Fasilides Bath, Gondar, Ethiopia. 📸: From Wikimedia Commons. 

Water and Land Restoration

It may seem impossible to recreate a lost native Highland Nature, including its water supply, using these overwhelming modern technical possibilities. Therefore, if possible, a careful balance of well-being, pleasure, and relaxation can be achieved, in which real Nature is essential to creating a pleasant environment for people. A possible example of a union between these human interests and Nature as the necessary support is evident in beautiful, constructed ponds with surrounding gardens and arboretums, where abundant spring water irrigates saplings and sustains groundwater. 

A Classic Castle with Surrounding Spring Sources

Fairy Tales' Passions Come in the Heart's Desire

Therefore, the commonly occurring check dams represent an opportunity to recreate an environment that is well-suited to both people and Nature. For example, on the magnificent high plateau, or even in its dramatic panhandles, placing a building such as Fasilides Bath slightly downhill from a stream, connected by a traditional levada path (see the image and information below), would provide a comprehensive landscape of Nature with a reliable water supply. However, in contrast to the water technology of check dams in ordinary historic buildings, such as Fasilides Bath in the picture above, this would contribute to visitors' attraction and a passion for the unique highland landscape. Thus, these historical architectures would enhance interest in history and Nature restoration, while making these legendary castles among the most alluring sites within a Nature Park. With its dramatic, slightly mythological architecture, this magnificent castle lodge, featuring a restaurant overlooking the water, evokes fantasies and dreams in the cosiest and most hiking-friendly surroundings, nestled within and surrounded by the wilderness.

Indeed, it's not easy to trace the water's paths

 to these Highland dams. Watch videos.

Often, it seems impossible to stimulate private finance for 

investments that prioritize the health of the population 

and the country. Videos: The Castle of Highland Water

Madeira's levadas originated from the necessity of

bringing large amounts of water from the west  

and north of the island to the drier areas.

 Levada - Wikipedia

Highland Streams with Hiking Trails

However, these irrigation methods, exemplified by the classic levada shown here on the right, typically require a larger, higher-lying reservoir or a natural aquifer to ensure reliable water flow. This method then allows a combination of pleasant hiking trails with delightful canals in the mountains. Hence, the nearly diminutive leaning of levadas enables both people's most pleasant promenade and the water's gentle flow. Such levada canals, accompanied by a water castle, would distribute water over a high plateau with great beauty and assist in nature restoration.

Historical International Influences

The historical records contain several practical and aesthetic possibilities for restoration. These options for aesthetic restoration include water management, ground stability, and the most attractive recreation paths. Another way to describe these methods for natural conservation is the effectiveness of the irrigation method when combined with gentle, scenic hiking trails that lead above precipices. 

Enchanting Promenade 

Along the Mountain's Slope       

Thus, a well-tuned gradient deviation from the landscape's contour line allows people to promenade along the otherwise steep mountain slope while enjoying panoramic views of Nature, stimulated by the silent purging of the water's gentle flow in these canals. Owing to the crucial safety importance of these paths' strength and reliability, with integrated levada canals, their reinforced waterways align with the suitability of dramatic, safe, and very gentle hiking trails. Furthermore, these levada canals, with their outer reinforced walkways, prevent torrential deluges from undermining the otherwise fragile soil slope on the mountain. 

Magnificent Waterways in the Landscape

The reinforcement from these traditional levada paths controls, redirects, and mitigates the water's destructive torrential power, preventing it from mercilessly tearing up the slopes' fragile ground in deep furrows. This damaging phenomenon often indicates the onset of a significant landslide and lahar risk. Finally, with the precarious case of the tender saplings of the indigenous vegetation, these levadas complete their purpose as the pure and potent source of protection and irrigation while also delivering the water to be filtered, absorbed and transported into deep-lying mountain chambers - natural water reservoirs with their underground rock branches and deep aquifers of the mountain massif.

Water Creation with Natural Beauty

Due to these options, human assistance and technology to
Heal Nature with classical irrigation reinforces the ground
with Indigenous trees and provide the environment with
increased spring water in streams and brooks during
the long seasonal periods of sunshine.
Spring Water with Bath

Human and Nature in Harmony

Due to the remote geological evolution of plants and ground-living organisms, they developed the primary tool for increasing the permeability of Earth's surface layers. Thus, the roots of the native ancient plants liberated the otherwise water-repellent surface of the soil and gave the ground its water-absorbing properties; hence, with their intricately stabilizing fibrous root system, these plants in ancient times made a symbiosis with the ground living organisms' ability to create an excellent growing bed of naturally fallen compost debris.

The Water's Force and Forest's Strength

The roots of prehistoric plants thereby counteracted the torrential force of the water and prevented the ground from becoming densely packed by increasing the soil's porosity and permeability. This fundamental process between plants and soils enabled water to percolate into deeper soil layers and aquifer regions. This phenomenon underlies the importance of endemic vegetation and symbiotic microorganisms, which were disrupted by deforestation. 

Ethiopia's Nature with Water Harbouring Functions

The native Ethiopian vegetation served as a highly effective physical barrier, blocking the country's water masses from rushing in turmoil down its slopes toward Egypt. Due to Nature's natural ground pipes of native vegetation, the seasonal deluges had sophisticated water receivers into Ethiopia's thick soil layers. The deeper groundwater reservoirs thus had the properties to harbour the downpours. Hence, this original vegetation functioned as numerous efficient water collectors, with an intricate network of stems and a deeply anchored network of roots, further stabilizing the landscape and providing substantial resistance to erosion and wildlife degradation.

Wasted and Lost Groundwater

Naturally, in prehistory, soil layers, reinforced by roots in dense forest and undergrowth, gave the topographically precarious landscape the required stability. Therefore, the pure, anchored mass of the indigenous forest would impede the water's ability to accelerate downhill and, thus, harmoniously channel the flow into slow-moving, mountain-absorbing units. Unconditionally, this past harvest of native forest exposes and lays bare the soft soil layers, allowing water forces to accelerate and generate devastating torrential power. With efficiency, these mighty water masses tear up the slopes in deep furrows and simply drill many meters into the river's inflows. Finally, the indigenous vegetation fulfils its purpose as a pure and potent source of synergy with the natural soil layer by filtering and absorbing these water masses and passing them on to the deep-lying mountain chambers. These are naturally occurring geological water reservoirs charcterized by underground rock formations and natural aquifers, within the mountain massif.

