill Mollison shows swales near Tucson, AZ

As I said in the beginning, I made many mistakes when attempting my first swales, but because I tend to work slowly and by hand, nothing catastrophic ever came of it. Often I was building diversion ditches (the terminology gets muddle in the migration between the US and Australia), and these have slight pitches rather than level bottoms, such that they would slow and catch water like swales, even allowing some of it to soak in, but ultimately move it towards a particular destination. This was probably a good thing because the slope wasn’t always appropriate for what I thought I was doing. The “swales” I made tended to be short, not really all that useful for spreading water across the landscape, and they lacked the trees necessary anyway. But, I learned to move water around, gained a little trial-by-error experience, and continued to research, ultimately realizing the preliminary and finishing work necessary for installing them correctly.

Consequently, I thought it might be useful to others to share in this folly, discuss swales in basic but important terms, and provide some reference material for further exploration into the how it is and is not done.

Don’t Try Building Hugel Swales – This Is a Very and I Mean Very Bad Idea

To Swale or Not to Swale

How to Build a Swale on Contour Successfully

Infrastructure: Dams, Roads and Swales

Bunyap Water Level: Measure Contour Lines & Swales

Urban Swales

Experimenting with Overflowing Circles and Slow-Flow Swales (My first experiments)

Feature Photo: Courtesy of Brian Boucheron