In this episode, we continue the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series with Neal Spackman, ecological restoration designer, regenerative entrepreneur, and bold visionary. In previous episodes in this series, we’ve heard how agriculture and development having long been destroying ecology and hydrology, directly causing desertification and disruptions of weather and climate systems, and leading to the fall of empires. As cofounder and former director of the Al Baydha project in Saudi Arabia and as Founder and CEO of Regenerative Resources Corporation, Neal Spackman is working to change that ancient dynamic. His projects restore ecological function to desertified and degraded landscapes in a way that also integrates the restoration of the area’s economy, hydrology, and atmospheric interactions.
The scholar that Neal refers to who came up with the term “precipitationshed” is Patrick W. Keys, and here are some of his papers on the topic:
The Precipitationshed: Concepts, Methods, and Applications
Variability of moisture recycling using a precipitationshed framework
Analyzing precipitationsheds to understand the vulnerability of rainfall dependent regions
Megacity precipitationsheds reveal tele-connected water security challenges
Here is an inspiring video that Neal made about the amazing success of the Al Baydha restoration project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T39QHprz-x8
And here is the link to the website for Regenerative Resources Corporation:
https://regenerativeresources.co/
And as always, many thanks to Peia for granting the use of her beautiful song, The Old Ways Restored, as the introduction song. You can find her beautiful music at peiasong.com/