Ethiopia's Highland Nature  

The Country's Precious Water

This image forms the basis for understanding
 nature's water-bearing body. The water is kept
  Here, in the totality of this image, where both
 Vegetation, soil and rock make up this vital
water-bearing body to create this highly
valuable water-harbouring landscape.
Study of the water's complexity

Ethiopia's Natural Water Production

Furthermore, history's misdeeds against Ethiopia's natural forests and Nature have severely damaged Ethiopia's prehistoric ecological and geological heritage by interrupting the natural and critical processes of original soil formation, which derive from the endogenous decomposition of leaves and twigs. This evolutionary optimized process, derived from the remains of indigenous trees in the leaves and twigs of the Ethiopian forest, had the vital ability to inhibit the initiation of erosive torrents. This ground composting of leaves and twigs built up the trees' ground and gave the soil structure the time required to absorb deluges in this mountainous highland landscape.

The Natural Water Bodies of the Highland

Historical malefactors against Nature, through deforestation of indigenous vegetation, have severely weakened the country's original soil system, which is essential for guiding and assisting rainwater to the natural underground aquifers. Hence, the severe reduction in the remaining soil's ability to retain moisture reduced the amount of water delivered to natural aquifers and, consequently, reduced future prospects for citizens to obtain clean household water. Of course, this phenomenon also raises hindrances to reintroducing indigenous species.

Pinterest: Ethiopia's Work and Obligations

Aquifers and Their Importance for Civilizations

Knowledge of these natural aquifers within mountain massifs and their synergies with water-harbouring technologies constitutes a highly valued historical legacy. In their context, they are a well-known concept that helps explain how a mighty mountain massif that receives abundant and regular precipitation and chilly temperatures also provides the conditions for harbouring this water. These historically developed, technically and geologically based methods for managing and conserving vast volumes of water are often complex yet aesthetically compelling. The methods of this water technology vary significantly between different cultures and continents. Still, in the legacy of history, they are the basis of ancient civilizations' most essential and original technological achievements. However, the quality and quantity of water depend on a well-vegetated landscape.

Nature's Mighty Rain Receiving Sponge

Amidst the inviting beauty of the natural landscape lies a hidden complex synergy between the mountain massifs' aquifers and the endemic primaeval forest. This evolutionary heritage demonstrates the indigenous forest's optimised evolution as a water guardian, a testament to its overwhelming strength. The indigenous forest plays a crucial role in saturating the aquifers, with its potent water accumulation effect within the actual depth of the mountain massif's total configuration. Therefore, the body of naturally occurring water retained in the mountains' native upland vegetation, primaeval forest, and aquifers can benefit from its alignment with established hydrological science. Thus, understanding the phenomenon of preserving Nature's highland water may benefit from scientific analysis using modern high-technology literature, where advanced dam and reservoir structures provide considerable pedagogical assistance.

The Importance of Domestic Trees

Reinforcement of Native Roots Against Erosion

The composite image series above invites a more
comprehensive study with explanatory images
of the water's flow and ground infiltration.
The Torrential Rains and Erosion

Erosion: The soil-holding capacity of Eucalyptus is relatively moderate compared to the original Ethiopian ground cover and trees, which initially covered the slopes of Entoto. Because there is no ground cover in the foreign-implanted Eucalyptus forest, the only thing to hold the soil is the sporadic web of roots of the trees. This lack of soil stabilizing undergrowth causes severe erosion, which is easily observed in the water running through Addis in connection with the rainy seasons. During each rainfall event, torrential forces erode valuable nutrients, and the layer of fertile soil becomes thinner. Without due care and preservation within a few years, no fertile ground will remain for new vegetation, and the erosion will be irreversible.

Flooding: On Entoto, every leaf and branch that has fallen to the ground is collected by people, whereas in a natural forest with endemic vegetation, organic material from leaves, wood, roots, etc., is left to be decomposed in the soil. The organic compost from endemic vegetation improves soil structure, leading to higher infiltration rates and greater water storage capacity, and, of course, provides the fragile saplings with a primary substrate for growth. The picture on the right simplifies the connection between land and water, which can be seen by the vertical connection in the study of the infiltrating movements of the water in pictures (5 ) and (7).

Ethiopia's Historical Work for Water

Nature's Armoured and Guardian Shield

The toxicity within the tactical defence mechanisms of Australian foreign trees causes dramatic waste of precious water in Ethiopia due to destructive downpours, resulting in seasonal, violent, rapid flash floods from the slopes, which create destructive forces that erode soil with milling properties. This dangerous erosive environmental phenomenon is visually evident in the artificial eucalyptus plantings, whose ground is covered by a brittle clay crust. Hence, regrettably, an apparent phenomenon, with the loss of Nature's armoured shield of native undergrowth, is evident on the Highlands' mountainous slopes. Thus, Ethiopia's groundwater loss results from the reduction in the volume of water-harbouring bodies within the Highlands' total organic structure, sediment, and mountainous underground aquifers. Therefore, the toxin from the introduced Australian eucalyptus tree degrades the remaining native protective ground cover, thereby significantly increasing water loss through torrential freshwater runoff in short-lived, sudden, and erosive flash floods that mill the soil.

Ethiopia's Grande Nature History 

With the guardian and a deeply rooted network of roots and stems, a complex picture of evolution's optimisation of Ethiopia's original, profoundly anchored vegetation emerges. The endemic vegetation in Ethiopia's highlands in the past consisted of a primaeval forest with an intricate network of stems and a deeply cliff-enclosing network of roots, functioning as numerous efficient water collectors. Therefore, in ancient times, Ethiopia's considerable rainfall was consistent with the presence of endemic forests, primarily because of the high landslide resistance of these forests and of highland vegetation. 

Ethiopia's Historic Waterways

The Waterfall: Blue Nile, towards the Capital
The Highlands and their Historical Waters

Entoto Natural Park and its Historical Water
The topographic configuration of Entoto Natural Park's mountain crest has a curious consequence: two raindrops that simultaneously moisten the soil of Entoto's mountain crest, only a centimetre apart, will have quite different fates. After a long journey along the Nile River, one waterway will reach the Mediterranean Sea. In contrast, the other watershed passes through Addis Ababa and ultimately evaporates in the Danakil Desert, whereas the Awash River does not reach the sea.

