Wide infiltration strip
On moderately steep slopes with arable fields and uniform agricultural grasslands, current land use can be sensibly continued if plots are interspersed with 10 to 20-meter-wide infiltration strips, running parallel to the contour lines. These strips are considerably flatter than the slope on which they lie and are covered with dense vegetation. This slows down and captures surface runoff, allowing the water to infiltrate effectively via the vegetation’s root system. The distance between these infiltration strips depends on the steepness of the slope and the infiltration capacity.
Infiltration strips are most effective when they are created at the foot of fields and (therefore) also above roads running through the agricultural area. The latter prevents rainwater from being drained away rapidly across the road; they are easy to manage, provide shade for recreational traffic and draw the eye to the view over the valley
Natural solutions
- Developing natural grasslands
- Developing natural forests
- Food forest
- Making space for beaver activity
- Making room for natural floodplains
- Making room for meandering
- Raising the stream bed
- Lowering banks
- Removing drainage systems
- Planting scrub hedges and copses
- Standard orchard
- Wide infiltration strip
- Grafts
- Swales
- Keylines
- Converting (maize) fields on slopes into grassland or woodland
- Wadi
- Intercepting runoff on (sunken) roads