"Permaculture is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems."
The role of economic systems in Permaculture design and how to create a sustainable and equitable economy.
Microeconomics: This is the study of individual behavior of households, firms, and governments in the market economy.
Macroeconomics: This is the study of the economy as a whole, including inflation rates, economic growth, and unemployment.
International trade: This is the study of trade between nations, including foreign exchange rates, tariffs, and subsidies.
Econometrics: This is the application of statistical and mathematical methods to economic data to analyze economic phenomena and make predictions.
Public finance: This is the study of government spending, taxation policies and their impact on economic performance and welfare.
Behavioral economics: This is the study of how individual behavior affects economic decisions, including decision-making biases and deviation from rational models.
Industrial organization: This is the study of market structure and competition, including monopolies and oligopolies.
Environmental economics: This is the study of how economic activities affect the environment and how environmental policies can be formulated to minimize negative impacts.
Agroecology: This is the study of agricultural practices that are sustainable, regenerative, and promote the health of ecosystems and communities.
Soil health: This is the study of the biological, chemical, and physical properties of soil and their role in plant growth, carbon sequestration, and nutrient cycling.
Water management: This is the study of how to manage water resources sustainably, including rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, and irrigation methods that minimize water waste.
Food forests: This is the design of diverse and multi-layered food systems that mimic natural ecosystems, using trees, shrubs, and crops that complement each other, and provide various ecological functions such as nitrogen fixation and pest control.
Regenerative design: This is the approach to design that aims at regenerating natural systems, creating closed loops, and minimizing waste generation and energy inputs.
Community development: This is the study of how to build resilient and self-sufficient communities, based on local knowledge, resources, and social capital.
Sustainable living: This is the practice of living in a way that balances human needs with the needs of the environment, by choosing low-impact products and practices, reducing consumption, and promoting social equity.
Microeconomics: Focuses on the behavior of individuals, households, and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of resources.
Macroeconomics: Studies the behavior of the economy as a whole, and analyzes economic phenomena such as inflation, recession, and economic growth.
Development economics: It analyzes the economic, social, and political factors that influence the economic development of countries, with a focus on developing countries.
Environmental economics: The study of the interdependence between economic growth and environmental degradation. It develops tools and policies to manage these trade-offs.
Behavioral economics: It deals with the psychology behind human decision-making and explores how people behave, manipulate, and make choices in the context of economic environments.
Forest farming: It is a system that mimics natural forests to create economic and ecological benefits.
Aquaponics: Integration of aquaculture and hydroponics, where nutrient-rich water from fish cultivation is used to fertilize plants grown in a water tank.
Agroforestry: It involves the integration of trees and shrubs with crops and/or livestock to create more diverse, productive, profitable, and sustainable land-use systems.
Keyline design: A method for planning and managing water resources and landscape development that enhances soil productivity and improves water quality and quantity.
Biointensive gardening: It is a sustainable agricultural method that maximizes soil fertility and uses minimal resources to produce high yields of nutritious crops.
"It applies these principles in fields such as regenerative agriculture, town planning, rewilding, and community resilience."
"Permaculture originally came from 'permanent agriculture', but was later adjusted to mean 'permanent culture', incorporating social aspects."
"The term was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, who formulated the concept in opposition to modern industrialized methods, instead adopting a more traditional or 'natural' approach to agriculture."
"Permaculture has many branches including ecological design, ecological engineering, regenerative design, environmental design, and construction."
"It uses creative design processes based on whole-systems thinking, considering all materials and energies in flow that affect or are affected by proposed changes."
"Before, for example, modifying overland water flow, one fully considers both upstream and downstream effects in the short and long term."
"When looking at a 'problem', such as brushy vegetation, one considers how removing or altering it will affect soil and wildlife, and how these interacting forces would evolve over time and space."
"Permaculture has been criticized as being poorly defined and unscientific."
"Critics have pushed for less reliance on anecdote and extrapolation from ecological first principles, in favor of peer-reviewed research to substantiate productivity claims and to clarify methodology."
"Peter Harper from the Centre for Alternative Technology suggests that most of what passes for permaculture has no relevance to real problems."
"It applies these principles in fields such as...community resilience."
"It includes integrated water resources management, sustainable architecture, and regenerative and self-maintained habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems."
"It includes a set of design principles derived using whole-systems thinking."
"It formulated the concept in opposition to modern industrialized methods, instead adopting a more traditional or 'natural' approach to agriculture."
"It is an approach to land management and settlement design that adopts arrangements observed in flourishing natural ecosystems."
"Permaculture originally came from 'permanent agriculture', but was later adjusted to mean 'permanent culture', incorporating social aspects."
"Town planning"
"Before...one fully considers both upstream and downstream effects in the short and long terms."
"One considers how removing or altering it will affect soil and wildlife, and how these interacting forces would evolve over time and space."