The Ethiopian Highland is the Legendary Water Provider

However, this primary Ethiopian source of the Nile River is only one of several Ethiopian rivers that contribute to the Nile's total flow. Consequently, the total amount of water delivered from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Nile River, Sudan and Egypt is enriched by additional waterways beyond the Blue Nile, the principal contributor and historical source of the Nile River.

Humankind's High-Tech Together

With the Creation Of Nature's Foundation

What seems too complicated to describe in standard terms can sometimes be presented in a simple parable. In short, a few stones do not hinder a flowing torrent, but a firmly anchored, uniform stone construction frequently does with historical validity. Consequently, the few randomly placed rocks are lost in futile hardships, crushing the labourer by sweat and thirst in toil's despair and poverty. In contrast, the opposite is usually the case with the anchored unit, which has a supply of valuable water dammed in reserve for use during drought. The natural forest comprises numerous complex biological phenomena, with many plant and animal species in symbiotic relationships, having a highly ancient evolutionary origin, and serving within Nature's synergies and symbiosis as water protectors for the environment.

Historical Water Conservation

Analysis of Nature with High Technology

Therefore, the water-retaining properties of the soils and cliffs in the mountain massifs of the Highlands are in synergy with the endemic vegetation and trees. Indeed, they are very similar in function to advanced scientific and technological methods and, therefore, are scientifically analysed with considerable help from the methods used for highly complex dam construction. Hence, the body of naturally harboured water retained in the mountains' native highland vegetation's primordial forests and aquifers constitutes a natural phenomenon that should be considered and scientifically analysed using methods developed for contemporary dams and reservoirs. In short, a few stones do not hinder a flowing torrent but very well by a firmly anchored uniform stone construction. Consequently, in sweat and thirst, the few rocks are lost to toil and poverty, whereas the opposite is usually the case for the anchored unit, which has ample supplies of valuable, dammed water at hand for use during drought.

 Technological Sophistication and Adorable Picnics

An Invitation to the Family's Excursion

It's a well-known fact that the natural Highland aquifers
  are not sufficient to supply the large metropolitan areas 
  total needs, but complex constructions are required.
 However, the endemic vegetation and soil remain 
 vital in the Earth's ecological process before
 storing the water for the country's future.
Water To the Capital

Historic-Tech to the Native Highland

Picnic and Play for the Young Family

An excellent and cosy invitation to gain an initial practical view of these water-harbouring technologies, accompanied by a comfortable walk along a lovely promenade to the right after crossing the bridge, as shown within the map square [A] at Entoto Kidane Mehret (1). This place also offers an ideal little excursion for the young family on picnics or seeking sports games. An open grass pitch here provides a breathtaking place just beneath the start of the mountain and an embracing enclosure of a sculptural, curved river. However, the picture (Ancient Technology) to the right does not show the Italian (19) construction, but rather a historical reservoir that was previously lost and forgotten in a bygone era. Although the water-harbouring technology at Entoto Kidane Mehret (1) is largely underground, it remains alluring to exploration. Nevertheless, this underground construction at Entoto Kidane Mehret is also intriguing to contemporary society.

Ethiopia's Inherited Indigenous Vegetation
Prevents the Torrential Forces of the Water

Due to contact between precipitation and tree crowns, the water path slows substantially, thereby damping and blocking the erosive capacity of the battering impact under relentless rainfall. Therefore, the endemic trees highlight the importance of their extensive greenery in preventing the initiation of flash floods and their subsequent erosive turmoil. Thus, native vegetation creates multiple vertical and lateral barriers that prevent hazardous torrents from reaching high velocities and exerting their devastating force. These barriers, propagating walls of native vegetation, are thus clearly both above ground in the physical constitution of plants and underground in their roots, with their interacting organisms.  

The Water-Catching Capacity of the Native Plants

The totality of the rain-catching surface of the trees' canopy is thus much more extensive than the ground without trees. Because the tree's roof reduces the speed and force of the downpours, the water finally drips gently from the roof, thereby substantially extending the time required for the undergrowth to receive it. This vegetation's water-capturing phenomenon underscores its importance in blocking the properties of large mother trees' canopies that mitigate the destructive force of water. Furthermore, this phenomenon underscores its importance when the green roof of native trees receives rainfall, drastically reducing the sudden torrential forces on the tender saplings and underlying vegetation, thereby saving them and creating an additional barrier against torrential deluges. 

Climate: Precautions During Rainy Seasons

The Torrential Precipitation

Although the Park is still adorned with gorgeous and varied terrain of highland freshness and the enchantingly enticing deep mysteries of twilight Canyon's adventure, this landscape is, of course, accompanied by some concerns during the rainy seasons, including erosion and flash floods. These annual recurring floods often cause severe erosion, which is exacerbated by the toxic effects of eucalyptus trees, as evidenced by the water that runs through Addis Ababa during the rainy seasons.

Water Loss and Erosion

These torrential floods create life-threatening conditions because the rock massif is regularly stripped of native vegetation and, therefore, unable to slow the acceleration of water masses along the slopes. Furthermore, torrential rainfall poses significant challenges during rainy periods, as the highly erosive forces along waterways pose an imminent risk of undermining settlements globally.

A Grandiose Landscape Built by the Trees' 

Requirements for Nourishment and Water

Furthermore, last year's decomposing dry plant matter, combined with the native undergrowth, formed numerous soil-protecting, repeating, and moisture-preserving puddles that captured water and conducted it into the soil with remarkable efficiency. This evolutionary ooptimizationof the previous season's composting downfall and the armour network effect from the undergrowth constitutes the final obstacle to the water's ability to gain speed and destructive force. This phenomenon results in the trees' roots accessing their precious water and requiring time to replenish the surplus in the aquifers of the mountain massifs. The consequence of this diversity in vertical water-capturing greenery and on the ground, where composting leaves and twigs accumulate, is that the vegetation as a whole constitutes a much more effective groundwater provider than a flat or slightly sloping, slippery crust of brittle, fragile soil.

