Principles of Natural Systems and Design
Guiding principles of Permaculture design:
• Everything is connected to everything else.
• Every function is supported by many elements.
• Every element should serve many functions.
Design can be for aesthetic and functional purposes. Permaculture design concentrates on function.
Functional design is:
1. Sustainable so it provides for its own needs.
2. Has good production, providing surplus, for this to occur, elements must have no product unused by other elements and have their own needs supplied by other elements in the system.
If these criteria are not met, then pollution and work result. Pollution is a product not used by something else; it is an over-abundance of a resource. Work results when there is a deficiency of resources, when an element in the system does not aid another element. Any system will become chaotic if it receives more resources than it can productively use.
A resource is any energy storage which assists yield. The work of the Permaculture designer is to maximize useful energy storages in any system on which they are working, be it a house, urban property, rural lands, or gardens. A successful design contains enough useful storage to serve the needs of people.
The web of life.
A net of functional relationships.
A design/ecosystem.
Full of potential energy
This is Earth’s system and net universal system of energy flow. Pathways through the net follow energy flows to useful life niches or storages available as yield.
Diversity is related to stability. It is not, however, the number of diverse elements you can pack into a system, but rather the number of useful connections you can make between these elements:-
• Inter-active diversity leads to stability.
• Stability leads to fertility.
• Fertility leads to designed sustainable productivity.
• Productivity leads to a designed sustainable economy.
• Economy leads to a designed sustainable and inter-active community.
• Permanence in culture results through inter-activity.
From source to sink:
• Diversity increases.
• Energy stores increase.
• Organizational complexity increases.
Yield:
Yield is the number of useful energy stores. It is the energy conserved, stored or generated within the system. Never is it just product yield (tons of grain per acre) but always a sum of storages. It is created by the complexity of the web we build which decides the number of useful storages. Yield can be defined as usefully stored energy, therefore, yield, is a function of design.
Permaculture Ethics:
Care of the Earth: includes all living and non-living things, such as animals, plants, land, water, and
air.
Care of People: promotes self-reliance and community responsibility.
Give Away Surplus: pass on anything surplus to our needs (labor, money, information) for the above
aims.
Implicit in the above is the Life Ethic: all living organisms are not only means but ends. In addition to
their instrumental value to humans and other living organisms, they have an intrinsic worth.
Permaculture is an ethical system, stressing positivism and cooperation.
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