The Healing Capacity of the Native Forest

The Park's Undergrowth with Native Trees

The natural health and fertile beauty of this Indigenous Juniper forest (16) and (40), as well as the Indigenous Podocarpus trees (B), illuminate, with precision, the healing capacity of a native forest (see location on the map below). The natural health of this landscape, with its native trees, provides insight and a natural stimulus to prevent and heal the severe erosion and habitat loss that occurred with the introduction of the Eucalyptus tree. The importance of careful research on knowledge in the natural sciences is illustrated by an insightful and evident example before any foreign species is considered for introduction into an unfamiliar and vulnerable habitat. It can be stimulating to combine a wonderful mountain hike with a field study of the unique green hue and lushness of the undergrowth, and of their subsequent effects on ground stability beneath the native trees.

The Maps' Assistance to Ancient Trees

Magnificent Furrowed Trees

The Mother Tree (Podocarpus)

Podocarpus Trees, Paths - The Map Loop (B)

When using map circle (B) as an intended pointer, restrict it to 60% of its total length at four o'clock, and it becomes possible to find a magnificent native Podocarpus tree to the left of the hiking trail (link below). The intended direction indicator in the maps allows a method to be used here with a limited length in the intended dial. This method helps distinguish objects farther away, and those located more centrally on the map loop (B)'s intended clockwork. This undulating hillside features a magnificent meadow (39) - (B) with an irresistibly picturesque farmhouse situated next to the path (see the map below).

Direction Assistance in the Map Loop (B) 

The intended pointer clockwork gives direction, and when its outermost tip reaches its full extent at 4:30, it points to a concealed and dense forest area just south of the field (39)-(B). To see several other indigenous Podocarpus trees, look just below this field (39) and to the right side in the lower part of this circle (B). The easiest way to reach these trees is to use the crossroads, just outside the lower part of the circle (B), where they appear to hide deeply in a forgotten past. This rather wild and wavy slope, with several native Podocarpus falcatus trees, appears to be in a habitat reminiscent of a bygone era.

The Wild and Fertile Forest from the Ancient Era

The original and compact Juniper trees (16) shown in the picture just below and the forest (40) on the eastern hillside, just to the right of (16), are captivatingly wild and consist of more than 50-year-old indigenous Juniperus procera trees. These native trees provide a unique connection to this dramatic yet gentle Nature, with its inviting and refreshing touch of high-altitude conditions. Yet this landscape and its native forests surprise with nearly magical, furrowed proportions of primaeval lushness, revealing a natural and remarkable Highland scenery beyond what a visitor would usually expect in proximity to the Capital. This native Juniper woodland (40) is massive in appearance and stunning in vitality, with a perfect, lush and dense undergrowth.

The Importance Of Ethiopia's Indigenous Trees

Very remote vaguely appears, the Capital and ccivilization's
settlements here from the elevated location on the outer
 rim of the high plateau (16). The Dreams of Pure Nature
are offered by almost every view, also in the mighty
abyss and Canyon's uphill adventure
The Indigenous Trees

The Guardian's protection of the Indigenous trees

These native trees' diverse and widespread network of soil-reinforcing roots thus provides a stabilizing and, for aeons, welcoming ground for a dense, reinforcing network of native vegetation. Hence, Ethiopia's ancient, evolutionarily optimised Nature confirmed its ability to absorb water into the ground, thereby harmonising and distributing the otherwise destructive forces of torrential deluges.

The Heritage Of Ethiopia's Endemic Trees

Historical disregard for the importance of indigenous trees and native vegetation has led to severe and harmful environmental degradation in Ethiopia. The devastating consequences of severe erosion are water shortages and famine, underscoring the importance of a stable ground foundation for lush, soil-shielding undergrowth.

Viewpoint (16) is just at the outer rim of the high plateau and
 an excellent place for family picnics. Bees' Cliff 14 requires
 caution in the Canyon but  assists by the wide map loop
surrounding the fascinating points 36 and 41-42
Direction Maps & Routes

The Lost Noble Era: Exploring Its Essence

Still magnificently beautiful, but the panoramic picture above towards the dim-capped Capital hides something unique from an almost forgotten era of beauty and splendour. Hence, taking a few steps upward from point (16), while just passing over the outer threshold of the high plateau, reveals both a mighty and cosy treasure of lost aeons. Thus, after just the cosiest promenade to the rim of the high plateau, the enchanting but still veiled scene is behind the camera's view from point (16). Hiding high above the dim-capped Capital, a group of endemic and Juniperus procera trees appears from the mountain's history, offering a captivating picnic site with views.

The Juniper Trees of the High Plateau

Such inviting beauty appears here that any visitor is profoundly drawn to stay for many activities, whether enjoying a well-equipped family picnic or simply admiring the furrowed highland relics from a time beyond memory. These indigenous Juniper trees appear mighty, with their furrowed pillars, uniquely configured and evoking a past culture of noble ancestry, within a magnificent and enchanting landscape of primaeval lushness. The site of impressive Juniperus procera trees is nearby, just a short distance uphill from point (16).

Natural and Clean Water with Native Nature

The native trees' diverse and widespread network of soil-reinforcing roots thus provides a stabilizing and, for the future, welcoming ground for an advancing culture in which native vegetation underscores the importance of original Nature for human health. The consequences of ignoring the natural sciences within Nature are grave, as this groundwater phenomenon is of fundamental importance for any population in shaping its future health and prosperity. The cumulative effect of vegetation and soil layers is crucial for replenishing mountain aquifers and serving as a water-purifying filter, as well as the sole source and distributor of purified water to natural underground reservoirs. Regrettably, humankind's historical misdeeds against Nature have disrupted the purifying and protective synergistic effects of vegetation and soil layers. Hence, the combined mismanagement resulting from the misdeeds of early cultures and the modern-day inclination towards corrupt behaviour frequently caused environmental ruin, with a fragile and feeble base and acute poverty, from early civilizations to modern times.

Water to the Capital

Aquifers and Technology

The Ancient Roman cistern

"Piscina Mirabilis"

The Valuable Knowledge Of Antiquity

Caution: Despite modern technologies' convenient applicability, the majestic rock reservoir

The image to the left, of antiquity (the Ancient Roman cistern Piscina Mirabilis), highlights the apparent brilliance of stability and safety that defies and challenges the doubts about modern technologies' potential for shortcuts; all these concerns stem from the dam catastrophes of the last century. However, constructing artificial dams to meet the water needs of a larger population has, in modern times, proven hazardous to nearby settlements. In ancient times, a technology was developed to prevent the fatal collapse of man-made dams by creating hidden, massive underground chambers. 

Underground Reservoirs

Historical and early-developed technical and geological-based methods for managing and conserving large volumes of water are often technically complex and aesthetically exquisite. The historical constructions for securely harbouring water are shown in the picture to the left. The methods of this water technology vary significantly between different cultures and continents. Still, in the history of civilisation, they are the basis of ancient civilizations' most decisive and original technological achievements and of their ability to progress in today's high-tech development.

Nature's Production Of Clean Water

The vertical connection in the study below, with images (8) and (9), illustrates how mechanically disturbed soil, such as that affected by ploughing for cultivation, struggles to absorb and infiltrate precipitation. As a result, a significant amount of water slides away on the soil and becomes lost to runoff (RO), as shown in picture (9) at its right side (B), which is evident by the murky collected flows down into the collection vessels with its arrow sign (RW). The primary reason for this modern issue of reduced water infiltration is that the soil lacks the evolutionary traits necessary for this artificial tillage and does not have the appropriate particle configuration to effectively absorb or deeply infiltrate water. Although this image study does not include laboratory evaluations of water absorption in the original vegetation of a native forest with undergrowth, it indicates that the natural environment depicted on the far left of the image (8) shows enhanced water infiltration values downwards the plants' roots and further towards the groundwater at the bottom of the image (8) - FW1. This observation is further supported by the linked videos below.

The Problem With Foreign and Incompatible Trees
and their Devastating Effect on the Water.
The Torrential Rains and Erosion

The Importance of Undisturbed Soil

 The No-till ground on the left side in images (8) -  (9) points (A) shows the surroundings of the seasonal field at rest. Compared with the tillage field, no-till ground provides significantly greater resistance to decay and improves water distribution to groundwater reservoirs. Pictures (9) show this resistance to the decay phenomenon (A) by increased resistance to soil loss and its ability to store water. This filtered water becomes purified within the hidden cliff chambers (aquifers). This filtered water in the study (8) - FW1 accumulates during the rainy season, seeping into the deeper underground through continuous infiltration. Therefore, cities below the mountain massif, including those with agriculture, depend significantly on the Highlands' native vegetation because the high altitudes' capacity to store mountain water can be readily extracted by traditional or advanced methods during drought seasons the following year.

Videos: Soil Erosion Demo  

The Ground's Importance for the Water

Here, picture (9) clearly shows how the tillage field example (B) to the right in the photo means about twice the amount lost in the runoff in comparison with the No-till soil on the left (A). Also, the left No-till soil (A) with its water tray displays considerably less erosive sediment in the water tray in comparison to the tillage field on the right in images (9) - (10) - (B). The vertical connection of the (FW) arrows 1 and 2 in embodiment (8) appears very clearly as an effect in the study of example (9). Models (8) and (9) confirm an apparent relationship following the waterways of FW1 and FW2, shown in the lower part of picture (8).  A practical solution to its problems with water loss and erosion on sloping land is well established; here is a link to an exciting introduction.

Wikipedia: Regenerative Agriculture

Nature's Magnificent Methods for Fresh Water Creation

VS Natural Sciences for Fresh Water Restoration

Careful analysis is particularly challenging in the case of trees and plants, as determining the grounds' influence on the transfer of water into the water supply mustn't immediately provide an explanation model for modern solutions and circumstances in similar industries. Instead, this phenomenon in Nature is highly complex in biology, spanning evolutionary time and diverse environments, and requires investigation that closely follows the formation of soils and their role in establishing a reliable foundation for vegetation. Against the backdrop of these lengthy, often prehistoric, cycles of water origin, the highly complex technologies for creating and protecting today's stable drinking water supply emerge, yet modern methods frequently fail to artificially replicate the purity and rich mineral content of Nature's intricate water purification.

[ The Eucalyptus Tree ]

The Implantation of a Foreign Life Form

The Eucalyptus Problem

The Eucalyptus Tree and Its Tactical Toxicity

A chemical compound with an intricate, competition-oriented toxic defence system in the leaves and roots of Eucalyptus trees inhibits the growth of other trees and herbs. This chemical component results in a monoculture dominated by Eucalyptus, with no other tree species and no ground cover. This chemical component causes severe erosion, a phenomenon which is easily observed in the water running through the vertically interpreted picture series (8) - (9) analysis just above, in connection with the rainy seasons. 

The Environmental Danger Of the Eucalyptus Tree 

  Due to these shortcomings in the water-retaining capacity of the Eucalyptus plantation, it cannot offset the uneven distribution of rainfall. The result is often torrential flooding in the down-slope areas, in this case, the northern district of Addis Ababa. In August 1994, it posed a fatal danger due to overwhelming, sudden flooding.

CAUTION: The Slopes' Dangerous Restoration

Highly Contradictory Effects from Water

Sudden influxes of water, most often caused by human interference, can destabilise and damage the vacuum-anchoring suction effect in mountainous landscapes. This phenomenon, driven by human mismanagement, results in the accumulation of gravitational water pressure within the soil layers of hillsides over time, creating a dangerous, floating, and lubricating mass that exerts a driving force toward the settlements, a devastating threat of landslides and lahars. Furthermore, a previous reduction in trees removes root reinforcement, making the slopes fragile due to the loss of root strength, and creates an additional hazard due to water lubrication that ultimately saturates the ground. Furthermore, the root systems of indigenous vegetation help mitigate the potentially harmful effects of water on degraded land by reducing the lubrication of the slopes' clay layers, thereby reducing the risk of landslides. Thus, native vegetation and tree roots also prevent water forces from accelerating and generating devastating torrential flows that tear up the ground beneath buildings and penetrate deeply into the riverbanks of settlements.

A complex and challenging problem can often require simple examples that appear adequately illustrated. To claim, for instance, that a soil mass on the mountainside weighing down with water can both be stabilising on a steep slope and, at the same time, fatally dangerous under other circumstances seems to invite misunderstandings that can be extremely serious. 

  

 Therefore, if a smaller shipping container: 

• 1. is placed on a steep mountain slope and weighed down by a certain mass of soil; while attempts to push it further down the hill, its downward motion is limited and most often to only a few centimetres with great effort. 

• 2. Conversely, if the container is emptied of all its soil, the situation changes dramatically, indicating that the container can now slide down the mountain slope more easily. 

• 3. It is now relatively easy to imagine that a container with soil will be even more difficult to push when weighed down by water on the top of its already heavy soil load.

• 4. Then, both soil and saturated with water, this container is given a drastic treatment: its bottom section becomes pierced with continuous perforating holes, and it is then again placed on the steep rock slope. 

• 5. When this perforated container, with its soil and top water pressure, is placed on the same mountain slope as the previous containers, it becomes evident that a highly slippery, muddy slurry (Soil liquefaction) immediately exudes with a positive overpressure, thus the opposite of vacuum suction. This lubrication of mud and soil liquefaction under positive overpressure between the container and the mountain slope constitutes, then, a slightly advancing experiment on the classic sliding grease bed, historically used to launch larger ships.

• 6. To visualise a vacuum suction between the bedrock and the small shipping container, imagine a machine-driven vacuum suction heavy-duty rubber bell being air-tightly closed over the upper section of the shipping container. The powerful, machine-driven vacuum-suction rubber bell is firmly attached, and the suction pressure then increases in the upper section of the small shipping container. This overlying vacuum pressure then propagates downward through the container and finally reaches the bedrock below it. Depending on the strength and air-tightness of the vacuum suction technology and the toughness of the clay mass surrounding the shipping container on the bedrock, an adhesive vacuum suction may appear unavoidable. In many ways, the image described here provides insight into the deep and extensive roots of the endemic trees' ability to draw water and create a local vacuum suction toward their contact with the bedrock.

Landslides and Erosion

CAUTION: Landslides and Erosion

Thus, from Nature's ancient past, the mechanical compression of moraine and clay towards the mountainside provided Nature with the required strength for an evolutionary and mechanical suction base, facilitating the continued prehistoric build-up of the ancient soil layer. Reproducing Nature's prehistoric and evolutionary reinforcement of a barren, eroded slope by using shallowly planted, fragile indigenous saplings certainly poses a hazard to settlements beneath them. Usually, decades before any reinforcements from the root reinforcement of planned saplings arrive. 

Nature Restoration with Modern Technology

The use of technology, such as gabions with cliff anchors, offers a safer means of preventing dangerous landslides while also providing an essential base for the growth of endemic saplings.  By backfilling and imitating ancient sediments, supported by gabions and rock anchors, the growth of Nature's basics may provide sufficient time for a landscape damaged by human hazards such as landslides and prehistoric erosion to heal. Gabion technology and rock anchors are current techniques that can enhance safety for settlements by providing new stable ground for plant growth on slopes.

Nature Restoration: A Foundation for Science 

Using Underground Modern Technology

Thus, from Nature's ancient past, the mechanical compression of moraine and clay towards the mountainside provided Nature with the required strength for an evolutionary and mechanical suction base, facilitating the continued prehistoric build-up of the ancient soil layer. As an intervention that artificially rebuilds millions of years of accumulated ground stability in concert with soil layers and the evolution of organisms, it often seems impossible to recreate a lost ancient ground within generations.  However, some modern technologies, such as gabion baskets and mountain anchors, can frequently replace lost ancient stabilising sediments and the crucial reinforcing strength of lost ancient tree roots. Gabion technology and rock anchors are current techniques that can enhance safety for settlements by providing new stable ground for plant growth on slopes. The use of technology, such as gabions with cliff anchors, offers a safer means of preventing dangerous landslides while also providing an important base for the growth of endemic saplings.

Technology for Building Strength on Slopes 

A Noble Heritage of Health and Beauty

 An Ancient Time of Natural Wealth

Podocarpus falcatus (P. gracilior)
Location and Maps for these
Ancient and Furrowed Trees

A Beautiful Memory that Attracts

 Modern Science and Art

With glowing passion and warmth, it is still spoken among the residents of Entoto about the time, a reasonable time after the rainy season, when the water level in Entoto's deep streams and enchanting nature rock baths stood one metre higher. It is thus quite close to the time when Entoto's mountain massif and its canyons could carry significantly higher water quantity and, therefore, supply the population in the Capital with fresh water to a much greater extent.

Conclusion and Wonderful Solution

This small Podocarpus tree has a unique heritage that may be important for the Park's evolutionary future. This tree's seed was picked from the mother tree in the circle (B), west of the path, left of the area (39) and clearly above (38). The stalk of this tree's seed is considerably taller than that of the Juniper tree seed, with this uniqueness in raising its brittle stems. An excellent guardian and traditional solution arises, where Rosa abyssinica guards the seedlings thanks to the sharpness of its defensive thorns. 

Choosing the Right Mother Tree for Seed

The Science of Indigenous Ancient Trees

The distant location, though within the same country, has developed flora that have undergone extensive evolutionary optimization to adapt to the unique geological and surrounding conditions, with distinct genetic variation even within the same tree species. The unique habitat within a country's region imprints indigenous DNA, imparting distinctive properties to its plants and wildlife, depending on the region's varied topography and climate.

Podocarpus falcatus (P. gracilior )
DNA Selections of Seeds
(Oxford Academic)

The Importance of Seeds' Evolutionary Heritage

Hence, this country's topographically isolated locations have different genetic requirements due to local, unique climate factors within each landscape. Therefore, whether on the country's mountainside or within its secluded gorge, the landscape's uniqueness determines the historically imprinted pedigree and genetic heritage of the endemic trees, as well as the composition of their soils. Thus, the trees' evolutionary connection to a country's landscape creates a precious legacy for their seeds, which inherit well-adapted genetic characteristics suited to the location's biological uniqueness.

Assessing Seeds Based on the Climate Zones of the Country

Due to genetic adaptation to regional variation within a country, trees adapt their genomes to different climate zones. Hence, the trees' genetic legacy across Ethiopia's diverse climates and pronounced hydrological influences within the dramatically topographic landscape, resulting in trees that, although belonging to the same species, have developed distinct genetic heritages to adapt to these local climate zones. Thus, the mistake of using seed from a tree with its genetic origin in a moist, shady gorge as seedlings on a dry southern slope undermines these trees' ability to survive, as well as that of other organisms, including humans.

The Science of Ancient Trees

The Sciences of Ancient Trees

The Scientific Importance of Old and Ancient Trees

___________________________________________________________________________________

Historical High-Tech for Water

The Forgotten Sciences from Antiquity

The Grandiose Technology Of History

The gradient of the Pont du Gard is only 34 cm per km, descending only 17 m vertically in its entire length of 50 km (31 mi): it could transport up to 20,000 cubic metres a day. The gradients of temporary aqueducts used for hydraulic mining could be considerably more significant, as at Dolaucothi in Wales (with a maximum angle of about 1:700) and Las Medulas in northern Spain. Where sharp gradients were unavoidable in permanent conduits, the channel could be stepped downwards, widened or discharged into a receiving tank to disperse the water flow and reduce its abrasive force.[32] Using stepped cascades and drops also helped re-oxygenate and thus "freshen" the water.[33]" Roman Aqueduct - Wikipedia

The Roman Legacy of Today

"In the sixteenth century, the Portuguese started building levadas to carry water to the agricultural regions. The most recent was made in the 1940s. Madeira is very mountainous, and building the levadas was often difficult. Many are cut into the sides of mountains, and it was also necessary to dig 25 kilometres (16 mi) of tunnels. Today, the levadas not only supply water to the southern parts of the island, but they also provide hydroelectric power. There are more than 2,170 kilometres (1,350 mi) of levadas, and they provide a great network of walking paths. Some provide easy and relaxing walks through the beautiful countryside", Wikipedia

A Wonderful Excursion to Search 

 The Lost Knowledge from Antiquity

Although this Italian ruin was built with modern concrete, the renovation of this mountain fortress (38) - (B) can provide a strong foundation for a historical investigation into the lost recipe for Roman concrete. Although this concrete's millennia-old secrets remain relevant to ongoing investigations by international laboratories, their deepest secrets remain a mystery. The potential rediscovery of ancient concrete, a lost high technology and historical treasure from antiquity, would provide a unique opportunity for scientific study of Roman technology within an educational project. The Lost Secrets of Antiquity

Landslides and Erosion: 

Demands for International Research

The widespread, historically merciless, and vigorous depletion of native trees on mountain slopes naturally raises complex problems in restoring the lost root strength and their multiplying positive effects in stabilising the slopes. The loss of stability due to the absence of anchoring suction and the lack of reinforcing roots here appear to constitute almost insurmountable obstacles to restoring Nature on a mountainside. It often appears that advanced international research is necessary to reconstruct, as effectively as possible, the lost ancient and superior-strength soil layers of the distant past. Using Nature's evolutionary advanced methods here may entail ancient methods that slowly build anchorage of sediments through the vegetations' vacuum suction properties while providing assistance with the weight vacuum pressure exerted by large trees and their ancient water-absorbing roots. 

Restoring Nature with Concealed Technology

Restoring a severely eroded landscape through the reintroduction of native vegetation can be a complex process. Because soil layers formed over millions of years have lost their original strength, the tremendous stability provided by the tree roots and compact sediment has often disappeared. It is, therefore, a colossal project to remedy these prehistorically created soil layers tested by aeons of hardship during ages of severe rain storms, flash floods or drought and thus evolved an optimization for their environment along with the natural irregularities of the underlying mountain slope. Therefore, when considering a natural mountain slope in terms of health, the conclusion follows with a significant probability that the most resistant soil layers remain; however, the caveat is that they only exist due to the vegetations' roots, assisted by vacuum pressure and organisms that created their own rock gripping anchor points underneath their soil layers. Thus, since prehistoric times, trees' roots have provided mountain slopes with a robust, reinforcing biological structure whose strength and toughness can surpass that of much of everyday infrastructure.

Where, for example, erosion has ravaged deep into soil layers and moraine, restoring the natural habitat of a steep slope is directly inappropriate, as it attempts to instantly replicate Nature's unique habitat by using highly hazardous methods of corrupt undercurrents within today's business, since it would pose an imminent risk for villages located below such hazardous restoration attempts. Recreating what Nature has done over millions of years may require more civilizational technical measures, such as gabions anchored in the underlying rock, retaining walls, and terracing, where wildlife and humans coexist in close proximity to civilisation's immediate needs. These anchored gabions can form an underground stabilizing foundation against landslides and further erosion while simultaneously providing the opportunity to rebuild the soil layers required for the native vegetation. Thus, these underground anchored gabions in the landscape represent a possible replacement in terms of reliability and strength, aiming to recreate the original landscape and Nature.

Over millions of years, a mountainside subjected to severe environmental stresses yields a moraine with soil layers and vegetation that are highly resilient and often evolutionarily optimized to survive the specific environmental conditions of varying rainfall, drought, landslides, or lahars. After these lengthy trials over aeons of Nature's trial and error, what remains is a highly optimized habitat, and therefore very difficult to surpass. These are insurmountable circumstances, and attempting to replicate ancient ground and Nature's risks is an overwhelming safety concern and is likely to result in failure when restoring a steep hillside. If human civilizations are to overcome these difficulties, a great effort of human resources and technological stabilization measures is often required, such as 

Terracing | Gabion Baskets  |  Retaining Walls |  Mountain Anchors.

Topographic Contour Lines vs.

Keyline Design Permaculture

A keyline can be applied to topographic maps, where contour lines indicate increasing elevation. This selected part of the keyline landscape is defined by contour lines and appears to lean slightly toward the mountainside. Thus, water-carrying keylines always require the support of contour lines. The chosen location for the origin of keyline permaculture aligns with the direction toward the hillsides' valleys, where natural springs are typically found. Still, the ploughed grooves of these keylines deviate slightly, almost imperceptibly, away from the commonly known topographical contour lines. The deviation in the angle and curves of the keylines' ploughed grooves compared to the contour lines makes them appear diminutively different from the topographical contour lines, which are always shown horizontally on typographic maps. Thus, the keylines' ploughed grooves follow the slope with a slight downward deviation, thereby utilising gravity to deliver water to the area immediately above the saplings with precision and efficiency. The water's gradual fall within and off the keylines constitutes the prerequisite for the harmonious and calm flow of the water.

In this context, it is essential to understand that the maps' contour lines constitute an artificially simplified explanation of the landscape's complex three-dimensional topography. Thus, terrain typically slopes slightly downward, even between two sparse contour lines on the map. Therefore, although topographic map contours appear confusing, when contour lines are spaced farther apart, they represent less-steep ledges in the surrounding, more-sloping terrain. Thus, the contour lines' two broadly separated sections appear as a less downward-inclined landscape, in which the gentler slope gradient dampens the water's force, thereby enabling the application of these keylines' capacity to harbour and distribute the water over a wide area. Hence, these keylines function as effective water distributors in hilly terrain, even though they are far from the water source.

In any case, since the source's flow towards and within the slowly feeding water in the ploughed grooves becomes subjected to mechanical resistance by irregularities and soil particles, it should consequently lead to the water flow finally draining and ceasing its flow towards these more distant extensions of keylines, especially in the outcropping formations of the ridges. Therefore, these remote ridges risk receiving too small leftover water due to the already infiltrated water loss into the slopes' soil and the aquifers of the mountainside. Hence, the explanation follows: the keylines' subsequent ploughed grooves appear to deviate increasingly from the topographic contour lines, because the keyline-designed ploughed furrows require gravity to channel water even to the slopes of distant ridges.

Thus, a visual inspection of these ploughed grooves from keyline design indicates that they rightly appear to seek further down and deviate more from these contour lines near their origin at the mountain valley's source, but also as they reach lower and lower towards the terminating shoulders of the ridges. The slightly descending appearance of the keylines' ploughed furrows ensures that even the farthest from the mountain springs and reservoirs, yet distant and lower-elevated peaks, receive water in the landscape far beyond. However, although these longer-term keylines provide benefits and water to the mountain massif, direct irrigation is limited to areas below the water source. Therefore, these keyline designs extract water from the mountain's remote valleys, utilizing their naturally occurring rich springs and enhanced pond reservoirs.

Berms and Swales vs. 

Terraces & Micro-Basins

With a minimal gradient in the landscape, swales are an option, but are not recommended on a mountainside. Therefore, caution is warranted regarding this environmental swale restoration method due to the risk of landslides caused by swales that create excessive water, which can sometimes lubricate a dangerous landslide (see the lower section of the image just above). Hence, a danger persists, as these swales initiate landslides through sudden water infiltration in an unstable soil configuration, especially on a mountainside. When the slopes are too steep for any modest restoration of ground stability, the classical option of terracing is often a secure choice. Here, with attention to keyline design and permaculture deviations from the contour line, classical terracing attains historical reliability. However, when excluding terracing and instead observing in a more gently sloping terrain, the keyline design in permaculture remains a careful restoration option, in which the ploughed grooves deviate slightly downward from the mountain's contour lines. Thus, keyline design permaculture often remains the most appropriate method for establishing a stable water supply and a foundation for saplings, except on steep slopes. Therefore, mountainsides exposed to drought frequently benefit from, and require, a keyline design gradient to optimize water flow over the terraces. These methods, and even terraced micro-basins, often remain the only suitable options for establishing a sound foundation for saplings on hillside slopes.

Terraced Micro-Basins

A possibility of merged methods appears here, where small supporting ridges in downhill surroundings (berms) help individual saplings, while integrated secluded minor swales contribute to an abundant groundwater supply. While there appear to be profound contradictions between berms and swales, these two elements can be combined, for example, in terraced micro-basins, in which this approach integrates the advantages of both. Therefore, a picture emerges in which terraced micro-basins on slopes contribute to a more careful solution than swales. Hence, these micro basins provide each sapling with protection and water while also receiving a root-feeding water supply from the upper-terrace micro basins, with a less hazardous water contribution than traditional swales. Therefore, the water masses within swales on steeper slopes could pose a direct risk of water seepage, followed by violent erosion. In contrast, terraced berms with minor basins pose a lower risk, in which these terraced micro-basins may constitute a careful yet effective balancing of the two aforementioned berms and swales.

Planting Saplings on Slopes

The previously mentioned half-circular small backfillings (berms) appear suitable on a hillside to protect the growth of individually placed saplings. In addition, where Keyline technology is available, it often appears to be a more desirable option than swales, as it is less obstructive despite sharing some similar principles with swale methods. Where careful irrigation is crucial, keyline design permaculture emerges as a desirable option because it resembles swale practices, is gentler on the landscape, and therefore serves as an attractive choice on hillsides where swales would otherwise pose an overwhelming risk of landslides or lahars. Thus, while berms fit individual saplings, adding keyline design permaculture along contour lines often seems like an option, since it self-heals within the landscape while providing a subtle gradient deviation from the landscape's contours. At the same time, even swales are an option on a pleasant, sloping plane.

Landscape Restoration

There are profound contradictions in judgment in the use of berms versus swales. Hence, the core of this evaluation is a comparison between small surrounding ridges (berms) downslope of the saplings, which prevent water loss down the slope, and the opposite arrangement of uphill water-absorbing trenches (swales) just above the saplings, following the traditional contour lines of the landscape's slopes. Since channels or swales filled with water constitute a dangerous lubrication with low frictional effects on the slopes, an imminent risk of landslides prevails. Thereby, swales are an option on the planes, while separate berms are an option for slopes. The most irrigation-effective method for saplings combines berms with keylines and, in some cases, swales; however, due to the risk of landslides, it is only applicable when the landscape gradient is very gentle.

Soil Suction: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/soil-suction

Videos: Planting Saplings. Videos: Planting Technology

Pinterest: Keyline Design Permaculture

Wikipedia: Keyline Design

Videos: Keyline Dam Construction

Videos: Water and Land Restoration

Videos: Terraced Micro-Basins

Videos: Planting Technology

Videos: Natural Building

Videos: Water and Land Restoration

Pinterest: Planting Saplings
Keyline Design Permaculture
Terraced Micro-Basins
Planting Technology
Check Dam Swales

  Environmental Ideas from Pinterest :  

Gabion Technology  |  Retaining Walls  |  Erosion Prevention

Permaculture Research Institute:

"Before Permaculture: Keyline Planning and Cultivation"